Look also among the Yellowish Olive Birds
in the preceding group; and among the Brown
Birds for the Meadowlark and Flicker. See
also Parula Warbler (Slate) and Yellow-bellied
Woodpecker (Black and White).
YELLOW-THROATED VIREO
(Vireo flavifrons) Vireo or Greenlet family
|
Length -- 5.5. to 6 inches. A little smaller
than the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Lemon-yellow on throat, upper breast;
line around the eye and forehead. Yellow,
shading into olive-green, on head, back,
and shoulders. Underneath white. Tail dark
brownish, edged with white. Wings a lighter
shade, with two white bands across, and some
quills edged with white. Range -- North America,
from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico, and
westward to the Rockies. Winters in the tropics.
Migrations -- May. September. Spring and
autumn migrant; more rarely resident.
This is undoubtedly the beauty of the vireo
family -- a group of neat, active, stoutly
built, and vigorous little birds of yellow,
greenish, and white plumage; birds that love
the trees, and whose feathers reflect the
coloring of the leaves they hide, hunt, and
nest among. "We have no birds,"
says Bradford Torrey, "so unsparing
of their music: they sing from morning till
night."
The yellow-throated vireo partakes of all
the family characteristics, but, in addition
to these, it eclipses all its relatives in
the brilliancy of its coloring and in the
art of nest-building, which it has brought
to a state of hopeless perfection. No envious
bird need try to excel the exquisite finish
of its workmanship. Happily, it has wit enough
to build its pensile nest high above the
reach of small boys, usually suspending it
from a branch overhanging running water that
threatens too precipitous a bath to tempt
the young climbers.
However common in the city parks and suburban
gardens this bird may be during the migrations,
it delights in a secluded retreat overgrown
with tall trees and near a stream, such as
is dear to the solitary vireo as well when
the nesting time approaches. High up in the
trees we hear its rather sad, persistent
strain, that is more in harmony with the
dim forest than with the gay flower garden,
where, if the truth must be told, its song
is both monotonous and depressing. Mr. Bicknell
says it is the only vireo that sings as it
flies. |
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH
(Spinus tristis) Finch family
|
Called also: WILD CANARY; YELLOWBIRD; THISTLE
BIRD
Length -- 5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch
smaller than the English sparrow. Male --
In summer plumage: Bright yellow, except
on crown of head, frontlet, wings, and tail,
which are black. Whitish markings on wings
give effect of bands. Tail with white on
inner webs. In winter plumage: Head yellow-olive;
no frontlet; black drab, with reddish tinge;
shoulders and throat yellow; soiled brownish
white underneath. Female -- Brownish olive
above, yellowish white beneath. Range --
North America, from the tropics to the Fur
Countries and westward to the Columbia River
and California. Common throughout its range.
Migrations -- May-October. Common summer
resident, frequently Seen throughout the
winter as well.
An old field, overgrown with thistles and
tall, stalky wild flowers, is the paradise
of the goldfinches, summer or winter. Here
they congregate in happy companies while
the sunshine and goldenrod are as bright
as their feathers, and cling to the swaying
slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest,
daintily. lunching upon the fluffy seeds
of thistle blossoms, pecking at the mullein-stalks,
and swinging airily among the asters and
Michaelmas daisies; or, when snow covers
the same field with a glistening crust, above
which the brown stalks offer only a meagre
dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad
in winter feathers, cling to the swaying
stems with cheerful fortitude.
At your approach, the busy company rises
on the wing, and with peculiar, wavy flight
rise and fall through the air, marking each
undulation with a cluster of notes, sweet
and clear, that come floating downward from
the blue ether, where the birds seem to bound
along exultant in their motion and song alike.
In the spring the plumage of the goldfinch,
which has been drab and brown through the
winter months, is moulted or shed -- a change
that transforms the bird from a sombre Puritan
into the gayest of cavaliers, and seems to
wonderfully exalt his spirits. He bursts
into a wild, sweet, incoherent melody that
might be the outpouring from two or three
throats at once instead of one, expressing
his rapture somewhat after the manner of
the canary, although his song lacks the variety
and the finish of his caged namesake. What
tone of sadness in his music the man found
who applied the adjective tristis to his
scientific name it is difficult to imagine
when listening to the notes that come bubbling
up from the bird's happy heart.
With plumage so lovely and song so delicious
and dreamy, it is small wonder that numbers
of our goldfinches are caught and caged,
however inferior their song may be to the
European species recently introduced into
this country. Heard in Central Park, New
York, where they were set at liberty, the
European goldfinches seemed to sing with
more abandon, perhaps, but with no more sweetness
than their American cousins. The song remains
at its best all through the summer months,
for the bird is a long wooer. It is nearly
July before he mates, and not until the tardy
cedar birds are house-building in the orchard
do the happy pair begin to carry grass, moss,
and plant-down to a crotch of some tall tree
convenient to a field of such wild flowers
as will furnish food to a growing family.
Doubtless the birds wait for this food to
be in proper condition before they undertake
parental duties at all -- the most plausible
excuse for their late nesting. The cares
evolving from four to six pale-blue eggs
will suffice to quiet the father's song for
the winter by the first of September, and
fade all the glory out of his shining coat.
