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Bird Neighbors

by Neltje Blanchan

September, 1999 [Etext #1889]

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Bird Neighbors

by Neltje Blanchan

Etext prepared by Gerry Rising of Buffalo, NY. Notes [in brackets] are the

American Ornithologists Union bird names as of 1998.

BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance With One Hundred and Fifty Birds

Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes

By NELTJE BLANCHAN

INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS

1897, 1904, 1922

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS

PREFACE

I. BIRD FAMILIES: Their Characteristics and the

Representatives of Each Family included in "Bird

Neighbors"

II. HABITATS OF BIRDS

III. SEASONS OF BIRDS

IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE

V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR

Birds Conspicuously Black

Birds Conspicuously Black and White

Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Birds

Blue and Bluish Birds

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy

Birds

Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish O1ive Birds

Birds Conspicuously Yellow and Orange

Birds Conspicuously Red of any Shade

INTRODUCTION

I write these few introductory sentences to this volume only to second so

worthy an attempt to quicken and enlarge the general interest in our birds.

The book itself is merely an introduction, and is only designed to place a few

clews in the reader's hands which he himself or herself is to follow up. I can

say that it is reliable and is written in a vivacious strain and by a real

bird lover, and should prove a help and a stimulus to any one who seeks by the

aid of its pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. The various

grouping of the birds according to color, season, habitat, etc., ought to

render the identification of the birds, with no other weapon than an opera

glass, an easy matter.

When I began the study of the birds I had access to a copy of Audubon, which

greatly stimulated my interest in the pursuit, but I did not have the opera

glass, and I could not take Audubon with me on my walks, as the reader may

this volume.

But you do not want to make out your bird the first time; the book or your

friend must not make the problem too easy for you. You must go again and

again, and see and hear your bird under varying conditions and get a good hold

of several of its characteristic traits. Things easily learned are apt to be

easily forgotten. Some ladies, beginning the study of birds, once wrote to me,

asking if I would not please come and help them, and set them right about

certain birds in dispute. I replied that that would be getting their knowledge

too easily; that what I and any one else told them they would be very apt to

forget, but that the things they found out themselves they would always

remember. We must in a way earn what we have or keep. Only thus does it become

ours, a real part of us.

Not very long afterward I had the pleasure of walking with one of the ladies,

and I found her eye and ear quite as sharp as my own, and that she was in a

fair way to conquer the bird kingdom without any outside help. She said that

the groves and fields, through which she used to walk with only a languid

interest, were now completely transformed to her and afforded her the keenest

pleasure; a whole new world of interest had been disclosed to her; she felt as

if she was constantly on the eve of some new discovery; the next turn in the

path might reveal to her a new warbler or a new vireo. I remember the thrill

she seemed to experience when I called her attention to a purple finch singing

in the tree-tops in front of her house, a rare visitant she had not before

heard. The thrill would of course have been greater had she identified the

bird without my aid. One would rather bag one's own game, whether it be with a

bullet or an eyebeam.

The experience of this lady is the experience of all in whom is kindled this

bird enthusiasm. A new interest is added to life; one more resource against

ennui and stagnation. If you have only a city yard with a few sickly trees in

it, you will find great delight in noting the numerous stragglers from the

great army of spring and autumn migrants that find their way there. If you

live in the country, it is as if new eyes and new ears were given you, with a

correspondingly increased capacity for rural enjoyment.

The birds link themselves to your memory of seasons and places, so that A

song, a call, a gleam of color, set going a sequence of delightful

reminiscences in your mind. When a solitary great Carolina wren came one

August day and took up its abode near me and sang and called and warbled as I

had heard it long before on the Potomac, how it brought the old days, the old

scenes back again, and made me for the moment younger by all those years!

A few seasons ago I feared the tribe of bluebirds were on the verge of

extinction from the enormous number of them that perished from cold and hunger

in the South in the winter of '94. For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue

warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment --

the visible embodiment of the tender sky and the wistful soil. What a loss, I

said, to the coming generations of dwellers in the country -- no bluebird in

the spring! What will the farm-boy date from? But the fear was groundless: the

birds are regaining their lost ground; broods of young blue-coats are again

seen drifting from stake to stake or from mullen-stalk to mullen-stalk about

the fields in summer, and our April air will doubtless again be warmed and

thrilled by this lovely harbinger of spring. -- JOHN BURROUGHS, August 19,

1897

PREFACE

Not to have so much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that nest in our

gardens or under the very eaves of our houses; that haunt our wood-piles; keep

our fruit-trees free from slugs; waken us with their songs, and enliven our

walks along the roadside and through the woods, seems to be, at least, a

breach of etiquette toward some of our most kindly disposed neighbors.

Birds of prey, game and water birds are not included in the book. The

following pages are intended to be nothing more than a familiar introduction

to the birds that live near us. Even in the principal park of a great city

like New York, a bird-lover has found more than one hundred and thirty

species; as many, probably, as could be discovered in the same sized territory

anywhere.

The plan of the book is not a scientific one, if the term scientific is

understood to mean technical and anatomical. The purpose of the writer is to

give, in a popular and accessible form, knowledge which is accurate and

reliable about the life of our common birds. This knowledge has not been

collected from the stuffed carcasses of birds in museums, but gleaned afield.

In a word, these short narrative descriptions treat of the bird's

characteristics of size, color, and flight; its peculiarities of instinct and

temperament; its nest and home life; its choice of food; its songs; and of the

season in which we may expect it to play its part in the great panorama Nature

unfolds with faithful precision year after year. They are an attempt to make

the bird so live before the reader that, when seen out of doors, its

recognition shall be instant and cordial, like that given to a friend.

The coloring described in this book is sometimes more vivid than that found in

the works of some learned authorities whose conflicting testimony is often

sadly bewildering to the novice. In different parts of the country, and at

different seasons of the year, the plumage of some birds undergoes many

changes. The reader must remember, therefore, that the specimens examined and

described were not, as before stated, the faded ones in our museums, but live

birds in their fresh, spring plumage, studied afield.

The birds have been classed into color groups, in the belief that this method,

more than any other will make identification most easy. The color of the bird

is the first, and often the only, characteristic noticed. But they have also

been classified according to the localities for which they show decided

preferences and in which they are most likely to be found. Again, they have

been grouped according to the season when they may be expected. In the brief

paragraphs that deal with groups of birds separated into the various families

represented in the book, the characteristics and traits of each clan are

clearly emphasized. By these several aids it is believed the merest novice

will be able to quickly identify any bird neighbor that is neither local nor

rare.

To the uninitiated or uninterested observer, all small, dull-colored birds are

"common sparrows." The closer scrutiny of the trained eye quickly

differentiates, and picks out not only the Song, the Canada, and the Fox

Sparrows, but finds a dozen other familiar friends where one who "has eyes and

sees not" does not even suspect their presence. Ruskin says: "The more I think

of it, I find this conclusion more impressed upon me, that the greatest thing

a human soul ever does in this world is to SEE something. Hundreds of people

can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion -- all in one."

While the author is indebted to all the time-honored standard authorities, and

to many ornithologists of the present day -- too many for individual mention

it is to Mr. John Burroughs her deepest debt is due. To this clear-visioned

prophet, who has opened the blind eyes of thousands to the delights that

Nature holds within our easy reach, she would gratefully acknowledge many

obligations; first of all, for the plan on which "Bird Neighbors" is arranged;

next, for his patient kindness in reading and annotating the manuscript of the

book; and, not least, for the inspiration of his perennially charming writings

that are so largely responsible for the ready-made audience now awaiting

writers on out-of-door topics.

The author takes this opportunity to express her appreciation of the work the

National Association of Audubon Societies has done and is doing to prevent the

slaughter of birds in all parts of the United States, to develop bird

sanctuaries and inaugurate protective legislation. Indeed to it, more than to

all other agencies combined, is due the credit of eliminating so much of the

Prussianlike cruelty toward birds that once characterized American treatment

of them, from the rising generation. -- NELTJE BLANCHAN

I. BIRD FAMILIES

THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY

INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS'

Order Coccyges: CUCKOOS AND KINGFISHERS

Family Cuculidae: CUCKOOS

Long, pigeon-shaped birds, whose backs are grayish brown with a bronze lustre

and whose under parts are whitish. Bill long and curved. Tail long; raised and

drooped slowly while the bird is perching. Two toes point forward and two

backward. Call-note loud and like a tree-toad's rattle. Song lacking. Birds of

low trees and undergrowth, where they also nest; partial to neighborhood of

streams, or wherever the tent caterpillar is abundant. Habits rather solitary,

silent, and eccentric. Migratory.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Black-billed Cuckoo.

Family Alcedinidae: KINGFISHERS

Large, top-heavy birds of streams and ponds. Usually seen perching over the

water looking for fish. Head crested; upper parts slate-blue; underneath

white, and belted with blue or rusty. Bill large and heavy. Middle and outer

toes joined for half their length. Call-note loud and prolonged, like a

policeman's rattle. Solitary birds; little inclined to rove from a chosen

locality. Migratory.

Belted Kingfisher.

Order Pici: WOODPECKERS

Family Picidae: WOODPECKERS

Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, and always

with some red feathers about the head. (The flicker is brownish and yellow

instead of black and white.) Stocky, high-shouldered build; bill strong and

long for drilling holes in bark of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened

to serve as a prop. Two toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen

clinging erect on tree-trunks; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the

nuthatches, titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and

branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed vocal

powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, beaten with their

bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their love-song. Nest in

hollowed-out trees.

