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.
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. |
|