As pretty a sight as any garden offers is
when a family of goldfinches alights on the
top of a sunflower to feast upon the oily
seeds -- a perfect harmony of brown and gold.
|
EVENING GROSBEAK
(Coccothraustes vespertinus) Finch family
|
Length -- 8 inches. Two inches shorter than
the robin. Male -- Forehead, shoulders, and
underneath clear yellow: dull yellow on lower
back; sides of the head, throat, and breast
olive-brown. Crown, tail, and wings black,
the latter with white secondary feathers.
Bill heavy and blunt, and yellow. Female
-- Brownish gray, more less suffused with
yellow. Wings and tail blackish, with some
white feathers. Range -- Interior of North
America. Resident from Manitoba northward.
Common winter visitor in northwestern United
States and Mississippi Valley; casual winter
visitor in northern Atlantic States.
In the winter of 1889-90 Eastern people had
the rare treat of becoming acquainted with
this common bird of the Northwest, that,
in one of its erratic travels, chose to visit
New England and the Atlantic States, as far
south as Delaware, in great numbers. Those
who saw the evening grosbeaks then remember
how beautiful their yellow plumage -- a rare
winter tint -- looked in the snow-covered
trees, where small companies of the gentle
and ever tame visitors enjoyed the buds and
seeds of the maples, elders, and evergreens.
Possibly evening grosbeaks were in vogue
for the next season's millinery, or perhaps
Eastern ornithologists had a sudden zeal
to investigate their structural anatomy.
At any rate, these birds, whose very tameness,
that showed slight acquaintance with mankind,
should have touched the coldest heart, received
the warmest kind of a reception from hot
shot. The few birds that escaped to the solitudes
of Manitoba could not be expected to tempt
other travellers eastward by an account of
their visit. The bird is quite likely to
remain rare in the East.
But in the Mississippi Valley and throughout
the northwest, companies of from six to sixty
may be regularly counted upon as winter neighbors
on almost every farm. Here the females keep
up a busy chatting, like a company of cedar
birds, and the males punctuate their pauses
with a single shrill note that gives little
indication of their vocal powers. But in
the solitude of the northern forests the
love-song is said to resemble the robin's
at the start. Unhappily, after a most promising
beginning, the bird suddenly stops, as if
he were out of breath. |
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
(Helminthophila pinus) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER
Length -- 4.75 inches. An inch and a half
shorter than the English sparrow. Male --
Crown of head and all under parts bright
yellow. Back olive-green. Wings and tail
bluish slate, the former with white bars,
and three outer tail quills with large white
patches on their inner webs. Female -- Paler
and more olive. Range -- Eastern United States,
from southern New England and Minnesota,
the northern limit of its nesting range,
to Mexico And Central America, where it winters.
Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident.
In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is
the shade intended when blue is mentioned;
so that if you see a dainty little olive
and yellow bird with slate-colored wings
and tail hunting for spiders in the blossoming
orchard or during the early autumn you will
have seen the beautiful blue-winged warbler.
It has a rather leisurely way of hunting,
unlike the nervous, restless flitting about
from twig to twig that is characteristic
of many of its many cousins. The search is
thorough -- bark, stems, blossoms, leaves
are inspected for larvae and spiders, with
many pretty motions of head and body. Sometimes,
hanging with head downward, the bird suggests
a yellow titmouse. After blossom time a pair
of these warblers, that have done serviceable
work in the orchard in their all too brief
stay, hurry off to dense woods to nest. They
are usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons.
Not to "high coniferous trees in northern
forests," -- the Mecca of innumerable
warblers -- but to scrubby, second growth
of woodland borders, or lower trees in the
heart of the woods, do these dainty birds
retreat. There they build the usual warbler
nest of twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and
grasses, but with this peculiarity: the numerous
leaves with which the nest is wrapped all
have their stems pointing upward. Mr. Frank
Chapman has admirably defined their song
as consisting of "two drawled, wheezy
notes -- swee-chee, the first inhaled, the
second exhaled." |
CANADIAN WARBLER
(Sylvania canadensis) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: CANADIAN FLYCATCHER; SPOTTED
CANADIAN WARBLER; [CANADA WARBLER, AOU 1998]
Length -- 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch
shorter than the English sparrow. Male --
Immaculate bluish ash above, without marks
on wings or tail; crown spotted with arrow-shaped
black marks. Cheeks, line from bill to eye,
and underneath clear yellow. Black streaks
forming a necklace across the breast. Female
-- Paler, with necklace indistinct. Range
-- North America, from Manitoba and Labrador
to tropics. Migrations -- May. September.
Summer resident; most abundant in migrations.
Since about one-third of all the song-birds
met with in a year's rambles are apt to be
warblers, the novice cannot devote his first
attention to a better group, confusing though
it is by reason of its size and the repetition
of the same colors in so many bewildering
combinations. Monotony, however, is unknown
in the warbler family. Whoever can rightly
name every warbler, male and female, on sight
is uniquely accomplished.
The jet necklace worn on this bird's breast
is its best mark of identification. Its form
is particularly slender and graceful, as
might be expected in a bird so active, one
to whom a hundred tiny insects barely afford
a dinner that must often be caught piecemeal
as it flies past. To satisfy its appetite,
which cannot but be dainty in so thoroughly
charming a bird, it lives in low, boggy woods,
in such retreats as Wilson's black-capped
warbler selects for a like reason. Neither
of these two "flycatcher" warblers
depends altogether on catching insects on
the wing; countless thousands are picked
off the under sides of leaves and about the
stems of twigs in true warbler fashion.