Red-headed Woodpecker.

Hairy Woodpecker.

Downy Woodpecker.

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker.

Flicker.

Order Macrochires: GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, AND HUMMING-BIRDS

Family Caprimulgidae: NIGHTHAWKS, WHIPPOORWILLS, ETC.

Medium-sized, mottled brownish, gray, black, and white birds of heavy build.

Short, thick head; gaping, large mouth; very small bill, with bristles at

base. Take insect food on the wing. Feet small and weak; wings long and

powerful. These birds rest lengthwise on their perch while sleeping through

the brightest daylight hours, or on the ground, where they nest.

Nighthawk.

Whippoorwill.

Family Micropolidae: SWIFTS

Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys of

houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers with sharp

spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the goatsuckers in their

nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small bills and large mouths for

catching insects on the wing, and their weak feet. Gregarious, especially at

the nesting season.

Chimney Swift.

Family Trochilidae: HUMMING-BIRDS

Very small birds with green plumage (iridescent red or orange breast in

males); long, needle-shaped bill for extracting insects and nectar from

deep-cupped flowers, and exceedingly rapid, darting flight. Small feet.

Ruby-throated Humming-bird.

Order Passeres: PERCHING BIRDS

Family Tyrannidae: FLYCATCHERS

Small and medium-sized dull, dark-olive, or gray birds, with big heads that

are sometimes crested. Bills hooked at end, and with bristles at base. Harsh

or plaintive voices. Wings longer than tail; both wings and tails usually

drooped and vibrating when the birds are perching. Habits moody and silent

when perching on a conspicuous limb, telegraph wire, dead tree, or fence rail

and waiting for insects to fly within range. Sudden, nervous, spasmodic

sallies in midair to seize insects on the wing. Usually they return to their

identical perch or lookout. Pugnacious and fearless. Excellent nest builders

and devoted mates.

Kingbird.

Phoebe.

Wood Pewee.

Acadian Flycatcher.

Great Crested Flycatcher.

Least Flycatcher.

Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

Say's Flycatcher.

Family Alaudidae: LARKS

The only true larks to be found in this country are the two species given

below. They are the kin of the European skylark, of which several unsuccessful

attempts to introduce the bird have been made in this country. These two larks

must not be confused with the meadow larks and titlarks, which belong to the

blackbird and pipit families respectively. The horned larks are birds of the

ground, and are seen in the United States only in the autumn and winter. In

the nesting season at the North their voices are most musical. Plumage grayish

and brown, in color harmony with their habitats. Usually found in flocks; the

first species on or near the shore.

Horned Lark.

Prairie Horned Lark.

Family Corvidae: CROWS AND JAYS

The crows are large black birds, walkers, with stout feet adapted for the

purpose. Fond of shifting their residence at different seasons rather than

strictly migratory, for, except at the northern limit of range, they remain

resident all the year. Gregarious. Sexes alike. Omnivorous feeders, being

partly carnivorous, as are also the jays. Both crows and jays inhabit wooded

country. Their voices are harsh and clamorous; and their habits are boisterous

and bold, particularly the jays. Devoted mates; unpleasant neighbors.

Common Crow.

Fish Crow.

Northern Raven.

Blue Jay.

Canada Jay.

Family Icteridae: BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC.

Plumage black or a brilliant color combined with black. (The meadow lark a

sole exception.) Sexes unlike. These birds form a connecting link between the

crows and the finches. The blackbirds have strong feet for use upon the

ground, where they generally feed, while the orioles are birds of the trees.

They are both seed and insect eaters. The bills of the bobolink and cowbird

are short and conical, for they are conspicuous seed eaters. Bills of the

others long and conical, adapted for insectivorous diet. About half the family

are gifted songsters.

Red-winged Blackbird.

Rusty Blackbird.

Purple Grackle.

Bronzed Grackle.

Cowbird.

Meadow Lark.

Western Meadow Lark.

Bobolink.

Orchard Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole.

Family Fringillidae: FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROSBEAKS, BUNTINGS,

LINNETS, AND CROSSBILLS

Generally fine songsters. Bills conical, short, and stout for cracking seeds.

Length from five to nine inches, usually under eight inches. This, the largest

family of birds that we have (about one-seventh of all our birds belong to

it), comprises birds of such varied plumage and habit that, while certain

family resemblances may be traced throughout, it is almost impossible to

characterize the family as such. The sparrows are comparatively small gray and

brown birds with striped upper parts, lighter underneath. Birds of the ground,

or not far from it, elevated perches being chosen for rest and song. Nest in

low bushes or on the ground. (Chipping sparrow often selects tall trees.)

Coloring adapted to grassy, dusty habitats. Males and females similar. Flight

labored. About forty species of sparrows are found in the United States; of

these, fourteen may be met with by a novice, and six, at least, surely will

be.

The finches and their larger kin are chiefly bright-plumaged birds, the

females either duller or distinct from males; bills heavy, dull, and conical,

befitting seed eaters. Not so migratory as insectivorous birds nor so

restless. Mostly phlegmatic in temperament. Fine songsters.

Chipping Sparrow.

English Sparrow.

Field Sparrow.

Fox Sparrow.

Grasshopper Sparrow.

Savanna Sparrow.

Seaside Sparrow.

Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

Song Sparrow.

Swamp Song Sparrow.

Tree Sparrow.

Vesper Sparrow.

White-crowned Sparrow.

White-throated Sparrow.

Lapland Longspur.

Smith's Painted Longspur.

Pine Siskin (or Finch).

Purple Finch.

Goldfinch.

Redpoll.

Greater Redpoll.

Red Crossbill.

White-winged Red Crossbill.

Cardinal Grosbeak.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Pine Grosbeak.

Evening Grosbeak.

Blue Grosbeak.

Indigo Bunting.

Junco.

Snowflake.

Chewink.

Family Tanagridae: TANAGERS

Distinctly an American family, remarkable for their brilliant plumage, which,

however, undergoes great changes twice a year, Females different from males,

being dull and inconspicuous. Birds of the tropics, two species only finding

their way north, and the summer tanager rarely found north of Pennsylvania.

Shy inhabitants of woods. Though they may nest low in trees, they choose high

perches when singing or feeding upon flowers, fruits, and insects. As a

family, the tanagers have weak, squeaky voices, but both our species are good

songsters. Suffering the fate of most bright-plumaged birds, immense numbers

have been shot annually.

Scarlet Tanager.

Summer Tanager.

Family Hirundinidae. SWALLOWS

Birds of the air, that take their insect food on the wing. Migratory. Flight

strong, skimming, darting; exceedingly graceful. When not flying they choose

slender, conspicuous perches like telegraph wires, gutters, and eaves of

barns. Plumage of some species dull, of others iridescent blues and Greens

above, whitish or ruddy below. Sexes similar. Bills small; mouths large. -

Long and pointed wings, generally reaching the tip of the tail or beyond. Tail

more or less forked. Feet small and weak from disuse. Song a twittering warble

without power. Gregarious birds.

Barn Swallow.

Bank Swallow.

Cliff (or Eaves) Swallow.

Tree Swallow.

Rough-winged Swallow.

Purple Martin.

Family Ampelidae: WAXWINGS

Medium-sized Quaker-like birds, with plumage of soft browns and grays. Head

crested; black band across forehead and through the eye. Bodies plump from

indolence. Tail tipped with yellow; wings with red tips to coverts, resembling

sealing-wax. Sexes similar. Silent, gentle, courteous, elegant birds. Usually

seen in large flocks feeding upon berries in the trees or perching on the

branches, except at the nesting season. Voices resemble a soft, lisping

twitter.

Cedar Bird.

Bohemian Waxwing.

Family Laniidae: SHRIKES

Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like bill

for tearing the flesh of smaller birds,

field-mice, and large insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold

birds, the terror of all small, feathered neighbors, not excluding the English

sparrow. They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey a

projecting or dead limb of a tree, the cupola of a house, the ridge-pole or

weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which to suddenly drop upon

a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh and unmusical. Habits solitary

and wandering. The first-named species is resident during the colder months of

the year; the latter is a summer resident only north of Maryland.

Northern Shrike.

Loggerhead Shrike.

Family Vireonidae: VIREOS OR GREENLETS

Small greenish-gray or olive birds, whitish or yellowish underneath, their

plumage resembling the foliage of the trees they hunt, nest, and live among.

Sexes alike. More deliberate in habit than the restless, flitting warblers

that are chiefly seen darting about the ends of twigs. Vireos are more

painstaking gleaners; they carefully explore the bark, turn their heads upward

to investigate the under side of leaves, and usually keep well hidden among

the foliage. Bill hooked at tip for holding worms and insects. Gifted

songsters, superior to the warblers. This family is peculiar to America.

Red-eyed Vireo.

Solitary Vireo.

Warbling Vireo.

White-eyed Vireo.

Yellow-throated Vireo.

