Go to Section One
See also winter plumage of the Bobolink,
Goldfinch, and Myrtle Warbler. See females
of Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird,
the Grackles, Bobolink, Cowbird, the Redpolls,
Purple Finch, Chewink, Bluebird, Indigo Bunting,
Baltimore Oriole, Cardinal, and of the Evening,
the Blue, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.
See also Purple Finch, the Redpolls, Mourning
Dove, Mocking-bird, Robin.
BANK SWALLOW
(Clivicola riparia) Swallow family
|
Called also: SAND MARTIN; SAND SWALLOW
Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch
shorter than the English sparrow, but apparently
much larger because of its wide wing-spread.
Male and Female -- Grayish brown or clay-colored
above. Upper wings and tail darkest. Below,
white, with brownish band across chest. Tail,
which is rounded and more nearly square than
the other swallows, is obscurely edged with
white. Range -- Throughout North America
south of Hudson Bay. Migrations -- April.
October. Summer resident.
Where a brook cuts its way through a sand
bank to reach the sea is an ideal nesting
ground for a colony of sand martins. The
face of the high bank shows a number of clean,
round holes indiscriminately bored into the
sand, as if the place had just received a
cannonading; but instead of war an atmosphere
of peace pervades the place in midsummer,
when you are most likely to visit it. Now
that the young ones have flown from their
nests that your arm can barely reach through
the tunnelled sand or clay, there can be
little harm in examining the feathers dropped
from gulls, ducks, and other water-birds
with which the grassy home is lined.
The bank swallow's nest, like the kingfisher's,
which it resembles, is his home as well.
There he rests when tired of flying about
in pursuit of insect food. Perhaps a bird
that has been resting in one of the tunnels,
startled by your innocent housebreaking,
will fly out across your face, near enough
for you to see how unlike the other swallows
he is: smaller, plainer, and with none of
their glinting steel-blues and buffs about
him. With strong, swift flight he rejoins
his fellows, wheeling, skimming, darting
through the air above you, and uttering his
characteristic "giggling twitter,"
that is one of the cheeriest noises heard
along the beach. In early October vast numbers
of these swallows may be seen in loose flocks
along the Jersey coast, slowly making their
way South. Clouds of them miles in extent
are recorded.
Closely associated with the sand martin is
the Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx
serripennis), not to be distinguished from
its companion on the wing, but easily recognized
by its dull-gray throat and the absence of
the brown breast-band when seen at close
range. |
CEDAR BIRD
(Ampelis cedrorum) Waxwing family
|
Called also: CEDAR WAXWING [AOU 1998]; CHERRY-BIRD;
CANADA ROBIN; RECOLLET
Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth
smaller than the robin. Male -- Upper parts
rich grayish brown, with plum-colored tints
showing through the brown on crest, throat,
breast, wings, and tail. A velvety-black
line on forehead runs through the eye and
back of crest. Chin black; crest conspicuous;
breast lighter than the back, and shading
into yellow underneath. Wings have quill-shafts
of secondaries elongated, and with brilliant
vermilion tips like drops of sealing-wax,
rarely seen on tail quills, which have yellow
bands across the end. Female -- With duller
plumage, smaller crest, and narrower tail-band.
Range -- North America, from northern British
provinces to Central America in winter. Migrations
-- A roving resident, without fixed seasons
for migrating.
As the cedar birds travel about in great
flocks that quickly exhaust their special
food in a neighborhood, they necessarily
lead a nomadic life -- here to-day, gone
to-morrow -- and, like the Arabs, they "silently
steal away." It is surprising how very
little noise so great a company of these
birds make at any time. That is because they
are singularly gentle and refined; soft of
voice, as they are of color, their plumage
suggesting a fine Japanese water-color painting
on silk, with its beautiful sheen and exquisitely
blended tints.
One listens in vain for a song; only a lisping
"Twee-twee-ze," or "a dreary
whisper," as Minot calls their low-toned
communications with each other, reaches our
ears from their high perches in the cedar
trees, where they sit, almost motionless
hours at a time, digesting the enormous quantities
of juniper and whortleberries, wild cherries,
worms, and insects upon which they have gormandized.
Nuttall gives the cedar birds credit for
excessive politeness to each other. He says
he has often seen them passing a worm from
one to another down a whole row of beaks
and back again before it was finally eaten.
When nesting time arrives -- that is to say,
towards the end of the summer -- they give
up their gregarious habits and live in pairs,
billing and kissing like turtle-doves in
the orchard or wild crabtrees, where a flat,
bulky nest is rather carelessly built of
twigs, grasses, feathers, strings -- any
odds and ends that may be lying about. The
eggs are usually four, white tinged with
purple and spotted with black.
Apparently they have no moulting season;
their plumage is always the same, beautifully
neat and full-feathered. Nothing ever hurries
or flusters them, their greatest concern
apparently being, when they alight, to settle
themselves comfortably between their over-polite
friends, who are never guilty of jolting
or crowding. Few birds care to take life
so easily, not to say indolently.
Among the French Canadians they are called
Recollet, from the color of their crest resembling
the hood of the religious order of that name.
Every region the birds pass through, local
names appear to be applied to them, a few
of the most common of which are given above.
Of the three waxwings known to scientists,
two are found in America, and the third in
Japan, |
BROWN CREEPER
(Certhia familiaris americana) Creeper family
|
Length -- 5 to 5.75 inches. A little
smaller than the English sparrow. Male and
Female -- Brown above, varied with ashy-gray
stripes and small, lozenge-shaped gray mottles.