The Canadian's song is particularly loud,
sweet, and vivacious. It is hazardous for
any one without long field practice to try
to name any warbler by its song alone, but
possibly this one's animated music is as
characteristic as any.
The nest is built on the ground on a mossy
bank or elevated into the root crannies of
some large tree, where there is much water
in the woods. Bits of bark, dead wood, moss,
and fine rootlets, all carefully wrapped
with leaves, go to make the pretty cradle.
Unhappily, the little Canada warblers are
often cheated out of their natural rights,
like so many other delightful songbirds,
by the greedy interloper that the cowbird
deposits in their nest. |
HOODED WARBLER
(Sylvania mitrata) Wood Warbler family
|
Length -- 5 to 5.75 inches. About an inch
shorter than the English sparrow. Male --
Head, neck, chin, and throat black like a
hood in mature male specimens only. Hood
restricted, or altogether wanting in female
and young. Upper parts rich olive. Forehead,
cheeks, and underneath yellow. Some conspicuous
white on tail feathers. Female -- Duller,
and with restricted cowl. Range -- United
States east of Rockies, and from southern
Michigan and southern New England to West
Indies and tropical America, where it winters.
Very local. Migrations -- May. September.
Summer resident.
This beautifully marked, sprightly little
warbler might be mistaken in his immaturity
for the yellowthroat; and as it is said to
take him nearly three years to grow his hood,
with the completed cowl and cape, there is
surely sufficient reason here for the despair
that often seizes the novice in attempting
to distinguish the perplexing warblers. Like
its Southern counterpart, the hooded warbler
prefers wet woods and low trees rather than
high ones, for much of its food consists
of insects attracted by the dampness, and
many of them must be taken on the wing. Because
of its tireless activity the bird's figure
is particularly slender and graceful -- a
trait, too, to which we owe all the glimpses
of it we are likely to get throughout the
summer. It has a curious habit of spreading
its tail, as if it wished you to take special
notice of the white spots that adorn it;
not flirting it, as the redstart does his
more gorgeous one, but simply opening it
like a fan as it flies and darts about.
Its song, which is particularly sweet and
graceful, and with more variation than most
warblers' music, has been translated "Che-we-eo-tsip,
tsip, che-we-eo," again interpreted
by Mr. Chapman as "You must come to
the woods, or you won't see me." |
KENTUCKY WARBLER
(Geothlypis formosa) Wood Warbler family
|
Length -- 5.5 inches. Nearly an inch shorter
than the English sparrow. Male -- Upper parts
olive-green; under parts yellow; a yellow
line from the bill passes over and around
the eye. Crown of head, patch below the eye,
and line defining throat, black. Female --
Similar, but paler, and with grayish instead
of black markings. Range -- United States
eastward from the Rockies, and from Iowa
and Connecticut to Central, America, where
it winters. Migrations -- May. September.
Summer resident.
No bird is common at the extreme limits of
its range, and so this warbler has a reputation
for rarity among the New England ornithologists
that would surprise people in the middle
South and Southwest. After all that may be
said in the books, a bird is either common
or rare to the individual who may or may
not have happened to become acquainted with
it in any part of its chosen territory. Plenty
of people in Kentucky, where we might judge
from its name this bird is supposed to be
most numerous, have never seen or heard of
it, while a student on the Hudson River,
within sight of New York, knows it intimately.
It also nests regularly in certain parts
of the Connecticut Valley. "Who is my
neighbor?" is often a question difficult
indeed to answer where birds are concerned.
In the chapter, "Spring at the Capital,"
which, with every reading of "Wake Robin,"
inspires the bird-lover with fresh zeal,
Mr. Burroughs writes of the Kentucky warbler:
"I meet with him in low, damp places,
in the woods, usually on the steep sides
of some little run. I hear at intervals a
clear, strong, bell-like whistle or warble,
and presently catch a glimpse of the bird
as he jumps up from the ground to take an
insect or worm from the under side of a leaf.
This is his characteristic movement. He belongs
to the class of ground warblers, and his
range is very low, indeed lower than that
of any other species with which I am acquainted."
Like the ovenbird and comparatively few others,
for most birds hop over the ground, the Kentucky
warbler walks rapidly about, looking for
insects under the fallen leaves, and poking
his inquisitive beak into every cranny where
a spider may be lurking. The bird has a pretty,
conscious way of flying up to a perch, a
few feet above the ground, as a tenor might
advance towards the footlights of a stage,
to pour forth his clear, penetrating whistle,
that in the nesting season especially is
repeated over, and over again with tireless
persistency. |
MAGNOLIA WARBLER
(Dendroica maculosa) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: BLACK-AND-YELLOW WARBLER; SPOTTED
WARBLER; BLUE-HEADED YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch
and a half smaller than the English sparrow.
Male -- Crown of head slate-color, bordered
on either side by a white line; a black line,
apparently running through the eye, and a
yellow line below it, merging into the yellow
throat. Lower back and under parts yellow.
Back, wings, and tail blackish olive. Large
white patch on the wings, and the middle
of the tail-quills white. Throat and sides
heavily streaked with black. Female -- Has
greener back, is paler, and has less distinct
markings. Range -- North America, from Hudson
Bay to Panama. Summers from northern Michigan
and northern New England northward; winters
in Central America and Cuba. Migrations --
May. October. Spring and summer migrant.