Family Mniotiltidae: WOOD WARBLERS

A large group of birds, for the most part smaller than the English sparrow;

all, except the ground warblers, of beautiful plumage, in which yellow, olive,

slate-blue, black, and white are predominant colors. Females generally duller

than males. Exceedingly active, graceful, restless feeders among the terminal

twigs of trees and shrubbery; haunters of tree-tops in the woods at nesting

time. Abundant birds, especially during May and September, when the majority

are migrating to and from regions north of the United States; but they are

strangely unknown to all but devoted bird lovers, who seek them out during

these months that particularly favor acquaintance. Several species are erratic

in their migrations and choose a different course to return southward from the

one they travelled over in spring. A few species are summer residents, and

one, at least, of this tropical family, the myrtle warbler, winters at the

north. The habits of the family are not identical in every representative;

some are more deliberate and less nervous than others; a few, like the

Canadian and Wilson's warblers, are expert flycatchers, taking their food on

the wing, but not usually returning to the same perch, like true flycatchers;

and a few of the warblers, as, for example, the black-and-white, the pine, and

the worm-eating species, have the nuthatches' habit of creeping around the

bark of trees. Quite a number feed upon the ground. All are insectivorous,

though many vary their diet with blossom, fruit, or berries, and naturally

their bills are slender and sharply pointed, rarely finch-like. The

yellow-breasted chat has the greatest variety of vocal expressions. The ground

warblers are compensated for their sober, thrush-like plumage by their

exquisite voices, while the great majority of the family that are gaily

dressed have notes that either resemble the trill of

mid-summer insects or, by their limited range and feeble utterance, sadly

belie the family name.

Bay-breasted Warbler.

Blackburnian Warbler.

Blackpoll Warbler.

Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Black-throated Green Warbler.

Black-and-white Creeping Warbler.

Blue-winged Warbler.

Canadian Warbler.

Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Golden-winged Warbler.

Hooded Warbler.

Kentucky Warbler.

Magnolia Warbler.

Mourning Warbler.

Myrtle Warbler.

Nashville Warbler.

Palm Warbler.

Parula Warbler.

Pine Warbler.

Prairie Warbler.

Redstart.

Wilson's Warbler.

Worm-eating Warbler.

Yellow Warbler.

Yellow Palm Warbler.

Ovenbird.

Northern Water Thrush.

Louisiana Water Thrush.

Maryland Yellowthroat.

Yellow-breasted Chat.

Family Motacillidae: WAGTAILS AND PIPITS,

Only three birds of this family inhabit North America, and of

these only one is common enough, east of the Mississippi, to be

included in this book. Terrestrial birds of open tracts near the

coast, stubble-fields, and country roadsides, with brownish

plumage to harmonize with their surroundings. The American pipit,

or titlark, has a peculiar wavering flight when, after being

flushed, it reluctantly leaves the ground. Then its white tail

feathers are conspicuous. Its habit of wagging its tail when

perching is not an exclusive family trait, as the family name

might imply.

American Pipit, or Titlark

Family Troglodytidae: THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC.

Subfamily Miminae: THRASHERS, MOCKING-BIRDS, AND CATBIRDS

Apparently the birds that comprise this large general family are too unlike to

be related, but the missing links or intermediate species may all be found far

South. The first subfamily is comprised of distinctively American birds. Most

numerous in the tropics. Their long tails serve a double purpose-in assisting

their flight and acting as an outlet for their vivacity. Usually they inhabit

scrubby undergrowth bordering woods. They rank among our finest songsters,

with ventriloquial and imitative powers added to sweetness of tone.

Brown Thrasher.

Catbird.

Mocking-bird.

Subfamily Troglodytinae: WRENS

Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown above, much lighter

below. Usually carry their short tails erect. Wings are small, for short

flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, easily displeased, quick to take alarm.

Most of the species have scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing

song, that seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. As a

rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one species is thoroughly

domesticated. All are insectivorous.

Carolina Wren.

House Wren.

Winter-Wren.

Long-billed Marsh Wren.

Short-billed Marsh Wren.

Family Certhiidae: CREEPERS

Only one species of this Old World family is found in America. It is a brown,

much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around and around the trunks of trees

in fall and winter, pecking at the larvae in the bark with its long, sharp

bill, and doing its work with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses

its tail as a prop in climbing, like the woodpeckers.

Brown Creeper.

Family Paridae: NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE

Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. The nuthatches

(Sittinae) are small, slate-colored birds, seen chiefly in winter walking up

and down the barks of trees, and sometimes running along the under side of

branches upside down, like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is

derived from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark of

trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight bills.

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Red-breasted Nuthatch.

The titmice or chickadees (Parinae) are fluffy little gray birds, the one

crested. the other with a black cap. They are also expert climbers, though not

such wonderful gymnasts as the nuthatches. These cousins are frequently seen

together in winter woods or in the evergreens about houses. Chickadees are

partial to tree-tops, especially to the highest pine cones, on which they hang

fearlessly. Cheerful, constant residents, retreating to the deep woods only to

nest.

Tufted Titmouse.

Chickadee.

Family Sylviidae: KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS

The kinglets (Regulinae) are very small greenish-gray birds, with highly

colored crown patch, that are seen chiefly in autumn, winter, and spring south

of Labrador. Habits active; diligent flitters among trees and shrubbery from

limb to limb after minute insects. Beautiful nest builders. Song remarkable

for so small a bird.

Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

The one representative of the distinctly American subfamily of gnatcatchers

(Polioptilinae) that we have, is a small blue-gray bird, whitish below. It is

rarely found outside moist, low tracts of woodland, where insects abound.

These it takes on the wing with wonderful dexterity. It is exceedingly

graceful and assumes many charming postures. A bird of trees, nesting in the

high branches. A bird of strong character and an exquisitely finished though

feeble songster.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Family Turdidae: THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC.

This group includes our finest songsters. Birds of moderate size, stout build;

as a rule, inhabitants of woodlands, but the robin and the bluebird are

notable exceptions. Bills long and slender, suitable for worm diet. Only

casual fruit-eaters. Slender, strong legs for running and hopping. True

thrushes are grayish or olive-brown above; buff or whitish below, heavily

streaked or spotted.

Bluebird.

Robin.

Alice's Thrush.

Hermit Thrush.

Olive-backed Thrush.

Wilson's Thrush (Veery).

Wood Thrush.

Order Columbae, PIGEONS AND DOVES

Family Columbidae: PIGEONS AND DOVES

The wild pigeon is now too rare to be included among our bird neighbors; but

its beautiful relative, without the fatally gregarious habit, still nests and

sings a-coo-oo-oo to its devoted mate in unfrequented corners of the farm or

the borders of woodland. Delicately shaded fawn-colored and bluish plumage.

Small heads, protruding breasts. Often seen on ground. Flight strong and

rapid, owing to long wings.

Mourning or Carolina Dove.

II. HABITATS OF BIRDS

BIRDS OF THE AIR CATCHING THEIR FOOD AS THEY FLY

Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Olive-sided

Flycatcher, Say's Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Kingbird, Phoebe.

Wood Pewee, Purple Martin, Chimney Swift, Barn Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff

Swallow, Tree Swallow, Rough-winged Swallow, Canadian Warbler, Blackpoll

Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Ruby-throated

Humming-bird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

BIRDS MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN THE UPPER HALF OF TREES

Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Chickadee,

Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nearly all the Warblers except the

Ground Warblers; Cedar Bird, Bohemian Waxwing, the Vireos, Robin, Red

Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Grackle, Bronzed Grackle, Redstart,

Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Crow, Fish Crow, Raven, Purple Finch, Tree

and Chipping Sparrows, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Kingbird, the Crested and other

Flycatchers.

BIRDS OF LOW TREES OR LOWER PARTS OF TREES

Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Sparrows, the Thrushes, the

Grosbeaks, Goldfinch, Summer Yellowbird and other Warblers; the Wrens,

Bluebird, Mocking-bird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Maryland Yellowthroat,

Yellow-breasted Chat.

BIRDS OF TREE-TRUNKS AND LARGE LIMBS

Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker,

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch,

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse,

Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-and-white Creeping

Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Pine Warbler, Blackpoll

Warbler, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk.

BIRDS THAT SHOW A PREFERENCE FOR PINES AND OTHER EVERGREENS

Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Nuthatches, Brown Creeper, the Kinglets, Pine

Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler and all the Warblers except the

Ground Warblers; Pine Siskin, Cedar Bird and Bohemian Waxwing (in juniper and

cedar trees), Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, the

Grackles, Crow, Raven, Pine Finch.

BIRDS SEEN FEEDING AMONG THE FOLIAGE AND TERMINAL TWIGS OF TREES

The Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Solitary Vireo,

Yellow-throated Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglet. Ruby-crowned Kinglet,

Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Yellow Warbler or Summer

Yellowbird, nearly all the Warblers except the Pine and the Ground Warblers;

the Flycatchers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

BIRDS THAT CHOOSE CONSPICUOUS PERCHES

Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Kingbird, the Wood Pewee, the Phoebe and

other Flycatchers, the Swallows, Kingfisher, Crows, Grackles, Blue Jay and

Canada Jay; the Song, the White-throated, and the Fox Sparrows; the Grosbeaks,

Cedar Bird, Goldfinch, Robin, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Brown Thrasher while in

song.

BIRDS OF THE GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.

Bluebird, Robin; the English, Song, White-throated, Vesper,

White-crowned, Fox, Chipping, and Tree Sparrows; Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Least

Flycatcher, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush,

Mocking-bird, Catbird, House Wren; nearly all the Warblers, especially at

blossom time among the shrubbery and fruit trees; Cedar Bird, Purple Martin,

Eaves Swallow, Barn Swallow, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Baltimore and Orchard

Orioles, Purple Grackle, Bronzed Grackle, Blue Jay, Crow, Fish Crow, Chimney

Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the Woodpeckers, Flicker, the Nuthatches,

Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, Junco, Starling.