Color lightest on head, increasing in shade
to reddish brown near tail. Tail paler brown
and long; wings brown and barred with whitish.
Beneath grayish white. Slender, curving bill.
Range -- United States and Canada, east of
Rocky Mountains. Migrations -- April. September.
Winter resident
This little brown wood sprite, the very embodiment
of virtuous diligence, is never found far
from the nuthatches, titmice, and kinglets,
though not strictly in their company, for
he is a rather solitary bird. Possibly he
repels them by being too exasperatingly conscientious.
Beginning at the bottom of a rough-barked
tree (for a smooth bark conceals no larvae,
the creeper silently climbs upward in a sort
of spiral, now lost to sight on the opposite
side of the tree, then reappearing just where
he is expected to, flitting back a foot or
two, perhaps, lest he overlooked a single
spider egg, but never by any chance leaving
a tree until conscience approves of his thoroughness.
And yet with all this painstaking workman's
care, it takes him just about fifty seconds
to finish a tree. Then off he flits to the
base of another, to repeat the spiral process.
Only rarely does he adopt the woodpecker
process of partly flitting, partly rocking
his way with the help of his tail straight
up one side of the tree.
Yet this little bird is not altogether the
soulless drudge he appears. In the midst
of his work, uncheered by summer sunshine,
and clinging with numb toes to the tree-trunk
some bitter cold day, he still finds some
tender emotion within him to voice in a "wild,
sweet song" that is positively enchanting
at such a time. But it is not often this
song is heard south of his nesting grounds.
The brown creeper's plumage is one of Nature's
most successful feats of mimicry -- an exact
counterfeit in feathers of the brown-gray
bark on which the bird lives. And the protective
coloring is carried out in the nest carefully
tucked under a piece of loosened bark in
the very heart of the tree. |
PINE SISKIN
(Spinus pinus) Finch family
|
Called also: PINE FINCH; PINE LINNET
Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. Over an inch
smaller than the English sparrow. Male and
Female -- Olive-brown and gray above, much
streaked and striped with very dark brown
everywhere. Darkest on head and back. Lower
back, base of tail, and wing feathers pale
sulphur-yellow. Under parts very light buff
brown, heavily streaked. Range -- North America
generally. Most common in north latitudes.
Winters south to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrations
-- Erratic winter visitor from October to
April. Uncommon in summer.
A small grayish-brown brindle bird, relieved
with touches of yellow on its back, wings,
and tail, may be seen some winter morning
roving on the lawn from one evergreen tree
to another, clinging to the pine cones and
peering attentively between the scales before
extracting the kernels. It utters a call-note
so like the English sparrow's that you are
surprised when you look up into the tree
to find it comes from a stranger. The pine
siskin is an erratic visitor, and there is
always the charm of the unexpected about
its coming near our houses that heightens
our enjoyment of its brief stay.
As it flies downward from the top of the
spruce tree to feed upon the brown seeds
still clinging to the pigweed and goldenrod
stalks sticking out above the snow by the
roadside, it dips and floats through the
air like its charming little cousin, the
goldfinch. They have several characteristics
in common besides their flight and their
fondness for thistles. Far at the north,
where the pine siskin nests in the top of
the evergreens, his sweet-warbled love-song
is said to be like that of our "wild
canary's," only with a suggestion of
fretfulness in the tone.
Occasionally some one living in an Adirondack
or other mountain camp reports finding the
nest and hearing the siskin sing even in
midsummer; but it is, nevertheless, considered
a northern species, however its erratic habits
may sometimes break through the ornithologist's
traditions. |
SMITH'S PAINTED LONGSPUR
(Calcarius pictus) Finch family
|
[Called also: SMITH'S LONGSPUR, AOU 1998]
Length -- 6.5 inches. About the size of a
large English sparrow. Male and Female --
Upper parts marked with black, brown, and
white, like a sparrow; brown predominant.
Male bird with more black about head, shoulders,
and tail feathers, and a whitish patch, edged
with black, under the eye. Underneath pale
brown, shading to buff. Hind claw or spur
conspicuous. Range -- Interior of North America,
from the arctic coast to Illinois and and
Texas; Migrations -- Winter visitor. Without
fixed season.
Confined to a narrower range than the Lapland
longspur, this bird, quite commonly found
on the open prairie districts of the middle
West in winter, is, nevertheless, so very
like its cousin that the same description
of their habits might very well answer for
both. Indeed, both these birds are often
seen in the same flock. Larks and the ubiquitous
sparrows, too, intermingle with them with
the familiarity that only the starvation
rations of midwinter, and not true sociability,
can effect; and, looking out upon such a
heterogeneous flock of brown birds as they
are feeding together on the frozen ground,
only the trained field ornithologist would
find it easy to point out the painted longspurs.
Certain peculiarities are noticeable, however.
Longspurs squat while resting; then, when
flushed, they run quickly and lightly, and
"rise with a sharp click, repeated several
times in quick succession, and move with
an easy, undulating motion for a short distance,
when they alight very suddenly, seeming to
fall perpendicularly several feet to the
ground." Another peculiarity of their
flight is their habit of flying about in
circles, to and fro, keeping up a constant
chirping or call. It is only in the mating
season, when we rarely hear them, that the
longspurs have the angelic manner of singing
as they fly, like the skylark. The colors
of the males, among the several longspurs,
may differ widely, but the indistinctly marked
females are so like each other that only
their mates, perhaps, could tell them apart.
|
LAPLAND LONGSPUR
(Calcarius lapponicus) Finch family
|
Called also: LAPLAND SNOWBIRD; LAPLAND
LARK BUNTING
Length -- 6.5 to 7 inches. trifle larger
than the English sparrow. Male -- Color varies
with season. Winter plumage: Top of head
black, with rusty markings, all feathers
being tipped with white. Behind and below
the eye rusty black. Breast and underneath
grayish white faintly streaked with black.