In spite of the bird's name, one need not
look for it in the glossy magnolia trees
of the southern gardens more than in the
shrubbery on New England lawns, and during
the migrations it is quite as likely to be
found in one place as in the other. Its true
preference, however, is for the spruces and
hemlocks of its nesting ground in the northern
forests. For these it deserts us after a
brief hunt about the tender, young spring
foliage and blossoms, where the early worm
lies concealed, and before we have become
so well acquainted with its handsome clothes
that we will instantly recognize it in the
duller ones it wears on its return trip in
the autumn. The position of the white marks
on the tail feathers of this warbler, however,
is the clue by which it may be identified
at any season or any stage of its growth.
If the white bar runs across the middle of
the warbler's tail, you can be sure of the
identity of the bird. A nervous and restless
hunter, it nevertheless seems less shy than
many of its kin. Another pleasing characteristic
is that it brings back with it in October
the loud, clear, rapid whistle with which
it has entertained its nesting mate in the
Canada woods through the summer. |
MOURNING WARBLER
(Geothlypis philadelphia) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: MOURNING GROUND WARBLER
Length -- 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch
smaller than the English sparrow. Male --
Gray head and throat; the breast gray; the
feathers with black edges that make them
look crinkled, like crape. The black markings
converge into a spot on upper breast. Upper
parts, except head, olive. Underneath rich
yellow. Female -- Similar, but duller; throat
and breast buff and dusky where the male
is black. Back olive-green. Range -- "Eastern
North America; breeds from eastern Nebraska,
northern New York, and Nova Scotia northward,
and south ward along the Alleghanies to Pennsylvania.
Winters in the tropics." -- Chapman.
Migrations -- May. September. Spring and
autumn migrant.
Since Audubon met with but one of these birds
in his incessant trampings, and Wilson secured
only an immature, imperfectly marked specimen
for his collection, the novice may feel no
disappointment if he fails to make the acquaintance
of this "gay and agreeable widow."
And yet the shy and wary bird is not unknown
in Central Park, New York City. Even where
its clear, whistled song strikes the ear
with a startling novelty that invites to
instant pursuit of the singer, you may look
long and diligently through the undergrowth
without finding it. Dr. Merriam says the
whistle resembles the syllables "true,
true, true, tru, too, the voice rising on
the first three syllables and falling on
the last two." In the nesting season
this song is repeated over and over again
with a persistency worthy of a Kentucky warbler.
It is delivered from a perch within a few
feet of the ground, as high as the bird seems
ever inclined to ascend. |
NASHVILLE WARBLER
(Helminthophila ruficapilla) Wood Warbler
family
|
Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch
and a half smaller than the English sparrow.
Male -- Olive-green above; yellow underneath.
Slate-gray head and neck. Partially concealed
chestnut patch on crown. Wings and tail olive-brown
and without markings. Female -- Dull olive
and paler, with brownish wash underneath.
Range -- North America, westward to the plains;
north to the Fur Countries, and south to
Central America and Mexico. Nests north of
Illinois and northern New England; winters
in tropics. Migrations -- April. September
or October.
It must not be thought that this beautiful
warbler confines itself to backyards in the
city of Nashville simply because Wilson discovered
it near there and gave it a local name, for
the bird's actual range reaches from the
fur trader's camp near Hudson Bay to the
adobe villages of Mexico and Central America,
and over two thousand miles east and west
in the United States. It chooses open rather
than dense woods and tree-bordered fields.
It seems to have a liking for hemlocks and
pine trees, especially if near a stream that
attracts insects to its shores; and Dr. Warren
notes that in Pennsylvania he finds small
flocks of these warblers in the autumn migration,
feeding in the willowy trees near little
rivers and ponds. Only in the northern parts
of the United States is their nest ever found,
for the northern British provinces are their
preferred nesting ground. One seen in the
White Mountains was built on a mossy, rocky
edge, directly on the ground at the foot
of a pine tree, and made of rootlets, moss,
needles from the trees overhead, and several
layers of leaves outside, with a lining of
fine grasses that cradled four white, speckled
eggs.
Audubon likened the bird's feeble note to
the breaking of twigs. |
PINE WARBLER
(Dendroica vigorsii) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER
Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller
than the English sparrow. Male -- Yellowish
olive above; clear yellow below, shading
to grayish white, with obscure dark streaks
on side of breast. Two whitish wing-bars;
two outer tail feathers partly white. Female
-- Duller; grayish white only faintly tinged
with yellow underneath. Range -- North America,
east of the Rockies; north to Manitoba, And
south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters
from southern Illinois southward. Migrations
-- March or April. October or later. Common
summer resident.
The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle
warbler for the first place in the ranks
of the family migrants, but as the latter
bird often stays north all winter, it is
usually given the palm. Here is a warbler,
let it be recorded, that is fittingly named,
for it is a denizen of pine woods only; most
common in the long stretches of pine forests
at the south and in New York and New England,
and correspondingly uncommon wherever the
woodsman's axe has laid the pine trees low
throughout its range. Its "simple, sweet,
and drowsy song," writes Mr. Parkhurst,
is always associated "with the smell
of pines on a sultry day." It recalls
that of the junco and the social sparrow
or chippy.
Creeping over the bark of trees and peering
into every crevice like a nuthatch; running
along the limbs, not often hopping nervously
or flitting like the warblers; darting into
the air for a passing insect, or descending
to the ground to feed on seeds and berries,
the pine warbler has, by a curious combination,
the movements that seem to characterize several
different birds.