BIRDS OF THE WOODS

The Warblers almost without exception; the Thrushes, the Woodpeckers, the

Flycatchers, the Winter and the Carolina Wrens, the Tanagers, the Nuthatches

and Titmice, the Kinglets, the Water Thrushes, the Vireos, Whippoorwill,

Nighthawk, Kingfisher, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Brown Creeper, Tree Sparrow, Fox

Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Junco.

BIRDS SEEN NEAR THE EDGES OF WOODS

The Wrens, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Warblers, Purple Finch, the

Cuckoos, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Cowbird, Brown Creepers, the Nuthatches

and Titmice, the Kinglets, Chewink; the White-crowned, White-throated, Tree,

Fox, and Song Sparrows; Humming-bird, Bluebird, Junco, the Crossbills, the

Grosbeaks, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Mourning Dove, Indigo Bird, Brown

Thrasher.

BIRDS OF SHRUBBERY, BUSHES, AND THICKETS

Maryland Yellowthroat, Ovenbird (in woods); Myrtle Warbler, Mourning Warbler,

Yellow-breasted Chat, and other Warblers during the migrations; the Shrikes;

the White-throated, the Fox, the Song, and other Sparrows; Chickadee, Junco,

Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Catbird,

Mocking-bird, Wilson's Thrush, Goldfinch, Redpolls, Maryland Yellowthroat,

White-eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler.

BIRDS SEEN FEEDING ON THE GROUND

The Sparrows, Junco, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Chewink, Robin, Ovenbird, Pipit

or Titlark, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, Lapland Longspur, Smith's

Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, the Crows, Cowbird,

the Water Thrushes, Bobolink, Canada Jay, the Grackles, Mourning Dove; the

Worm-eating, the Prairie, the Kentucky, and the Mourning Ground Warblers;

Flicker.

BIRDS OF MEADOW, FIELD, AND UPLAND

The Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Goldfinch,

the Swallows, Pipit or Titlark, Cowbird, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake,

Junco, Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Crow, Fish

Crow, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill; the Yellow, the Palm, and the Prairie Warblers;

the Grackles, Flicker, Bluebird, Indigo Bird.

BIRDS OF ROADSIDE AND FENCES

The Sparrows, Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, Indigo Bird,

Bluebird, Flicker, Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, Robin, the Woodpeckers,

Yellow Palm Warbler, the Vireos.

BIRDS OF MARSHES AND BOGGY MEADOWS

Long-billed Marsh Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren; the Swamp, the Savanna, the

Sharp-tailed, and the Seaside Sparrows; Red-winged Blackbird.

BIRDS OF WET WOODLANDS AND MARSHY THICKETS

Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Ovenbird, Winter Wren, Carolina

Wren, Phoebe; Wood Pewee and the other Flycatchers; Wilson's Thrush or Veery,

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat; the Canadian, Wilson's,

Black-capped, the Maryland Yellowthroat, the Hooded, and the Yellow-throated

Warblers.

BIRDS FOUND NEAR SALT WATER

Fish Crow, Common Crow, Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Savanna Sparrow,

Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Horned Lark, Pipit or Titlark.

BIRDS FOUND NEAR STREAMS AND PONDS

Kingfisher, the Swallows, Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush,

Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Flycatchers, Winter Wren, Wilson's Black-capped

Warbler, the Canadian and the Yellow Warblers.

BIRDS THAT SING ON THE WING

Bobolink, Meadowlark, Indigo Bird, Purple Finch, Goldfinch, Ovenbird,

Kingbird, Vesper Sparrow (rarely), Maryland Yellowthroat, Horned Lark,

Kingfisher, the Swallows, Chimney Swift, Nighthawk, Song Sparrow, Red-winged

Blackbird, Pipit or Titlark, Mocking-bird.

III. SEASONS OF BIRDS

The latitude of New York is taken as an arbitrary division for which

allowances must be made for other localities.

THE SEASONS OF BIRDS IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK OR, APPROXIMATELY, OF THE

FORTY-SECOND DEGREE OF LATITUDE

PERMANENT RESIDENTS

Hairy Woodpecker. Swamp Sparrow.

Downy Woodpecker. Song Sparrow.

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Cedar Bird.

Red-headed Woodpecker. Cardinal.

Flicker. Carolina Wren.

Meadowlark. White-breasted Nuthatch.

Prairie Horned Lark. Tufted Titmouse.

Blue Jay. Chickadee.

Crow. Robin.

Fish Crow. Bluebird.

English Sparrow. Goldfinch.

Social Sparrow. Starling.

WINTER RESIDENTS AND VISITORS

BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND APRIL

English Sparrow. Pine Grosbeak.

Tree Sparrow. Redpoll.

White-throated Sparrow. Greater Redpoll.

Swamp Sparrow. Cedar Bird.

Vesper Sparrow. Bohemian Waxwing.

White-crowned Sparrow. Hairy Woodpecker.

Fox Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker.

Song Sparrow. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker.

Snowflake. Flicker.

Junco. Myrtle Warbler.

Horned Lark. Northern Shrike.

Meadowlark. White-breasted Nuthatch.

Red-breasted Nuthatch. Goldfinch.

Tufted Titmouse. Pine Siskin.

Chickadee. Lapland Longspur.

Robin. Smith's Painted Longspur.

Bluebird. Evening Grosbeak.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Cardinal.

Golden-crowned Kinglet. Blue Jay.

Brown Creeper. Red Crossbill.

Carolina Wren. White-winged Crossbill.

Winter Wren. Crow.

Pipit. Fish Crow.

Purple Finch. Kingfisher.

SUMMER RESIDENTS

BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBE&

Mourning Dove. Red-winged Blackbird.

Black-billed Cuckoo. Rusty Blackbird.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Orchard Oriole.

Kingfisher. Baltimore Oriole.

Red-headed Woodpecker. Purple Grackle.

Hairy Woodpecker. Bronzed Grackle.

Downy Woodpecker. Crow.

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Fish Crow.

Flicker. Raven.

Whippoorwill. Blue Jay.

Nighthawk. Canada Jay.

Chimney Swift. Chipping Sparrow.

Ruby-throated Humming-bird. English Sparrow.

Kingbird. Field Sparrow.

Wood Pewee. Fox Sparrow.

Phoebe. Grasshopper Sparrow.

Acadian Flycatcher. Savanna Sparrow.

Crested Flycatcher. Seaside Sparrow.

Least Flycatcher. Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

Olive-sided Flycatcher. Swamp Song Sparrow.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Song Sparrow.

Say's Flycatcher. Vesper Sparrow.

Bobolink. Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Cowbird. Blue Grosbeak.

Indigo Bird. Yellow-breasted Chat.

Scarlet Tanager. Maryland Yellowthroat.

Purple Martin. Mocking-bird.

Barn Swallow. Catbird.

Bank Swallow. Brown Thrasher.

Cliff Swallow. House Wren.

Tree Swallow. Carolina Wren.

Rough-winged Swallow. Long-billed Marsh Wren.

Red-eyed Vireo. Short-billed Marsh Wren.

White-eyed Vireo. Alice's Thrush.

Solitary Vireo. Hermit Thrush.

Warbling Vireo. Olive-backed Thrush.

Yellow-throated Vireo. Wilson's Thrush or Veery.

Black-and-white Warbler. Wood Thrush.

Black-throated Green Warbler. Meadowlark.

Blue-winged Warbler. Western Meadowlark.

Chestnut-sided Warbler. Prairie Horned Lark.

Golden-winged Warbler. White-breasted Nuthatch.

Hooded Warbler. Chickadee.

Pine Warbler. Tufted Titmouse.

Prairie Warbler. Chewink.

Parula Warbler. Purple Finch.

Worm-eating Warbler. Goldfinch.

Yellow Warbler. Cardinal.

Redstart. Robin.

Ovenbird. Bluebird.

Northern Water Thrush. Cedar-Bird.

Louisiana Water Thrush. Loggerhead Shrike.

SPRING AND AUTUMN MIGRANTS ONLY, OR RARE SUMMER VISITORS

The following Warblers:

Bay-breasted. Nashville.

Blackburnian. Wilson's Black-capped.

Black-polled. Palm.

Black-throated Blue. Yellow Palm.

Canadian.

Magnolia. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Mourning. Summer Tanager.

Myrtle.

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF NEW YORK

FEBRUARY 15 TO MARCH 15

Bluebird, Robin, the Grackles, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow,

Red-winged Blackbird, Kingfisher, Flicker, Purple Finch.

MARCH 15 TO APRIL 1

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Cowbird, Meadowlark, Phoebe; the Field,

the Vesper, and the Swamp Sparrows.

APRIL 1 TO 15

The White-throated and the Chipping Sparrows, the Tree and the Barn Swallows,

Rusty Blackbird, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, Hermit

Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pipit; the Pine, the Myrtle, and the Yellow Palm

Warblers; Goldfinch.

APRIL 15 TO MAY 1

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Brown Thrasher; Alice's, the

Olive-backed, and the Wood Thrushes; Chimney Swift, Whippoorwill, Chewink, the

Purple Martin, and the Cliff and the Bank Swallows; Least Flycatcher; the

Black-and-white Creeping, the Parula, and the Black-throated Green Warblers;

Ovenbird, House Wren, Catbird.