Above reddish brown with black markings.
Feet, which are black, have conspicuous,
long hind claws or spur. Female -- Rusty
gray above, less conspicuously marked. Whitish
below. Range -- Circumpolar regions; northern
United States; occasional in Middle States;
abundant in winter as far as Kansas and the
Rocky Mountains. Migrations -- Winter visitors,
rarely resident, and without a Fixed season.
This arctic bird, although considered somewhat
rare with us, when seen at all in midwinter
is in such large flocks that, before its
visit in the neighborhood is ended, and because
there are so few other birds about, it becomes
delightfully familiar as it nimbly runs over
the frozen ground, picking up grain that
has blown about from the barn, when the seeds
of the field are buried under snow. This
lack of fear through sharp hunger, that often
drives the shyest of the birds to our very
doors in winter, is as pathetic as it is
charming. Possibly it is not so rare a bird
as we think, for it is often mistaken for
some of the sparrows, the shore larks, and
the snow buntings, that it not only resembles,
but whose company it frequently keeps, or
for one of the other longspurs.
At all seasons of the year a ground bird,
you may readily identify the Lapland longspur
by its tracks through the snow, showing the
mark of the long hind claw or spur. In summer
we know little or nothing about it, for,
with the coming of the flowers, it is off
to the far north, where, we are told, it
depresses its nest in a bed of moss upon
the ground, and lines it with fur shed from
the coat of the arctic fox. |
CHIPPING SPARROW
(Spizella socialis) Finch family
|
Called also: CHIPPY; HAIR-BIRD; CHIP-BIRD;
SOCIAL SPARROW
Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. An inch shorter
than the English sparrow. Male -- Under the
eye, on the back of the neck, underneath,
and on the lower back ash-gray. Gray stripe
over the eye, and a blackish brown one apparently
through it. Dark red-brown crown. Back brown,
slightly rufous, and feathers streaked with
black. Wings and tail dusty brown. Wing-bars
not conspicuous. Bill black. Female -- Lacks
the chestnut color on the crown, which is
Streaked with black. In winter the frontlet
is black. Bill brownish. Range -- North America,
from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico And
westward to the Rockies. Winters in Gulf
States and Mexico. Most common in eastern
United States. Migrations -- April. October.
Common summer resident, many birds nbsp;
remaining all the year from southern New
England southward.
Who does not know this humblest, most unassuming
little neighbor that comes hopping to our
very doors; this mite of a bird with "one
talent" that it so persistently uses
all the day and every day throughout the
summer? Its high, wiry trill, like the buzzing
of the locust, heard in the dawn before the
sky grows even gray, or in the middle of
the night, starts the morning chorus; and
after all other voices are hushed in the
evening, its tremolo is the last bed-song
to come from the trees. But however monotonous
such cheerfulness sometimes becomes when
we are surfeited with real songs from dozens
of other throats, there are long periods
of midsummer silence that it punctuates most
acceptably.
Its call-note, chip! chip! from which several
of its popular names are derived, is altogether
different from the trill which must do duty
as a song to express love, contentment, everything
that so amiable a little nature might feel
impelled to voice.
But with all its virtues, the chippy shows
lamentable weakness of character in allowing
its grown children to impose upon it, as
it certainly does. In every group of these
birds throughout the summer we can see young
ones (which we may know by the black line-stripes
on their breasts) hopping around after their
parents, that are often no larger or more
able-bodied than they, and teasing to be
fed; drooping their wings to excite pity
for a helplessness that they do not possess
when the weary little mother hops away from
them, and still persistently chirping for
food until she weakly relents, returns to
them, picks a seed from the ground and thrusts
it down the bill of the sauciest teaser in
the group. With two such broods in a season
the chestnut feathers on the father's jaunty
head might well turn gray.
Unlike most of the sparrows, the little chippy
frequents high trees, where its nest is built
quite as often as in the low bushes of the
garden. The horse-hair, which always lines
the grass" up that holds its greenish-blue,
speckled eggs, is alone responsible for the
name hair-bird, and not the chippy's hair-like
trill, as some suppose. |
ENGLISH SPARROW
(Passer domesticus) Finch family
|
Called also: HOUSE SPARROW [AOU 1998]
Length -- 6.33 inches. Male -- Ashy above,
with black and chestnut stripes on back and
shoulders. Wings have chestnut and white
bar, bordered by faint black line. Gray crown,
bordered from the eye backward and on the
nape by chestnut. Middle of throat and breast
black. Underneath grayish white. Female --
Paler; wing-bars indistinct, and without
the black marking on throat and breast. Range
-- Around the world. Introduced and naturalized
in America, Australia, New Zealand. Migrations
-- Constant resident.
"Of course, no self-respecting ornithologist
will condescend to enlarge his list by counting
in the English sparrow -- too pestiferous
to mention," writes Mr. H. E. Parkhurst,
and yet of all bird neighbors is any one
more within the scope of this book than the
audacious little gamin that delights in the
companion ship of humans even in their most
noisy city thoroughfares?