It is one of the largest and hardiest members
of its family, but not remarkable for its
beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheerfully
escorting other warblers northward, and welcoming
to its band both the yellow redpolls and
the myrtle warblers. These birds are very
often seen together in the pine and other
evergreen trees in our lawns and in the large
city parks. |
PRAIRIE WARBLER
(Dendroica discolor) Wood Warbler family
|
Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch
and a half shorter than the English sparrow.
Male -- Olive-green above, shading to yellowish
on the head, and with brick-red spots on
back between the shoulders. A yellow line
over the eye; wing-bars and all under parts
bright yellow, heavily streaked with black
on the sides. Line through the eye and crescent
below it, black. Much white in outer tail
feathers. Female -- Paler; upper parts more
grayish olive, and markings Less distinct
than male's. Range -- Eastern half of the
United States. Nests as far north as New
England and Michigan. Winters from Florida
southward. Migrations -- May. September.
Summer resident.
Doubtless this diminutive bird was given
its name because it prefers open country
rather than the woods -- the scrubby undergrowth
of oaks, young evergreens, and bushes that
border clearings being as good a place as
any to look for it, and not the wind-swept,
treeless tracts of the wild West. Its range
is southerly. The Southern and Middle States
are where it is most abundant. Here is a
wood warbler that is not a bird of the woods
-- less so, in fact, than either the summer
yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm warbler,
that are eminently neighborly and fond of
pasture lands and roadside thickets. But
the prairie warblers are rather more retiring
little sprites than their cousins, and it
is not often we get a close enough view of
them to note the brick-red spots on their
backs, which are their distinguishing marks.
They have a most unkind preference for briery
bushes, that discourage human intimacy. In
such forbidding retreats they build their
nest of plant-fibre, rootlets, and twigs,
lined with plant-down and hair.
The song of an individual prairie warbler
makes only a slight impression. It consists
"of a series of six or seven quickly
repeated tees, the next to the last one being
the highest" (Chapman). But the united
voices of a dozen or more of these pretty
little birds, that often sing together, afford
something approaching a musical treat. |
WILSON'S WARBLER
(Sylvania pusila) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: BLACKCAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED
WARBLER; WILSON'S FLYCATCHER
p>Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an
inch and a half shorter than the English
sparrow. Male -- Black cap; yellow forehead;
all other upper parts olive-green; rich yellow
underneath. Female -- Lacks the black cap.
Range -- North America, from Alaska and Nova
Scotia to Panama. Winters south of Gulf States.
Nests chiefly north of the United States.
Migrations -- May. September. Spring and
autumn migrant.
To see this strikingly marked little bird
one must be on the sharp lookout for it during
the latter half of May, or at the season
of apple bloom, and the early part of September.
It passes northward with an almost scornful
rapidity. Audubon mentions having seen it
in Maine at the end of October, but this
specimen surely must have been an exceptional
laggard.
In common with several others of its family,
it is exceedingly expert in catching insects
on the wing; but it may be known as no true
flycatcher from the conspicuous rich yellow
of its under parts, and also from its habit
of returning from a midair sally to a different
perch from the one it left to pursue its
dinner. A true flycatcher usually returns
to its old perch after each hunt.
To indulge in this aerial chase with success,
these warblers select for their home and
hunting ground some low woodland growth where
a sluggish stream attracts myriads of insects
to the boggy neighborhood. Here they build
their nest in low bushes or upon the ground.
Four or five grayish eggs, sprinkled with
cinnamon-colored spots in a circle around
the larger end, are laid in the grassy cradle
in June. Mr. H. D. Minot found one of these
nests on Pike's Peak at an altitude of 11,000
feet, almost at the limit of vegetation.
The same authority compares the bird's song
to that of the redstart and the yellow warbler.
|
YELLOW REDPOLL WARBLER
(Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) Wood Warbler
family
|
Called also: YELLOW PALM WARBLER; [the two
former palm warbler species combined as PALM
WARBLER, AOU 1998]
Length -- 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller
than the English sparrow. Male and Female
-- Chestnut crown. Upper parts brownish olive;
greenest on lower back. Underneath uniform
bright yellow, streaked with chestnut on
throat, breast, and sides. Yellow line over
and around the eye. Wings unmarked. Tail
edged with olive-green; a few white spots
near tips of outer quills. More brownish
above in autumn, and with a grayish wash
over the yellow under parts. Range -- Eastern
parts of North America. Nests from Nova Scotia
northward. Winters in the Gulf States. Migrations
-- April. October. Spring and autumn migrant.
While the uniform yellow of this warbler's
under parts in any plumage is its distinguishing
mark, it also has a flycatcher's trait of
constantly flirting its tail, that is at
once an outlet for its superabundant vivacity
and a fairly reliable aid to identification.
The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted like
a baton in the hands of an inexperienced
leader of an orchestra. One need not go to
the woods to look for the restless little
sprite that comes northward when the early
April foliage is as yellow and green as its
feathers. It prefers the fields and roadsides,
and before there are leaves enough on the
undergrowth to conceal it we may come to
know it as well as it is possible to know
any bird whose home life is passed so far
away. Usually it is the first warbler one
sees in the spring in New York and New England.
With all the alertness of a flycatcher, it
will dart into the air after insects that
fly near the ground, keeping up a constant
chip, chip, fine and shrill, at one end of
the small body, and the liveliest sort of
tail motions at the other. The pine warbler
often bears it company.