MAY 1 TO 15

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush or Veery; Nighthawk,

Ruby-throated Humming-bird, the Cuckoos, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Wood

Pewee, the Marsh Wrens, Bank Swallow, the five Vireos, the Baltimore and

Orchard Orioles, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet

Tanager, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, the Water Thrushes; and

the Magnolia, the Yellow, the Black-throated Blue, the Bay-breasted, the

Chestnut-sided, and the Golden-winged Warblers.

MAY 15 TO JUNE 1.

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Mocking-bird,

Summer Tanager; and the Blackburnian, the Blackpoll, the Worm-eating, the

Hooded, Wilson's Blackcapped, and Canadian Warblers.

JUNE, JULY, AUGUST

In June few species of birds are not nesting, in July they may rove about more

or less with their increased families, searching for their favorite foods;

August finds them moulting and moping in silence, but toward the end of the

month, thoughts of returning southward set them astir again.

AUGUST 15 TO SEPTEMBER 15

Bobolink, Cliff Swallow, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Purple

Martin; the Blackburnian, the Worm-eating, the Bay-breasted, the

Chestnut-sided, the Hooded, the Mourning, Wilson's Black-capped, and the

Canadian Warblers; Baltimore Oriole. Humming-bird.

SEPTEMBER 15 TO OCTOBER 1

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, Kingbird,

Wood Pewee, Crested Flycatcher; the Least, the Olive-sided, and the Acadian

Flycatchers; the Marsh Wrens, the Cuckoos, Whippoorwill, Rose-breasted

Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bird; the Warbling, the Solitary, and the

Yellow-throated Vireos; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Golden-winged, the

Yellow, and the Black-throated Blue Warblers; Maryland Yellowthroat,

Yellow-breasted Chat, Redstart.

OCTOBER 1 TO 15

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Hermit Thrush, Catbird, House Wren,

Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed Vireos, Wood

Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, Junco; the

Tree, the Vesper, the

White-throated, and the Grasshopper Sparrows; the Blackpoll, the Parula, the

Pine, the Yellow Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; Chickadee; Tufted Titmouse.

OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 15

Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wood Thrush, Wilson's Thrush or Veery,

Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown Thrasher, Phoebe,

Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the Savanna, the White-crowned, the

Chipping, and the Song Sparrows; the Red-winged and the Rusty Blackbirds;

Meadowlark, the Grackles, Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied

Woodpeckers; Purple Finch, the Kinglets. the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin.

IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE

SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW

Humming-bird. The Redpolls.

The Kinglets. Goldfinch.

The Wrens. Pine Siskin.

All the Warblers not Savanna Sparrow.

mentioned elsewhere. Grasshopper Sparrow.

Redstart. Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

Ovenbird. Chipping Sparrow.

Chickadee. Field Sparrow.

Tufted Titmouse. Swamp Song Sparrow.

Red-breasted Nuthatch. Indigo-Bunting.

White-breasted Nuthatch. Warbling Vireo.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-throated Vireo.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Red-eyed Vireo.

Acadian Flycatcher. White-eyed Vireo.

Least Flycatcher. Brown Creeper.

ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW

Purple Finch. Junco.

The Crossbills. Song Sparrow.

The Longspurs. Solitary Vireo.

Vesper Sparrow. The Water-thrushes.

Seaside Sparrow. Pipit or Titlark.

Tree Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker.

LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Kingbird.

Chimney Swift (apparently). Crested Flycatcher.

The Swallows (apparently). Phoebe.

Olive-sided Flycatcher, Snowflake.

Wood Pewee. White-crowned Sparrow.

Horned Lark White-throated Sparrow.

Bobolink. Fox Sparrow

Cowbird. The Tanagers

Orchard Oriole. Cedar Bird.

Baltimore Oriole. Bohemian Waxwing.

The Grosbeaks: Evening, Blue, Yellow-breasted Chat.

Pine, Rose-breasted, The Thrushes.

and Cardinal. Bluebird.

ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN.

Red-headed Woodpecker. Northern Shrike.

Hairy Woodpecker. Mocking-bird.

Red-winged Blackbird. Catbird.

Rusty Blackbird. Chewink.

Loggerhead Shrike. Purple Martin (apparently).

Starling.

LONGER THAN THE ROBIN

Mourning Dove. Blue Jay.

The Cuckoos. Canada Jay.

Kingfisher. Meadowlark.

Flicker. Whippoorwill (apparently).

Raven. Nighthawk (apparently).

Crow. The Grackles.

Fish Crow. Brown Thrasher.

V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS

GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR

BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK

Common Crow.

Fish Crow.

American Raven.

Purple Grackle.

Bronzed Grackle.

Rusty Blackbird.

Red-winged Blackbird.

Purple Martin.

Cowbird.

Starling.

See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the Wood Pewee and

other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink.

BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK

COMMON CROW

(Corvus americanus) Crow family

Called also: CORN THIEF; [AMERICAN CROW, AOU 1998]

Length -- 16 to 17.50 inches.

Male -- Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear

saw-toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length.

Female -- Like male, except that the black is less brilliant.

Range -- Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

Migrations -- March. October. Summer and winter resident.

If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the

broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows

flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky; but the

practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the

crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever

enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its

rapacity; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad daylight, chooses the

most conspicuous perches, and yet its assurance is amply justified in its

steadily increasing numbers.

In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows

the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, field mice, and worms

upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the

year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations

begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are

snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs

being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to

the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow,

however, is the much greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this,

their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed

upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet.

Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the

young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill,

in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have

eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we

remember the crow's depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that

among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for

its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is

the farmer's true friend.

FISH CROW (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family

Length -- 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the

robin.

Male and Female -- Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections,

generally greener underneath. Chin naked.

Range -- Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gult of Mexico,

northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers or) the

Pacific coast.

Migrations -- March or April. September. Summer resident only at

northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about

half-way to Albany.

Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish

crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored

and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near

the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who

first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies

over the southern waters -- a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too,

differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere,

and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the

difference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to

distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-r-r

instead of a loud, clear caw, means little until we have had an opportunity to

compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's familiar call.

From the farmer's point of view, there is still another distinction: the fish

crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the

shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of

fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and

treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When

we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field-mice, grubs,

and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst

nest robber we have; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young

birds as its larger cousin.

The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the

shad and herring -- a saw which science unkindly disapproves.

AMERICAN RAVEN

(Corvus corax principalis) Crow family

Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN; [COMMON RAVEN, AOU 1998]

Length -- 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a

robin.

Male and Female -- Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish

reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and

breast long and loose, like fringe.

Range -- North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along

Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very

abundant in the northwest.

Migrations -- An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it

finds its way.

The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above

the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies

like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any

language -- Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license -- people of

all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked

portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its

rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an "I told you so," as they

solemnly wag their heads when they hear, of some death in the village after

"the bird of ill-omen" has made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood--it

receives the blame for every possible misfortune.

When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven

could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less flapping, and he

delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the

ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious

beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him.

These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not

of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera. In the art of nest

building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen

trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a

compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from

the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year

to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take

many curious freaks of color and markings, they are pied black and white,

suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so

far as plumage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the

fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them

grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a

conspicuously omnivorous bird.

PURPLE GRACKLE (Quiscalus quiscula) Blackbird family

Called also: CROW BLACKBIRD; MAIZE THIEF; KEEL-TAILED GRACKLE;

[COMMON GRACKLE, AOU 1998]

Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the

robin.

Male -- Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper,

and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has

iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and conspicuous.

Tail longer than wings.

Female -- Less brilliant black than male, and smaller.

Range -- Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude.

Migrations -- Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are

permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March

and September.

This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has

scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; for, although in many

sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn

and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a

crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds.

Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first

order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the

red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind

reciprocates its suspicion.

The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home,

according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he

observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity

of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and markings that

different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike.

The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked,

or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks

and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another

peculiarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes

to turn its direction or alight.

Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye,

the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may

hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may

look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt

to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has

aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus!" The grackle's mate

alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings

and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx.

With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be recorded of both crows

and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell

characterizes them in these four lines:

"Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees,

And settlin' things in windy Congresses;

Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned

If all on 'em don't head against the wind."

The Bronzed Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula aeneus) differs from the preceding

chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of

iridescent bars. Its range is more westerly, and in the southwest it is

particularly common; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England

in large numbers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple

grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical.

RUSTY BLACKBIRD (Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family

Called also: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE; RUSTY

CROW; BLACKBIRD

Length -- 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin.

Male -- In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections,

intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the

season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes.

Female -- Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light

line over eye. Smaller than male.

Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and

westward to the Plains.

Migrations -- April. November. A few winter north.

A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller flocks, the

rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other feathered friends in

marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by its rusty feathers and pale

yellow eye, and easily distinguish the rusty-gray female from the female

redwing that is conspicuously streaked.

In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, secluded

streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water or brookside

plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times they often indulge in a

curious spluttering, squeaking, musical concert that one listens to with

pleasure. The breeding range is mostly north of the United States. But little

seems to be known of the birds' habits in their northern home.

Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those

inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds which are so frequently

called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in

associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty

blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very

rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of

the redwing's.

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD

(Agelaius Phamiceus) Blackbird family

Called also. SWAMP BLACKBIRD; RED-WINGED ORIOLE; RED-WINGED

STARLING

Length -- Exceptionally variable--7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually

about an inch smaller than the robin.

Male -- Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow.

Female -- Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with

brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing-coverts

black, tipped with white, or rufous and sometimes spotted with

black and red.

Range -- North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, and

throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico to

57th degree north latitude.