In a bulletin issued by the Department of
Agriculture it is shown that the progeny
of a single pair of these sparrows might
amount to 275,716,983,698 in ten years! Inasmuch
as many pairs were liberated in the streets
of Brooklyn, New York, in 1851, when the
first importation was made, the day is evidently
not far off when these birds, by no means
meek, "shall inherit the earth."
In Australia Scotch thistles, English sparrows,
and rabbits, three most unfortunate importations,
have multiplied with equal rapidity until
serious alarm fills the minds of the colonists.
But in England a special committee appointed
by the House of Commons to investigate the
character of the alleged pest has yet to
learn whether the sparrow's services as an
insect-destroyer do not outweigh the injury
it does to fruit and grain. |
FIELD SPARROW
(Spizella pusilla) Finch family
|
Called also: FIELD BUNTING; WOOD SPARROW;
BUSH SPARROW
Length -- 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller
than the English sparrow. Male -- Chestnut
crown. Upper back bright chestnut, finely
streaked with black and ashy brown. Lower
back more grayish. Whitish wing-bars. Cheeks,
line over the eye, throat, pale brownish
drab. Tail long. Underneath grayish white,
tinged with palest buff on breast and sides.
Bill reddish. Female -- Paler; the crown
edged with grayish. Range -- North America,
from British provinces to the Gulf, and westward
to the plains. Winters from Illinois and
Virginia southward. Migrations -- April.
November. Common summer resident.
Simply because both birds have chestnut crowns,
the field sparrow is often mistaken for the
dapper, sociable chippy; and, no doubt because
it loves such heathery, grassy pastures as
are dear to the vesper sparrow, and has bay
wings and a sweet song, these two cousins
also are often confused. The field sparrow
has a more reddish-brown upper back than
any of its small relatives; the absence of
streaks on its breast and of the white tail
quills so conspicuous in the vesper sparrow's
flight, sufficiently differentiate the two
birds, while the red bill of the field sparrow
is a positive mark of identification.
This bird of humble nature, that makes the
scrubby pastures and uplands tuneful from
early morning until after sunset, flies away
with exasperating shyness as you approach.
Alighting on a convenient branch, he lures
you on with his clear, sweet song. Follow
him, and he only hops about from bush to
bush, farther and farther away, singing as
he goes a variety of strains, which is one
of the bird's peculiarities. The song not
only varies in individuals, but in different
localities, which may be one reason why no
two ornithologists record it alike. Doubtless
the chief reason for the amusing differences
in the syllables into which the songs of
birds are often translated in the books,
is that the same Notes actually sound differently
to different individuals. Thus, to people
in Massachusetts the white-throated sparrow
seems to say, "Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y,
Pea-bod-y!" while good British subjects
beyond the New England border hear him sing
quite distinctly, "Sweet Can-a-da, Can-a-da,
Can-a-da!" But however the opinions
as to the syllables of the field sparrow's
song may differ, all are agreed as to its
exquisite quality, that resembles the vesper
sparrow's tender, sweet melody. The song
begins with three soft, wild whistles, and
ends with a series of trills and quavers
that gradually melt away into silence: a
serene and restful strain as soothing as
a hymn. Like the vesper sparrows, these birds
sometimes build a plain, grassy nest, unprotected
by over hanging bush, flat upon the ground.
Possibly from a prudent tear of field-mice
and snakes, the little mother most frequently
lays her bluish-white, rufous -- marked eggs
in a nest placed in a bush of a bushy field.
Hence John Burroughs has called the bird
the ''bush sparrow." |
FOX SPARROW
(Passerella ilica) Finch family
|
Called also: FOX-COLORED SPARROW; FERRUGINOUS
FINCH; FOXY FINCH
Length -- 6.5 to 7.25 inches. Nearly an inch
longer than the English sparrow. Male and
Female -- Upper parts reddish brown, varied
with ash gray, brightest on lower back, wings,
and tail. Bluish slate about the head. Underneath
whitish; the throat, breast, and sides heavily
marked with arrow-heads and oblong dashes
of reddish brown and blackish. Range -- Alaska
and Manitoba to southern United States. Winters
chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occasional
stragglers remain north most of the winter.
Migrations -- March. November. Most common
in the migrations.
There will be little difficulty in naming
this largest, most plump and reddish of all
the sparrows, whose fox-colored feathers,
rather than any malicious cunning of its
disposition, are responsible for the name
it bears. The male bird is incomparably the
finest singer of its gifted family. His faint
tseep call-note gives no indication of his
vocal powers that some bleak morning in early
March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure
through you. It is the most welcome "glad
surprise" of all the spring. Without
a preliminary twitter or throat-clearing
of any sort, the full, rich, luscious tones,
with just a tinge of plaintiveness in them,
are poured forth with spontaneous abandon.
Such a song at such a time is enough to summon
anybody with a musical ear out of doors under
the leaden skies to where the delicious notes
issue from the leafless shrubbery by the
roadside. Watch the singer until the song
ends, when he will quite likely descend among
the dead leaves on the ground and scratch
among them like any barn-yard fowl, but somehow
contriving to use both feet at once in the
operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems
to take special delight in damp thickets,
where the insects with which he varies his
seed diet are plentiful.
Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose
flocks, apart by themselves, for they are
not truly gregarious; but they may sometimes
be seen travelling in company with their
white-throated cousins. They are among the
last birds to leave us in the late autumn
or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem
indisposed to sing unless present in numbers.