With the first suspicion of warm weather,
off goes this hardy little fellow that apparently
loves the cold almost well enough to stay
north all the year like its cousin, the myrtle
warbler. It builds a particularly deep nest,
of the usual warbler construction, on the
ground, but its eggs are rosy rather than
the bluish white of others.
In the Southern States the bird becomes particularly
neighborly, and is said to enter the streets
and gardens of towns with a chippy's familiarity.
Palm Warbler or Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica
palmarum) differs from the preceding chiefly
in its slightly smaller size, the more grayish-brown
tint in its olive upper parts, and the uneven
shade of yellow underneath that varies from
clear yellow to soiled whitish. It is the
Western counterpart of the yellow redpoll,
and is most common in the Mississippi Valley.
Strangely enough, however, it is this warbler,
and not hypochrysea, that goes out of its
way to winter in Florida, where it is abundant
all winter. |
YELLOW WARBLER
(Dendroica aestiva) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: SUMMER YELLOWBIRD; GOLDEN WARBLER;
YELLOW POLL
Length -- 4.75 to 5.2 inches. Over an inch
shorter than the English sparrow. Male --
Upper parts olive-yellow, brightest on the
crown; under parts bright yellow, streaked
with reddish brown. Wings and tail dusky
olive-brown, edged with yellow. Female --
Similar; but reddish-brown streakings less
distinct. Range -- North America, except
Southwestern States, where the prothonotary
warbler reigns in its stead. Nests from Gulf
States to Fur Countries. Winters south of
the Gulf States. As far as northern parts
of South America. Migrations -- May. September.
Common summer resident.
This exquisite little creature of perpetual
summer (though to find it it must travel
back and forth between two continents) comes
out of the south with the golden days of
spring. From much living in the sunshine
through countless generations, its feathers
have finally become the color of sunshine
itself, and in disposition, as well, it is
nothing if not sunny and bright. Not the
least of its attractions is that it is exceedingly
common everywhere: in the shrubbery of our
lawns, in gardens and orchards, by the road
and brookside, in the edges of woods -- everywhere
we catch its glint of brightness through
the long summer days, and hear its simple,
sweet, and happy song until the end of July.
Because both birds are so conspicuously yellow,
no doubt this warbler is quite generally
confused with the goldfinch; but their distinctions
are clear enough to any but the most superficial
glance. In the first place, the yellow warbler
is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it
has neither black crown, wings, nor tail,
and it does have reddish-brown streaks on
its breast that are sufficiently obsolete
to make the coloring of that part look simply
dull at a little distance. The goldfinch's
bill is heavy, in order that it may crack
seeds, whereas the yellow warbler's is slender,
to enable it to pick minute insects from
the foliage. The goldfinch's wavy, curved
flight is unique, and that of his "double"
differs not a whit from that of all nervous,
flitting warblers. Surely no one familiar
with the rich, full, canary-like song of
the "wild canary," as the goldfinch
is called, could confuse it with the mild
"Weechee, chee, cher-wee" of the
summer yellowbird. Another distinction, not
always infallible, but nearly so, is that
when seen feeding, the goldfinch is generally
below the line of vision, while the yellow
warbler is either on it or not far above
it, as it rarely goes over twelve feet from
the ground.
No doubt, the particularly mild, sweet amiability
of the yellow warbler is responsible for
the persistent visitations of the cowbird,
from which it is a conspicuous sufferer.
In the exquisite, neat little matted cradle
of glistening milk-weed flax, lined with
down from the fronds of fern, the skulking
housebreaker deposits her surreptitious egg
for the little yellow mother-bird to hatch
and tend. But amiability is not the only
prominent trait in the female yellow warbler's
character. She is clever as well, and quickly
builds a new bottom on her nest, thus sealing
up the cowbird's egg, and depositing her
own on the soft, spongy floor above it. This
operation has been known to be twice repeated,
until the nest became three stories high,
when a persistent cowbird made such unusual
architecture necessary.
The most common nesting place of the yellow
warbler is in low willows along the shores
of streams. |
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
(Icteria virens) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: POLYGLOT CHAT; YELLOW MOCKING
BIRD
Length -- 7.5 inches. A trifle over an inch
longer than the English sparrow. Male and
Female -- Uniform olive-green above. Throat,
breast, and under side of wings bright, clear
yellow. Underneath white. Sides grayish.
White line over the eye, reaching to base
of bill and forming partial eye-ring. Also
white line on sides of throat. Bill and feet
black. Range -- North America, from Ontario
to Central America and westward to the plains.
Most common in Middle Atlantic States. Migrations
-- Early May. Late August or September. Summer
resident.
This largest of the warblers might be mistaken
for a dozen birds collectively in as many
minutes; but when it is known that the jumble
of whistles, parts of songs, chuckles, clucks,
barks, quacks, whines, and wails proceed
from a single throat, the yellow-breasted
chat becomes a marked specimen forthwith
-- a conspicuous individual never to be confused
with any other member of the feathered tribe.
It is indeed absolutely unique. The catbird
and the mocking-bird are rare mimics; but
while the chat is not their equal in this
respect, it has a large repertoire of weird,
uncanny cries all its own -- a power of throwing
its voice, like a human ventriloquist, into
unexpected corners of the thicket or meadow.