Migrations -- March. October. Common summer resident.

In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the

ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His notes, "h'-wa-ker-ee" or

"con-quer-ee" (on an ascending scale), are liquid in quality, suggesting the

sweet, moist, cool retreats where he nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is

fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the

marshes are still frozen); enjoying not only the company of large flocks of

his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can

scrape acquaintance; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded,

inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs,

and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food -- the blackbird is an

impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life.

Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the blackbird is the

greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is simply

indulging its social instincts. They complain, too, that the blackbirds eat

their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable grubs from it during

the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a share of the profits. Though

occasionally guilty of eating the farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has

been found that nearly seven-eighths of the redwing's food is made up of

weed-seeds or of insects injurious to agriculture. This bird builds its nest

in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low in the bog grass of marshes. From

three to five pale-blue eggs, curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with

black or purple, constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in

July the young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders.

"The blackbirds make the maples ring

With social cheer and jubilee;

The red-wing flutes his '0-ka-lee!'"

--Emerson.

PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) Swallow family

Length -- 7 to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the

robin.

Male -- Rich glossy black with bluish and purple reflections;

duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the

tail, which is forked.

Female -- More brownish and mottled; grayish below.

Range -- Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to

South America.

Migrations -- Late April. Early September. Summer resident.

In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honeysuckle and roses

climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and hollyhocks

crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be seen with a pair of

these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. Bur now, alas! the boxes,

where set up at all, are quickly monopolized by the English sparrow, a bird

that the martin, courageous as a kingbird in attacking crows and hawks,

tolerates as a neighbor only when it must.

Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes dangling

from poles about the negro cabins all through the South. One day he asked an

old colored man what these squashes were for.

"Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks carryin'

off de chickens so long as de martins am around."

The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They often

lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in the crotch of

their tent poles to invite its friendship. The Mohegan Indians have called it

"the bird that never rests"--a name better suited to the tireless barn

swallow, Dr. Abbott thinks.

Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute its diet

another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple enough to

distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their larger size and

iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which is very soft and sweet,

like musical laughter, rippling up through the throat.

COWBIRD (Molothrus ater) Blackbird family

Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD;

COW BUNTING; [BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, AOU 1998]

Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin.

Male -- Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening

brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish.

Female -- Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and

streaked with paler shades of brown.

Range -- United States, from coast to coast. North into British

America, south into Mexico.

Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident.

The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in

the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their

grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow

or heifer, walking briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for

its insect prey.

Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and utterly

irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other

feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In

the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the

trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a surreptitious egg,

never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but selecting in a cowardly way a

small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there

leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some

already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the

nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its place. Not

finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting

them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly

an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray.

Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able

to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own

kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the

cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few

sharp notes.

STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris)

[Called also: EUROPEAN STARLING, AOU 1998]

Length -- 8 to 9 inches. Weight about equals that of robin, but

the starling, with its short, drooping tail, is chunkier in

appearance.

Male -- Iridescent black with glints of purple, green, and blue.

On back the black feathers, with iridescence of green and

bronze, are tipped with brown, as are some of the tail and wing

feathers. In autumn and early winter feathers of sides of head,

breast, flanks and underparts are tipped with white, giving a

gray, mottled appearance. During the winter most of the white

tips on breast and underparts wear off. Until the first moult

in late summer the young birds are a dark olive-brown in color,

with white or whitish throat. These differences in plumage at

different seasons and different ages make starlings hard to

identify. Red-winged blackbirds and grackles are often mistaken

for them. From early spring till mid-June, starling's rather

long, sharp bill is yellow. Later in summer it darkens. No

other black bird of ours has this yellow bill at any season.

Female -- Similar in appearance.

Range -- Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100 miles

inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.)

Migrations -- Permanent resident, but flocks show some tendency

to drift southward in winter.

This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he has been painted.

Like many other European immigrants he landed at or near Castle Garden, New

York City, and his descendants have not cared to wander very far from this

vicinity, preferring regions with a pretty numerous human population. The

starlings have increased so fast in this limited region since their first

permanent settlement in Central Park about 1890 that farmers and suburban

dwellers have feared that they might become as undesirable citizens as some

other Europeans -- the brown rat, the house mouse, and the English sparrow.

But a very thorough investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of

Biological Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its results.

Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (1) the starling must plead

guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is often a persecutor of

native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; (3) his roosts, where he

sometimes congregates in thousands in the autumn, are apt to become public

nuisances, offensive alike to the eye, the nose and the ear.

But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does not eat so many

cherries as our old friend the robin, though his depredations are more

conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones and twos will pilfer steadily from

many trees for many days without attracting notice, a crowd of starlings is

occasionally observed to descend en masse upon a single tree and strip it in a

few hours. Naturally such high-handed procedure is observed by many and deeply

resented by the owner of the tree, who suffers the steady but less spectacular

raids of the robins without serious disquiet,

Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment of some

native birds. "Unrelenting perseverance dominates the starling's activities

when engaged in a controversy over a nesting site. More of its battles are won

by dogged persistence in annoying its victim than by bold aggression, and its

irritating tactics are sometimes carried to such a point that it seems almost

as if the bird were actuated more by a morbid pleasure of annoying its

neighbors than by any necessity arising from a scarcity of nesting sites...

"In contests with the flicker the starling frequently makes up in numbers what

disadvantage it may have in size. Typical of such combats was the one observed

on May 9, at Hartford, Conn., where a group of starlings and a flicker were in

controversy over a newly excavated nest. The number of starlings varied, but

as many as 6 were noted at one time. Attention was first attracted to the

dispute by a number of starlings in close proximity to the hole and by the

sounds of a tussle within. Presently a flicker came out dragging a starling

after him. The starling continued the battle outside long enough to allow one

of its comrades to slip into the nest. Of course the flicker had to repeat the

entire performance. He did this for about half an hour, when he gave up,

leaving the starlings in possession of the nest...

"Economically considered, the starling is the superior of either the flicker,

the robin, or the English sparrow, three of the species with which it comes in

contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and young of bluebirds and wrens

may be protected by the use of nest boxes with circular openings 1 1/2 inches

or less in diameter. This leaves the purple martin the only species readily

subject to attack by the starling, whose economic worth may be considered

greater than that of the latter, but in no case was the disturbance of a

well-established colony of martins noted."

As for the nuisance of a big established roost of starlings, it may be abated

by nightly salvos of Roman candles or blank cartridges, continued for a week

or at most ten days.

So much for the starling in his aspect as an undesirable citizen. Government

investigators, by a long-continued study, have discovered that his good deeds

far outnumber his misdemeanors. Primarily he feeds on noxious insects and

useless wild fruits. Small truck gardens and individual cherry trees may be

occasionally raided by large flocks with disastrous results in a small way.

But on the whole he is a useful frequenter of our door-yards who 'pays his way

by destroying hosts of cut-worms and equally noxious' insects. "A thorough

consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food habits,

the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin, catbird, flicker,

red-winged blackbird, or grackle." Need more be said for him?

BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE

Red-headed Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Chewink

Snowflake

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Bobolink

Black-poll Warbler

Black-and-white Creeping Warbler

See also the Swallows; the Shrikes; Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kingbird and

other Flycatchers; the Nighthawk; the Redstart; and the following Warblers:

the Myrtle; the Bay-breasted, the Blackburnian; and the Black-throated Blue

Warbler.

BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) Woodpecker

family

Called also: TRI-COLOR, RED-HEAD

Length -- 8.50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than the

robin.

Male and Female -- Head, neck, and throat crimson; breast and

underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue

black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight.

Range -- United States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to

Manitoba.

Migrations -- Abundant but irregular migrant. Most commonly seen

in Autumn, and rarely resident.

In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is still

one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous member of the

woodpecker family, but its striking glossy black-and-white body and its still

more striking crimson head, flattened out against the side of a tree like a

target, where it is feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the

rifles of the sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if sufficient

attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep up a

noisy, guttural rattle, ker-r-ruck,

ker-r-ruck, very like a tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with

the restlessness of a fly-catcher. Yet, in spite of these invitations for a

shot to the passing gunner, it still multiplies in districts where nuts

abound, being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John

Burroughs.

All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently

exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the downy,

the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker have each a red

mark somewhere about their heads as if they had been wounded there and bled a

little -- some more, some less; and the figures of all of them, from much

flattening against tree-trunks, have become high-shouldered and long-waisted.

The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed tree in

which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is easier, and the

sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green wood. Both male and female

take turns in this hollowing-out process. The one that is off duty is allowed

twenty minutes for refreshments, "consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or

cherries, corn, or preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in

the hollow tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when

the carefully observed time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of the

hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs.

This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the knot-holes

of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence rails--too often a

convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may help themselves. But it is

the black snake that enters the nest and eats the young family, and that is a

more deadly foe than even the sportsman or the milliner.

HAIRY WOODPECKER (Dryobates villosus) Woodpecker family

Length--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.

Male--Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down the

back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Brightred band on

the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black and

white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White stripe

about eyes and on sides of the head.

Female--Without the red band on head, and body more brownish than

that of the male.

Range--Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian border

to the Carolinas.

Migrations--Resident throughout its range.

The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its work. Its

mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, which hide beneath the bark,

and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging to the trunks and

branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, industriously scanning

every inch for the well-known signs of the boring worm or destructive fly.