Indeed, they are little inclined to absolute
solitude at any time, for even in the nesting
season quite a colony of grassy nurseries
may be found in the same meadow, and small
companies haunt the roadside shrubbery during
the migrations. |
GRASSHOPPER SPARROW
(Ammodramus savannarum passerinus) Finch
family
|
Called also: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW
Length -- 5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch
smaller than the English sparrow. Male and
Female -- A cream-yellow line over the eye;
centre of crown, shoulders, and lesser wing
coverts yellowish. Head blackish; rust-colored
feathers, with small black spots on back
of the neck; an orange mark before the eye.
All other upper parts varied red, brown,
cream, and black, with a drab wash. Underneath
brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled
white, and without streaks. Dusky, even,
pointed tail feathers have grayish-white
outer margins. Range -- Eastern North America,
from British provinces to Cuba. Winters south
of the Carolinas. Migrations -- April. October.
Common summer resident.
It is safe to say that no other common bird
is so frequently overlooked as this little
sparrow, that keeps persistently to the grass
and low bushes, and only faintly lifts up
a weak, wiry voice that is usually attributed
to some insect. At the bend of the wings
only are the feathers really yellow, and
even this bright shade often goes unnoticed
as the bird runs shyly through an old dairy
field or grassy pasture. You may all but
step upon it before it takes wing and exhibits
itself on the fence-rail, which is usually
as far from the ground as it cares to go.
If you are near enough to this perch you
may overhear the zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e that has
earned it the name of grasshopper sparrow.
If you persistently follow it too closely,
away it flies, then suddenly drops to the
ground where a scrubby bush affords protection.
A curious fact about this bird is that after
you have once become acquainted with it,
you find that instead of being a rare discovery,
as you had supposed, it is apt to be a common
resident of almost every field you walk through.
|
SAVANNA SPARROW
(Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna) Finch
family
|
Called also: SAVANNA BUNTING
Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller
than the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the
bend of the wings pale yellow. General effect
of the upper parts brownish drab, streaked
with black. Wings and tail dusky, the outer
webs of the feathers margined with buff.
Under parts white, heavily streaked with
blackish and rufous, the marks on breast
feathers being wedge-shaped. In the autumn
the plumage is often suffused with a yellow
tinge. Range -- Eastern North America, from
Hudson Bay to Mexico. Winters south of Illinois
and Virginia. Migrations -- April. October.
A few remain in sheltered marshes at the
north all winter.
Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes,
marshy or upland pastures, never far inland,
and if you see a sparrowy bird, unusually
white and heavily streaked beneath, and with
pale yellow markings about the eye and on
the bend of the wing; you may still make
several guesses at its identity before the
weak, little insect-like trill finally establishes
it. Whoever can correctly name every sparrow
and warbler on sight is a person to be envied,
if, indeed, he exists at all.
In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact,
of all the maritime provinces, this sparrow
is the one that is perhaps most commonly
seen. Every fence-rail has one perched upon
it, singing "Ptsip, ptsip, ptsip, ze-e-e-e-e"
close to the ear of the passer-by, who otherwise
might not hear the low grasshopper-like song.
At the north the bird somehow loses the shyness
that makes it comparatively little known
farther south. Depending upon the scrub and
grass to conceal it, you may almost tread
upon it before it startles you by its sudden
rising with a whirring noise, only to drop
to the ground again just a few yards farther
away, where it scuds among the underbrush
and is lost to sight Tall weeds and fence-rails
are as high and exposed situations as it
is likely to select while singing. It is
most distinctively a ground bird, and flat
upon the pasture or in a slightly hollowed
cup it has the merest apology for a nest.
Only a few wisps of grass are laid in the
cavity to receive the pale-green eggs, that
are covered most curiously with blotches
of brown of many shapes and tints. |
SEASIDE SPARROW
(Ammodramus maritimus) Finch family
|
Called also: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH
Length -- 6 inches. A shade smaller than
the English sparrow. Male and Female -- Upper
parts dusky grayish or olivaceous brown,
inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges
of some feathers. Wings and tail darkest.
Throat yellowish white, shading to gray on
breast, which is indistinctly mottled and
streaked. A yellow spot before the eye and
on bend of the wing, the bird's characteristic
marks. Blunt tail. Range -- Atlantic seaboard,
from Georgia northward. Usually Winters south
of Virginia. Migrations -- April. November.
A few remain in sheltered marshes all winter.
The savanna, the swamp, the sharp-tailed,
and the song sparrows may all sometimes be
found in the haunts of the seaside sparrow,
but you may be certain of finding the latter
nowhere else than in the salt marshes within
sight or sound of the sea. It is a dingy
little bird, with the least definite coloring
of all the sparrows that have maritime inclinations,
with no rufous tint in its feathers, and
less distinct streakings on the breast than
any of them. It has no black markings on
the back.
Good-sized flocks of seaside sparrows live
together in the marshes; but they spend so
much of their time on the ground, running
about among the reeds and grasses, whose
seeds and insect parasites they feed upon,
that not until some unusual disturbance in
the quiet place flushes them does the intruder
suspect their presence, Hunters after beach-birds,
longshoremen, seaside cottagers, and whoever
follows the windings of a creek through the
salt meadows to catch crabs and eels in midsummer,
are well acquainted with the "meadow
chippies," as the fishermen call them.
They keep up a good deal of chirping, sparrow-fashion,
and have four or five notes resembling a
song that is usually delivered from a tall
reed stalk, where the bird sways and balances
until his husky performance has ended, when
down he drops upon the ground out of sight.