In addition to its extraordinary vocal feats,
it can turn somersaults and do other clown-like
stunts as well as any variety actor on the
Bowery stage.
Only by creeping cautiously towards the roadside
tangle, where this "rollicking polyglot"
is entertaining himself and his mate, brooding
over her speckled eggs in a bulky nest set
in a most inaccessible briery part of the
thicket, can you hope to hear him rattle
through his variety performance. Walk boldly
or noisily past his retreat, and there is
"silence there and nothing more."
But two very bright eyes peer out at you
through the undergrowth, where the trim,
elegant-looking bird watches you with quizzical
suspicion until you quietly seat yourself
assume silent indifference. "Whew, whew!"
he begins, and then immediately, with evident
intent to amuse, he rattles off an indescribable,
eccentric medley until your ears are tired
listening. With bill uplifted, tail drooping,
wings fluttering at his side, he cuts an
absurd figure enough, but not so comical
as when he rises into the air, trailing his
legs behind him stork-fashion. This surely
is the clown among birds. But any though
he is, he is as capable of devotion to his
Columbine as Punchinello, and remains faithfully
mated year after year. However much of a
tease and a deceiver he may be to the passer-by
along the roadside, in the privacy of the
domestic circle he shows truly lovable traits.
He has the habit of singing in his unmusical
way on moonlight nights. Probably his ventriloquial
powers are cultivated not for popular entertainment,
but to lure intruders away from his nest.
|
MARYLAND YELLOWTHROAT
(Geothlypis trichas) Wood Warbler family
| Called also: BLACK-MASKED GROUND WARBLER;
[COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, AOU 1998]
Length -- 5.33 inches. Just an inch shorter
than the typical English sparrow. Male --
Olive-gray on head, shading to olive-green
on all the other upper parts. Forehead, cheeks,
and sides of head black, like a mask, and
bordered behind by a grayish line. Throat
and breast bright yellow, growing steadily
paler underneath. Female -- Either totally
lacks black mask or its place is Indicated
by only a dusky tint. She is smaller and
duller. Range -- Eastern North America, west
to the plains; most common east of the Alleghanies.
Nests from the Gulf States to Labrador and
Manitoba; winters south of Gulf States to
Panama. Migrations -- May. September. Common
summer resident.
"Given a piece of marshy ground with
an abundance of skunk cabbage and a fairly
dense growth of saplings, and near by a tangle
of green brier and blackberry, and you will
be pretty sure to have it tenanted by a pair
of yellowthroats," says Dr. Abbott,
who found several of their nests in skunk-cabbage
plants, which he says are favorite cradles.
No animal cares to touch this plant if it
can be avoided; but have the birds themselves
no sense of smell?
Before and after the nesting season these
active birds, plump of form, elegant of attire,
forceful, but not bold, enter the scrubby
pastures near our houses and the shrubbery
of old- fashioned, overgrown gardens, and
peer out at the human wanderer therein with
a charming curiosity. The bright eyes of
the male masquerader shine through his black
mask, where he intently watches you from
the tangle of syringa and snowball bushes;
and as he flies into the laburnum with its
golden chain of blossoms that pale before
the yellow of his throat and breast, you
are so impressed with his grace and elegance
that you follow too audaciously, he thinks,
and off he goes. And yet this is a bird that
seems to delight in being pursued. It never
goes so far away that you are not tempted
to follow it, though it be through dense
undergrowth and swampy thickets, and it always
gives you just glimpse enough of its beauties
and graces before it flies ahead, to invite
the hope of a closer inspection next time.
When it dives into the deepest part of the
tangle, where you can imagine it hunting
about among the roots and fallen leaves for
the larvae, caterpillars, spiders, and other
insects on which it feeds, it sometimes amuses
itself with a simple little song between
the hunts. But the bird's indifference, you
feel sure, arises from preoccupation rather
than rudeness.
If, however, your visit to the undergrowth
is unfortunately timed and there happens
to be a bulky nest in process of construction
on the ground, a quickly repeated, vigorous
chit, pit, quit, impatiently inquires the
reason for your bold intrusion. Withdraw
discreetly and listen to the love-song that
is presently poured out to reassure his plain
little maskless mate. The music is delivered
with all the force and energy of his vigorous
nature and penetrates to a surprising distance.
"Follow me, follow me, follow me,"
many people hear him say; others write the
syllables, "Wichity, wichity, wichity,
wichity"; and still others write them,
"I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech
you," though the tones of this self-assertive
bird rather command than entreat. Mr. Frank
Chapman says of the yellowthroats: "They
sing throughout the summer, and in August
add a flight-song to their repertoire. This
is usually uttered toward evening, when the
bird springs several feet into the air, hovers
for a second, and then drops back to the
bushes." |
BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER
(Dendroica blackburnia) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: HEMLOCK WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED
WARBLER; TORCH-BIRD
Length -- 4.5 to 5.5 inches. An inch and
a half smaller than the English sparrow.
Male -- Head black, striped with orange-flame;
throat and breast orange, shading through
yellow to white underneath; wings, tail,
and part of back black, with white markings.
Female -- Olive-brown above, shading into
yellow on breast, and paler under parts.
Range -- Eastern North America to plains.
Winters in tropics. Migrations -- May. September.
Spring and autumn migrant.