In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quarters, carrying or

throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is known, with his beak,

while the female may make herself cosey or not, as she chooses, in an

abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems shamefully unconcerned. Intent only

on his own, he drills a perfectly round hole, usually on the underside of a

limb where neither snow nor wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal

tunnel in the dry, brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning

downward into the deep, pear-shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish

solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is temporarily to

the mate he has neglected and even abused through the winter! Will she never

learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid and her brood raised he will

relapse into the savage and forget all his tender wiles?

The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, furnishes much

doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact observers. "When the

woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common saying,

but when different individuals are seen pecking at the same time, one but a

few feet from the ground, and another among the high branches, one may make

the prophecy that pleases him best.

The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not singers; but

when walking in the desolate winter woods even the drumming and tapping of the

busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb is a solace, giving a sense of life

and cheerful activity which is invigorating.

DOWNY WOODPECKER (Dryobates pubescens) Woodpecker family

Length -- 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.

Male -- Black above, striped with white. Tail shaped like a wedge

Outer tail feathers white, and barred with black. Middle tail

feathers black. A black stripe on top of head, and distinct

white band over and under the eyes. Red patch on upper side of

neck. Wings, with six white bands crossing them transversely;

white underneath.

Female -- Similar, but without scarlet on the nape, which is

white.

Range -- Eastern North America, from Labrador to Florida.

Migrations -- Resident all the year throughout its range.

The downy woodpecker is similar to his big relative, the hairy woodpecker, in

color and shape, though much smaller. His outer tail feathers are white,

barred with black, but the hairy's white outer tail feathers lack these

distinguishing marks.

He is often called a sapsucker -- though quite another bird alone merits that

name -- from the supposition that he bores into the trees for the purpose of

sucking the sap; but his tongue is ill adapted for such use, being barbed at

the end, and most ornithologists consider the charge libellous. It has been

surmised that he bores the numerous little round holes close together, so

often seen, with the idea of attracting insects to the luscious sap. The

woodpeckers never drill for insects in live wood. The downy actually drills

these little holes in apple and other trees to feed upon the inner milky bark

of the tree -- the cambium layer. The only harm to be laid to his account is

that, in his zeal, he sometimes makes a ring of small holes so continuous as

to inadvertently damage the tree by girdling it. The bird, like most others,

does not debar himself entirely from fruit diet, but enjoys berries,

especially poke-berries.

He is very social with birds and men alike. In winter he attaches himself to

strolling bands of nuthatches and chickadees, and in summer is fond of making

friendly visits among village folk, frequenting the shade trees of the streets

and grapevines of back gardens. He has even been known to fearlessly peck at

flies on window panes.

In contrast to his large brother woodpecker, who is seldom drawn from timber

lands, the little downy member of the family brings the comfort of his cheery

presence to country homes, beating his rolling tattoo in spring on some

resonant limb under our windows in the garden with a strength worthy of a

larger drummer.

This rolling tattoo, or drumming, answers several purposes: by it he

determines whether the tree is green or hollow; it startles insects from their

lurking places underneath the bark, and it also serves as a love song.

YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER (Sphyrapicus varius) Woodpecker family

Called also: THE SAPSUCKER; [YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, AOU 1998]

Length -- 8 to 8.6 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the

robin.

Male -- Black, white, and yellowish white above, with bright-red

crown, chin, and throat. Breast black, in form of crescent A

yellowish-white line, beginning at bill and passing below eye,

merges into the pale yellow of the bird underneath. Wings

spotted with white, and coverts chiefly white. Tail black;

white on middle of feathers.

Female -- Paler, and with head and throat white.

Range -- Eastern North America, from Labrador to Central America.

Migrations -- April. October. Resident north of Massachusetts.

Most common in autumn.

It is sad to record that this exquisitely marked woodpecker, the most jovial

and boisterous of its family, is one of the very few bird visitors whose

intimacy should be discouraged. For its useful appetite for slugs and insects

which it can take on the wing with wonderful dexterity, it need not be wholly

condemned. But as we look upon a favorite maple or fruit tree devitalized or

perhaps wholly dead from its ravages, we cannot forget that this bird, while a

most abstemious fruit-eater, has a pernicious and most intemperate thirst for

sap. Indeed, it spends much of its time in the orchard, drilling holes into

the freshest, most vigorous trees; then, when their sap begins to flow, it

siphons it into an insatiable throat, stopping in its orgie only long enough

to snap at the insects that have been attracted to the wounded tree by the

streams of its heart-blood now trickling down its sides. Another favorite

pastime is to strip the bark off a tree, then peck at the soft wood underneath

almost as fatal a habit. It drills holes in maples in early spring for sap

only. If it drills holes in fruit trees it is for the cambium layer, a soft,

pulpy, nutritious under-bark.

These woodpeckers have a variety of call-notes, but their rapid drumming

against the limbs and trunks of trees is the sound we always associate with

them and the sound that Mr. Bicknell says is the love-note of the family.

Unhappily, these birds, that many would be glad to have decrease in numbers,

take extra precautions for the safety of their young by making very deep

excavations for their nests, often as deep as eighteen or twenty inches.

THE CHEWINK (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) Finch family

Called also: GROUND ROBIN; TOWHEE; TOWHEE BUNTING; TOWHEE GROUND

FINCH; GRASEL; [EASTERN TOWHEE, AOU 1998]

Length -- 8 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the

robin.

Male -- Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. Breast

white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked with

white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white,

conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes; feet

brown.

Female -- Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading from

chestnut to white in the centre.

Range -- From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States;

West to the Rocky Mountains.

Migrations -- April. September and October. Summer resident. Very

rarely a winter resident at the north.

The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken for a robin,

because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful observation,

however, shows important distinctions. It is rather smaller and darker in

color; its carriage and form are not those of the robin, but of the finch. The

female is smaller still, and has an olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are

inconspicuous in color, dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken

nest on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious

mother fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful

concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most cautious

bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on the hidden nest.

The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note to these

syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound to-whick, to-whick,

to-whee. Its song is rich, full, and pleasing, and given only when the bird

has risen to the branches above its low foraging ground.

It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. It is generally

seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves for its steady

diet of earthworms and larvae of insects, occasionally regaling itself with a

few dropping berries and fruit.

When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from the earth,

and utters its characteristic calls. On account of this habit of flying low

and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes called the ground robin. In the

South our modest and useful little food-gatherer is often called grasel,

especially in Louisiana, where it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas!

by epicures.

SNOWFLAKE (Plectrophenax nivalis) Finch family

Called also: SNOW BUNTING [AOU 1998]; WHITEBIRD; SNOWBIRD; SNOW

LARK

Length -- 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the

robin.

Male and Female -- Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with a

few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an

imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked with

black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band between

shoulders. Lower tail feathers black; others, white and all

edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. Plumage

unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic regions) the

bird is almost white.

Range -- Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only).

Migrations -- Midwinter visitor; rarely, if ever, resident south

of arctic regions.

These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to think of the

bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the snowstorm," says

Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, and have their life in

it. By comparison with the climate of the arctic regions, no doubt our

hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously mild to them. We associate them only

with those wonderful midwinter days when sky, fields, and woods alike are

white, and a "hard, dull bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast

to shelter. It is said they often pass the night buried beneath the snow. They

have been seen to dive beneath it to escape a hawk.

Whirling about in the drifting snow to catch the seeds on the tallest stalks

that the wind in the open meadows uncovers, the snowflakes suggest a lot of

dead leaves being blown through the all-pervading whiteness. Beautiful soft

brown, gray, and predominating black-and-white coloring distinguish these

capricious visitors from the slaty junco, the "snowbird" more commonly known.

They are, indeed, the only birds we have that are nearly white; and rarely, if

ever, do they rise far above the ground their plumage so admirably imitates.

At the far north, travellers have mentioned their inspiriting song, but in the

United States we hear only their cheerful twitter. Nansen tells of seeing an

occasional snow bunting in that desolation of arctic ice where the Fram

drifted so long.

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK (Habia ludoviciana) Finch family

Length -- 7.75 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the

robin.

Male -- Head and upper parts black. Breast has rose-carmine

shield-shaped patch, often extending downward to the centre of

the abdomen. Underneath, tail quills, and two spots on wings

white. Conspicuous yellow, blunt beak.

Female -- Brownish, with dark streakings, like a sparrow. No

rose-color. Light sulphur yellow under wings. Dark brown, heavy

beak.

Range -- Eastern North America, from southern Canada to Panama.

Migrations -- Early May. September. Summer resident.

A certain ornithologist tells with complacent pride of having shot over

fifty-eight rose-breasted grosbeaks in less than three weeks (during the

breeding season) to learn what kind of food they had in their crops. This kind

of devotion to science may have quite as much to do with the growing scarcity

of this bird in some localities as the demands of the milliners, who, however,

receive all of the blame for the slaughter of our beautiful songsters. The

farmers in Pennsylvania, who, with more truth than poetry, call this the

potato-bug bird, are taking active measures, however, to protect the neighbor

that is more useful to their crop than all the insecticides known. It also

eats flies, wasps, and grubs.

Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his clumsy

beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid-looking awkwardness; but

as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored breast and under-wing

feathers are seen, and before he has had time to repeat his delicious,

rich-voiced warble you are already in love with him. Vibrating his wings after

the manner of the mocking-bird, he pours forth a marvellously sweet, clear,

mellow song (with something of the quality of the oriole's, robin's, and

thrush's notes), making the day on which you first hear it memorable. This is

one of the few birds that sing at night. A soft, sweet, rolling warble, heard

when the moon is at its full on a midsummer night, is more than likely to come

from the rose-breasted grosbeak.