Sometimes, too, these notes are uttered while
the bird flutters in the air above the tops
of the sedges. |
SHARP-TAILED SPARROW
(Ammodramus caudacutus) Finch family
|
Length -- 5.25 to 5.85 inches. A trifle smaller
than the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Upper parts brownish or grayish olive,
the back with black streaks, and gray edges
to some feathers. A gray line through centre
of crown, which has maroon stripes; gray
ears enclosed by buff lines, one of which
passes through the eye and one on side of
throat; brownish orange, or buff, on sides
of head. Bend of the wing yellow. Breast
and sides pale buff, distinctly streaked
with black. Underneath whitish. Each narrow
quill of tail is sharply pointed. the outer
ones shortest. Range -- Atlantic coast. Winters
south of Virginia. Migrations -- April. November.
Summer resident.
This bird delights in the company of the
dull-colored seaside sparrow, whose haunts
in the salt marshes it frequents, especially
the drier parts; but its pointed tail-quills
and more distinct markings are sufficient
to prevent confusion. Mr. J. Dwight, Jr.,
who has made a special study of maritime
birds, says of it: "It runs about among
the reeds and grasses with the celerity of
a mouse, and it is not apt to take wing unless
closely pressed." (Wilson credited it
with the nimbleness of a sandpiper.) "It
builds its nest in the tussocks on the bank
of a ditch, or in the drift left by the tide,
rather than in the grassier sites chosen
by its neighbors, the seaside sparrows."
Only rarely does one get a glimpse of this
shy little bird, that darts out of sight
like a flash at the first approach. Balancing
on a cat-tail stalk or perched upon a bit
of driftwood, it makes a feeble, husky attempt
to sing a few notes; and during the brief
performance the opera-glasses may search
it out successfully. While it feeds upon
the bits of sea-food washed ashore to the
edge of the marshes, it gives us perhaps
the best chance we ever get, outside of a
museum, to study the bird's characteristics
of plumage.
"Both the sharp-tailed and the seaside
finches are crepuscular," says Dr. Abbott,
in "The Birds About Us." They run
up and down the reeds and on the water's
edge long after most birds have gone to sleep.
|
SONG SPARROW
(Melospiza fasciata) Finch family
|
Length -- 6 to 6.5 inches. About the same
size as the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Brown head, with three longitudinal gray
bands Brown stripe on sides of throat. Brownish-gray
back streaked With rufous. Underneath gray,
shading to white, heavily streaked with darkest
brown. A black spot on breast. Wings without
bars. Tail plain grayish brown. Range --
North America, from Fur Countries to the
Gulf States. Winters from southern Illinois
and Massachusetts to the Gulf. Migrations
-- March. November. A few birds remain at
the north All the year.
Here is a veritable bird neighbor, if ever
there was one; at home in our gardens and
hedges, not often farther away than the roadside,
abundant everywhere during nearly every month
in the year, and yet was there ever one too
many? There is scarcely an hour in the day,
too, when its delicious, ecstatic song may
not be heard; in the darkness of midnight,
just before dawn, when its voice is almost
the first to respond to the chipping sparrow's
wiry trill and the robin's warble; in the
cool of the morning, the heat of noon, the
hush of evening -- ever the simple, homely,
sweet melody that every good American has
learned to love in childhood. What the bird
lacks in beauty it abundantly makes up in
good cheer. Not at all retiring, though never
bold, it chooses some conspicuous perch on
a bush or tree to deliver its outburst of
song, and sings away with serene unconsciousness.
Its artlessness is charming. Thoreau writes
in his "Summer" that the country
girls in Massachusetts hear the bird say:
"Maids, maids, maids, hang on your teakettle,
teakettle-ettle-ettle." The call-note,
a metallic chip, is equally characteristic
of the bird's irrepressible vivacity. It
has still another musical expression, however,
a song more prolonged and varied than its
usual performance, that it seems to sing
only on the wing.
Of course, the song sparrow must sometimes
fly upward, but whoever sees it fly anywhere
but downward into the thicket that it depends
upon to conceal it from too close inspection?
By pumping its tail as it flies, it seems
to acquire more than the ordinary sparrow's
velocity.
Its nest, which is likely to be laid flat
on the ground, except where field-mice are
plentiful (in which case it is elevated into
the crotch of a bush), is made of grass,
strips of bark, and leaves, and lined with
finer grasses and hair. Sometimes three broods
may be reared in a season, but even the cares
of providing insects and seeds enough for
so many hungry babies cannot altogether suppress
the cheerful singer. The eggs are grayish
white, speckled and clouded with lavender
and various shades of brown.
In sparsely settled regions the song sparrows
seem to show a fondness for moist woodland
thickets, possibly because their tastes are
insectivorous. But it is difficult to imagine
the friendly little musician anything but
a neighbor. |
SWAMP SONG SPARROW
(Melospiza georgiana) Finch family
|
Called also: SWAMP SPARROW [AOU 1998]; MARSH
SPARROW; RED GRASS-BIRD; SWAMP FINCH
Length -- 5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller
than the English sparrow. Male -- Forehead
black; crown, which in winter has black stripes,
is always bright bay; line over the eye,
sides of the neck gray. Back brown, striped
with various shades. Wing. edges and tail
reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath inclining
to white on the chin. Female -- Without black
forehead and stripes on head. Range -- North
America, from Texas to Labrador. Migrations
-- April. October. A few winter at the north.
In just such impenetrable retreats as the
marsh wrens choose, another wee brown bird
may sometimes be seen springing up from among
the sedges, singing a few sweet notes as
it flies and floats above them, and then
suddenly disappearing into the grassy tangle.