"The orange-throated warbler would seem
to be his right name, his characteristic
cognomen," says John Burroughs, in ever-delightful
"Wake Robin"; "but no, he
is doomed to wear the name of some discoverer,
perhaps the first who robbed his nest or
rifled him of his mate -- Blackburn; hence,
Blackburnian warbler. The burn seems appropriate
enough, for in these dark evergreens his
throat and breast show like flame. He has
a very fine warble, suggesting that of the
redstart, but not especially musical."
No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no
autumnal tint too brilliant to outshine this
luminous little bird that in May, as it migrates
northward to its nesting ground, darts in
and out of the leafy shadows like a tongue
of fire.
It is by far the most glorious of all the
warblers -- a sort of diminutive oriole.
The quiet-colored little mate flits about
after him, apparently lost in admiration
of his fine feathers and the ease with which
his thin tenor voice can end his lover's
warble in a high Z.
Take a good look at this attractive couple,
for in May they leave us to build a nest
of bark and moss in the evergreens of Canada
-- that paradise for warblers -- or of the
Catskills and Adirondacks, and in autumn
they hurry south to escape the first frosts.
|
REDSTART
(Setophaga ruticilla) Wood Warbler family
|
Called also: YELLOW-TAILED WARBLER; [AMERICAN
REDSTART, AOU 1998]
Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. Male -- In spring
plumage: Head, neck, back, and middle breast
glossy black, with blue reflections. Breast
and underneath white, slightly flushed with
salmon, increasing to bright salmon-orange
on the sides of the body and on the wing
linings. Occasional specimens show orange-red.
Tail feathers partly black, partly orange,
with broad black band across the end. Orange
markings on wings. Bill and feet black. In
autumn: Fading into rusty black, olive, and
yellow. Female -- Olive-brown, and yellow
where the male is orange. Young p> browner
than the females. Range -- North America
to upper Canada. West occasionally, as far
as the Pacific coast, but commonly found
in summer in the Atlantic and Middle States.
Migrations -- Early May. End of September.
Summer resident.
Late some evening, early in May, when one
by one the birds have withdrawn their voices
from the vesper chorus, listen for the lingering
"'tsee, 'tsee, 'tseet" (usually
twelve times repeated in a minute), that
the redstart sweetly but rather monotonously
sings from the evergreens, where, as his
tiny body burns in the twilight, Mrs. Wright
likens him to a "wind-blown firebrand,
half glowing, half charred."
But by daylight this brilliant little warbler
is constantly on the alert. It is true he
has the habit, like the flycatchers (among
which some learned ornithologists still class
him), of sitting pensively on a branch, with
fluffy feathers and drooping wings; but the
very next instant he shows true warbler blood
by making a sudden dash upward, then downward
through the air, tumbling somersaults, as
if blown by the wind, flitting from branch
to branch, busily snapping at the tiny insects
hidden beneath the leaves, clinging to the
tree-trunk like a creeper, and singing between
bites.
Possibly he will stop long enough in his
mad chase to open and shut his tail, fan-fashion,
with a dainty egotism that, in the peacock,
becomes rank vanity.
The Germans call this little bird roth Stert
(red tail), but, like so many popular names,
this is a misnomer, as, strictly speaking,
the redstart is never red, though its salmon-orange
markings often border on to orange-flame.
In a fork of some tall bush or tree, placed
ten or fifteen feet from the ground, a carefully
constructed little nest is made of moss,
horsehair, and strippings from the bark,
against which the nest is built, the better
to conceal its location. Four or five whitish
eggs, thickly sprinkled with pale brown and
lilac, like the other warblers', are too
jealously guarded by the little mother-bird
to be very often seen. |
BALTIMORE ORIOLE
(Iderus galbula) Oriole and Blackbird family
|
Called also: GOLDEN ORIOLE;FIREBIRD; GOLDEN
ROBIN; HANG-NEST; ENGLISH ROBIN
Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth
smaller than the robin. Male -- Head, throat,
upper part of back glossy black. Wings black,
with white spots and edgings. Tail-quills
black, with yellow markings on the tips.
Everywhere else orange, shading into flame.
Female -- Yellowish olive. Wings dark brown,
and quills margined with white. Tail yellowish
brown, with obscure, dusky bars. Range --
The whole United States. Most numerous in
Eastern States below 55 degrees north latitude.
Migrations -- Early May. Middle of September.
Common summer resident.
A flash of fire through the air; a rich,
high, whistled song floating in the wake
of the feathered meteor: the Baltimore oriole
cannot be mistaken. When the orchards are
in blossom he arrives in full plumage and
song, and awaits the coming of the female
birds, that travel northward more leisurely
in flocks. He is decidedly in evidence. No
foliage is dense enough to hide his brilliancy;
his temper, quite as fiery as his feathers,
leads him into noisy quarrels, and his insistent
song with its martial, interrogative notes
becomes almost tiresome until he is happily
mated and family cares check his enthusiasm.
Among the best architects in the world is
his plain but energetic mate. Gracefully
swung from a high branch of some tall tree,
the nest is woven with exquisite skill into
a long, flexible pouch that rain cannot penetrate,
nor wind shake from its horsehair moorings.
Bits of string, threads of silk, and sometimes
yarn of the gayest colors, if laid about
the shrubbery in the garden, will be quickly
interwoven with the shreds of bark and milkweed
stalks that the bird has found afield. The
shape of the nest often differs, because
in unsettled regions, where hawks abound,
it is necessary to make it deeper than seven
inches (the customary depth when it is built
near the homes of men), and to | |