It is not that his quiet little sparrow-like wife has advanced notions of

feminine independence that he takes his turn at sitting upon the nest, but

that he is one of the most unselfish and devoted of mates. With their combined

efforts they construct only a coarse, unlovely cradle in a thorn-bush or low

tree near an old, overgrown pasture lot. The father may be the poorest of

architects, but as he patiently sits brooding over the green, speckled eggs,

his beautiful rosy breast just showing above the grassy rim, he is a succulent

adornment for any bird's home.

BOBOLINK (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) Blackbird family

Called also:REEDBIRD; MAYBIRD; MEADOW-BIRD; AMERICAN ORTOLAN;

BUTTER-BIRD; SKUNK BLACKBIRD

Length -- 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow.

Male -- In spring plumage: black, with light-yellow patch on

upper neck, also on edges of wings and tail feathers. Rump and

upper wings splashed with white. Middle of back streaked with

pale buff. Tail feathers have pointed tips. In autumn plumage,

resembles female.

Female -- Dull yellow-brown, with light and dark dashes on back.

wings, and tail. Two decided dark stripes on top of head.

Range -- North America, from eastern coast to western prairies.

Migrates in early autumn to Southern States, and in winter to

South America and West Indies.

Migrations -- Early May. From August to October. Common summer

resident.

Perhaps none of our birds have so fitted into song and story as the bobolink.

Unlike a good child, who should "be seen and not heard," he is heard more

frequently than seen. Very shy, of peering eyes, he keeps well out of sight in

the meadow grass before entrancing our listening ears. The bobolink never

soars like the lark, as the poets would have us believe, but generally sings

on the wing, flying with a peculiar self-conscious flight horizontally thirty

or forty feet above the meadow grass. He also sings perched upon the fence or

tuft of grass. He is one of the greatest poseurs among the birds.

In spring and early summer the bobolinks respond to every poet's effort to

imitate their notes. "Dignified 'Robert of Lincoln' is telling his name," says

one; "Spink, spank, spink," another hears him say. But best of all are Wilson

Flagg's lines:

". . .Now they rise and now they fly;

They cross and turn, and in and out; and down the middle and

wheel about,

With a 'Phew, shew, Wadolincon; listen to me Bobolincon!"

After midsummer the cares of the family have so worn upon the jollity of our

dashing, rollicking friend that his song is seldom heard. The colors of his

coat fade into a dull yellowish brown like that of his faithful mate, who has

borne the greater burden of the season, for he has two complete moults each

year.

The bobolinks build their nest on the ground in high grass. The eggs are of a

bluish white. Their food is largely insectivorous: grasshoppers, crickets,

beetles, spiders, with seeds of grass especially for variety.

In August they begin their journey southward, flying mainly by night. Arriving

in the Southern States, they become the

sad-colored, low-voiced rice or reed bird, feeding on the rice fields, where

they descend to the ignominious fate of being dressed for the plate of the

epicure.

Could there be a more tragic ending to the glorious note of the gay songster

of the north?

BLACKPOLL WARBLER (Dendroica striata) Wood Warbler family

Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English

sparrow.

Male -- Black cap; cheeks and beneath grayish white, forming a

sort of collar, more or less distinct. Upper parts striped

gray, black, and olive. Breast and under parts white, with

black streaks. Tail olive-brown, with yellow-white spots.

Female -- Without cap. Greenish-olive above, faintly streaked

with black. Paler than male. Bands on wings, yellowish.

Range -- North America, to Greenland and Alaska. In winter, to

northern part of South America.

Migrations -- Last of May. Late October.

A faint "screep, screep," like "the noise made by striking two pebbles

together," Audubon says, is often the only indication of the blackpoll's

presence; but surely that tireless bird-student had heard its more

characteristic notes, which, rapidly uttered, increasing in the middle of the

strain and diminishing toward the end, suggest the shrill, wiry burn of some

midsummer insect. After the opera-glass has searched him out we find him by no

means an inconspicuous bird. A dainty little fellow, with a glossy black cap

pulled over his eyes, he is almost hidden by the dense foliage on the trees by

the time he returns to us at the very end of spring. Giraud says that he is

the very last of his tribe to come north, though the bay-breasted warbler has

usually been thought the bird to wind up the spring procession.

The blackpoll has a certain characteristic motion that distinguishes him from

the black-and-white creeper, for which a hasty glance might mistake him, and

from the jolly little chickadee with his black cap. Apparently he runs about

the tree-trunk, but in reality he so flits his wings that his feet do not

touch the bark at all; yet so rapidly does he go that the flipping wing-motion

is not observed. He is most often seen in May in the apple trees, peeping into

the opening blossoms for insects, uttering now and then his slender, lisping,

brief song.

Vivacious, a busy hunter, often catching insects on the wing like the

flycatchers, he is a cheerful, useful neighbor the short time he spends with

us before travelling to the far north, where he mates and nests. A nest has

been found on Slide Mountain, in the Catskills, but the hardy evergreens of

Canada, and sometimes those of northern New England, are the chosen home of

this little bird that builds a nest of bits of root, lichens, and sedges,

amply large for a family twice the size of his.

BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPING WARBLER (Mniotilta varia) Wood Warbler

family

Called also: VARIED CREEPING WARBLER; BLACK-AND WHITE CREEPER;

WHITEPOLL WARBLER; [BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, AOU 1998]

Length -- 5 to inches. About an inch smaller than the English

sparrow.

Male -- Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe

along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged

with black. White line above and below the eye. Black cheeks

and throat, grayish in females and young. Breast white in

middle, with black stripes on sides. Wings and tail rusty

black, with two white cross-bars on former, and soiled white

markings on tail quills.

Female -- Paler and less distinct markings throughout.

Range -- Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and westward

to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. Winters in

tropics south of Florida.

Migrations -- April. Late September. Summer resident.

Nine times out of ten this active little warbler is mistaken for the downy

woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but also on account of their

common habit of running up and down the trunks of trees and on the under side

of branches, looking for insects, on which all the warblers subsist. But

presently the true warbler characteristic of restless flitting about shows

itself. A woodpecker would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic care,

while the black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon securing its food,

hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most promising menu is offered.

Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so closely resembles,

it would be difficult to find him were it not for these sudden fittings and

the feeble song, "Weachy, weachy, weachy, 'twee, 'twee, 'tweet," he half

lisps, half sings between his dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his

nest be found in an old stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves. and hair make

the downy cradle for his four or five tiny babies.

DUSKY AND GRAY AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS

Chimney Swift

Kingbird

Wood Pewee

Phoebe and Say's Phoebe

Crested Flycatcher

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Least Flycatcher

Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Canada Jay

Catbird

Mocking-bird

Junco

White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Loggerhead Shrike

Northern Shrike

Bohemian Waxwing

Bay-breasted Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Myrtle Warbler

Parula Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

See also the Grayish Green and the Grayish Brown Birds, particularly the Cedar

Bird, several Swallows, the Acadian and the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers;

Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; the Louisiana Water Thrush; the

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; and the Seaside Sparrow. See also the females of the

following birds: Pine Grosbeak; White-winged Red Crossbill; Purple Martin; and

the Nashville, the Pine, and the Magnolia Warblers.

DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS

CHIMNEY SWIFT (Chaetura pelagica) Swift family

Called also: CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT

Length -- to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the English

sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater.

Male and Female -- Deep sooty gray; throat of a trifle lighter

gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail,

which has sharply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve

as props. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claws.

Range -- Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and from

Labrador to Panama.

Migrations -- April. September or October. Common summer

resident.

The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney

swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if

it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful,

is stiff and mechanical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests

a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them

not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits.

So much fault has been found with the misleading names of many birds, it is

pleasant to record the fact that the name of the chimney swift is everything

it ought to be. No other birds can surpass and few can equal it in its

powerful flight, sometimes covering a thousand miles in twenty-four hours, it

is said, and never resting except in its roosting places (hollow trees or

chimneys of dwellings), where it does not perch, but rather clings to the

sides with its sharp claws, partly supported by its sharper tail. Audubon

tells of a certain plane tree in Kentucky where he counted over nine thousand

of these swifts clinging to the hollow trunk.

Their nest, which is a loosely woven twig lattice, made of twigs of trees,

which the birds snap off with their beaks and carry in their beaks, is glued

with the bird's saliva or tree-gum into a solid structure, and firmly attached

to the inside of chimneys, or hollow trees where there are no houses about.

Two broods in a season usually emerge from the pure white, elongated eggs.

What a twittering there is in the chimney that the swifts appropriate after

the winter fires have died out! Instead of the hospitable column of smoke

curling from the top, a cloud of sooty birds wheels and floats above it. A

sound as of distant thunder fills the chimney as a host of these birds,

startled, perhaps, by some indoor noise, whirl their way upward. Woe betide

the happy colony if a sudden cold snap in early summer necessitates the

starting of a fire on the hearth by the unsuspecting householder! The glue

being melted by the fire, "down comes the cradle, babies and all" into the

glowing embers. A prolonged, heavy rain also causes their nests to loosen

their hold and fall with the soot to the bottom.

Thrifty New England housekeepers claim that bedbugs, commonly found on bats,

infest the bodies of swifts also, which is one reason why wire netting is

stretched across the chim