It is too small, and its breast is not streaked
enough to be a song sparrow, neither are
their songs alike; it has not the wren's
peculiarities of bill and tail, Its bright-bay
crown and sparrowy markings finally identify
it. A suggestion of the bird's watery home
shows itself in the liquid quality of its
simple, sweet note, stronger and sweeter
than the chippy's, and repeated many times
almost like a trill that seems to trickle
from the marsh in a little rivulet of song.
The sweetness is apt to become monotonous
to all but the bird itself, that takes evident
delight in its performance. In the spring,
when flocks of swamp sparrows come north,
how they enliven the marshes and waste places.
And yet the song, simple as it is, is evidently
not uttered altogether without effort, if
the tail-spreading and teetering of the body
after the manner of the ovenbird, are any
indications of exertion.
Nuttall says of these birds: "They thread
their devious way with the same alacrity
as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are
often associated in neighborhood. In consequence
of this perpetual brushing through sedge
and bushes, their feathers are frequently
so worn that their tails appear almost like
those of rats."
But the swamp sparrows frequently belie their
name, and, especially in the South, live
in dry fields, worn-out pasture lands with
scrubby, weedy patches in them. They live
upon seeds of grasses and berries, but Dr.
Abbott has detected their special fondness
for fish -- not fresh fish particularly,
but rather such as have lain in the sun for
a few days and become dry as a chip. Their
nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in
a tussock of grass or roots of an upturned
tree quite surrounded by water. Four or five
soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots
are laid usually twice in 2 season. |
TREE SPARROW
(Spizella monticola) Finch family | Called also: CANADA SPARROW; WINTER CHIPPY;
TREE BUNTING; WINTER CHIP-BIRD; ARCTIC CHIPPER
Length -- 6 to 6.35 inches. About the same
size as the English sparrow. Male -- Crown
of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye,
cheeks, throat, and breast gray, the breast
with an indistinct black spot on centre.
Brown back, the feathers edged with black
and buff. Lower back pale grayish brown.
Two whitish bars across dusky wings; tail
feathers bordered with grayish white. Underneath
whitish. Female -- Smaller and less distinctly
marked. Range -- North America, from Hudson
Bay to the Carolinas, and westward to the
plains. Migrations -- October. April. Winter
resident.
A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly
little chipping sparrow, that hops to our
very doors for crumbs throughout the mild
weather, comes out of British America at
the beginning of winter to dissipate much
of the winter's dreariness by his cheerful
twitterings. Why he should have been called
a tree sparrow is a mystery, unless because
he does not frequent trees -- a reason with
sufficient plausibility to commend the name
to several of the early ornithologists, who
not infrequently called a bird precisely
what it was not. The tree sparrow actually
does not show half the preference for trees
that its familiar little counterpart does,
but rather keeps to low bushes when not on
the ground, where we usually find it. It
does not crouch upon the ground like the
chippy, but with a lordly carriage holds
itself erect as it nimbly runs over the frozen
crust. Sheltered from the high, wintry winds
in the furrows and dry ditches of ploughed
fields, a loose flock of these active birds
keep up a merry hunt for fallen seeds and
berries, with a belated beetle to give the
grain a relish. As you approach the feeding
ground, one bird gives a shrill alarm-cry,
and instantly five times as many birds as
you suspected were in the field take wing
and settle down in the scrubby undergrowth
at the edge of the woods or by the wayside.
No still cold seems too keen for them to
go a-foraging; but when cutting winds blow
through the leafless thickets the scattered
remnants of a flock seek the shelter of stone
walls, hedges, barns, and cozy nooks about
the house and garden. It is in mid-winter
that these birds grow most neighborly, although
even then they are distinctly less sociable
than their small chippy cousins.
By the first of March, when the fox sparrow
and the bluebird attract the lion's share
of attention by their superior voices, we
not infrequently are deaf to the modest,
sweet little strain that answers for the
tree sparrow's love-song. Soon after the
bird is in full voice, away it goes with
its flock to their nesting ground in Labrador
or the Hudson Bay region. It builds, either
on the ground or not far from it, a nest
of grasses, rootlets, and hair, without which
no true chippy counts its home complete.
|
VESPER SPARROW
(Poocaetes gramineus) Finch family
|
Called also: BAY-WINGED BUNTING; GRASSFINCH;
GRASSBIRD
Length -- 5.75 to 6.25 inches. A little smaller
than the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Brown above, streaked and varied with
gray. Lesser wing coverts bright rufous.
Throat and breast whitish, striped with dark
brown. Underneath plain soiled white. Outer
tail-quills, which are its special mark of
identification, are partly white, but apparently
wholly white a.s the bird flies. Range --
North America, especially common in eastern
parts from Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico.
Winters south of Virginia. Migrations --
April. October. Common summer resident.
Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows
are the easiest to classify for that very
reason, and certain prominent features of
the half dozen commonest of the tribe make
their identification simple even to the merest
novice. The distinguishing marks of this
sparrow that haunts open, breezy pasture
lands and country waysides are its bright,
reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent among
its dingy, pale brownish-gray feathers, and
its white tail-quills, shown as the bird
flies along the road ahead of you to light
upon the fence-rail. It rarely flies higher,
even to sing its serene, pastoral strain,
restful as the twilight, of which, indeed,
it seems to be the vocal expression. How
different from the ecstatic outburst of the
song sparrow! Pensive, but not sad, its long-drawn
silvery notes continue in quavers that float
off unended like a trail of mist. The song
is suggestive of the thoughts that must come
at evening to some New England saint of humble
station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting
day.
But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest
and most sweetly in the late afternoon and
continues singing until only he and the rose-breasted
grosbeak break the silence of the early night,
his is one of the first voices to join the
morning chorus. No "early worm,"
however, tempts him from his grassy nest,
for the seeds in the pasture lands and certain
tiny insects that live among the grass furnish
meals at all hours. He simply delights in
the cool, still morning and evening hours
and in giving voice to his enjoyment of them.
The vesper sparrow is preeminently a grass-bird.
It first opens its eyes on the world in a
nest neatly woven of grasses, laid on the
ground among the grass that shelters it and
furnishes it with food and its protective
coloring. Only the grazing cattle know how
many nests and birds are hidden in their
pastures. Like the meadowlarks, their presence
is not even suspected until a flock is flushed
from its feeding ground, only to return to
the spot when you have passed on your way.
Like the meadowlark again, the vesper sparrow
occasionally sings as it soars upward from
its grassy home. |
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW
(Zonotrichia leucophrys) Finch family
|
Length -- 7 inches. A little larger than
the English sparrow. Male -- White head,
with four longitudinal black lines marking
off a crown, the black-and-white stripes
being of about equal width. Cheeks, nape,
and throat gray. Light gray underneath, with
some buff tints. Back dark grayish brown.
some feathers margined with gray. Two interrupted
white bars across wings. Plain, dusky tail;
total effect, a clear ashen gray. Female
-- With rusty head inclining to gray on crown.
Paler throughout than the male. Range --
From high mountain ranges of western United
States (more rarely on Pacific slope) to
Atlantic Ocean, and from Labrador to Mexico.
Chiefly south of Pennsylvania. Migrations
-- October. April. Irregular migrant in Northern
States. A winter resident elsewhere.
The large size and handsome markings of this
aristocratic-looking Northern sparrow would
serve to distinguish him at once, did he
not often consort with his equally fine-looking
white-throated cousins while migrating, and
so too often get overlooked. Sparrows are
such gregarious birds that it is well to
scrutinize every flock with especial care
in the spring and autumn, when the rarer
migrants are passing. This bird is more common
in the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada
and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the
United States. There in the lonely forest
it nests in low bushes or on the ground,
and sings its full love song, as it does
in the northern British provinces, along
the Atlantic coast; but during the migrations
it favors us only with selections from its
repertoire. Mr. Ernest Thompson says, "Its
usual song is like the latter half of the
white-throat's familiar refrain, repeated
a number of times with a peculiar, sad cadence
and in a clear, soft whistle that is characteristic
of the group." "The song is the
loudest and most plaintive of all the sparrow
songs," says John Burroughs. "It
begins with the words fe-u, fe-u, fe-u, and
runs off into trills and quavers like the
song sparrow's, only much more touching."
Colorado miners tell that this sparrow, like
its white-throated relative, sings on the
darkest nights. Often a score or more birds
are heard singing at once after the habit
of the European nightingales, which, however,
choose to sing only in the moonlight. |
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW
(Zonotrichia albicollis) Finch family
|
Called also: PEABODY BIRD; CANADA SPARROW
Length -- 6.75 to 7 inches. Larger than the
English sparrow. Male and Female -- A black
crown divided by narrow white line. Yellow
spot before the eye, and a white line, apparently
running through it, passes backward to the
nape. Conspicuous white throat. Chestnut
back, varied with black and whitish. Breast
gray, growing lighter underneath. Wings edged
with rufous and with two white cross-bars.
Range -- Eastern North America. Nests from
Michigan and Massachusetts northward to Labrador.
Winters from southern New England to Florida.
Migrations -- April. October. Abundant during
migrations, and in many States a winter resident.
"I-I, Pea-body, Pea-body, Pea-body,"
are the syllables of the white-throat's song
heard by the good New Englanders, who have
a tradition that you must either be a Peabody
or a nobody there; while just over the British
border the bird is distinctly understood
to say, "Swee-e-e-t Can-a-da, Can-a-da,
Can-a da." "All day, whit-tle-ing,
whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing," the Maine
people declare he sings; and Hamilton Gibson
told of a perplexed farmer, Peverly by name,
who, as he stood in the field undecided as
to what crop to plant, clearly heard the
bird advise, "Sow wheat, Pev-er-ly,
Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly." Such divergence
of opinion, which is really slight compared
with the verbal record of many birds' songs,
only goes to show how little the sweetness
of birds' music, like the perfume of a rose,
depends upon a name.
In a family not distinguished for good looks,
the white-throated sparrow is conspicuously
handsome, especially after the spring moult.
In midwinter the feathers grow dingy and
the markings indistinct; but as the season
advances, his colors are sure to brighten
perceptibly, and before he takes the northward
journey in April, any little lady sparrow
might feel proud of the attentions of so
fine-looking and sweet-voiced a lover. The
black, white, and yellow markings on his
head are now clear and beautiful. His figure
is plump and aristocratic.
These sparrows are particularly sociable
travellers, and cordially welcome many stragglers
to their flocks -- not during the migrations
only, but even when winter's snow affords
only the barest gleanings above it. Then
they boldly peck about the dog's plate by
the kitchen door and enter the barn-yard,
calling their feathered friends with a sharp
tseep to follow them. Seeds and insects are
their chosen food, and were they not well
wrapped in an adipose coat under their feathers,
there must be many a winter night when they
would go shivering, supperless, to their
perch.
In the dark of midnight one may sometimes
hear the white-throat softly singing in its
dreams. |
|
