Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 2 [February 1902]

The tree sparrow, one of our most interesting sparrows, is another bird who does not fear the winter winds and storms. Although he carries the name of tree sparrow, he is most emphatically a bird of the ground, and may be seen during the winter months in almost any remote patch of plowed ground where there are old weed stalks for him to eat. They are especially addicted to old tomato fields and seem to delight in the seeds of this plant. This sparrow looks like a large chippy, our door yard neighbor of the summer months, excepting that he has distinguishing white bars across his wings. They travel in large flocks, and where one sees a few of them scratching in the snow, a step too close will scare dozens of them away. They associate considerably with snowbirds and where there are members of one family you will most always find the others either with them or close by.

One of our prettiest winter birds is the downy woodpecker, his glossy black and white, with the bright red spot on his head, showing up strongly from some tree trunk, where he raps for insects, as he goes up, propping himself with his tail as he works. One notices him by hearing his rapping on a branch or his loud note, which he utters frequently. He delights in boring holes in trees and, especially in the spring, he drills out complete nests which he probably has no intention of ever using. The hairy woodpecker has almost precisely the same habits and colors as the downy, and differs only in size. He, also, is one of our winter residents, but not so commonly as the other.

The flicker or yellow hammer is another woodpecker that is with us in winter as well as summer. He varies somewhat from the rest of his family in habits, in that, he feeds considerably on the ground, consuming a large number of ants. He is quiet during the winter, but his loud and cheerful notes are one of the first bird songs of spring.

A bird which resembles the woodpecker in his method of feeding, is the brown creeper, a pretty little brown bird, with a long curved bill and long sharp claws, who spends most of his time in climbing trees. Unlike a woodpecker, he goes up the trunk by going spirally around it, thus going over the whole tree before he flies to the next one and repeats the operation. The color of his back closely resembles the bark of a tree, and when disturbed he will sometimes crouch close to the tree where it is almost impossible to see him. In the spring, before departing north to breed, they often sing their pretty tune to us, which, however, we are lucky to hear. In the coldest weather they are frequently seen on trees by the wayside, and I have seen them on Boylston street, Boston, as busy and contented as ever.

The nuthatch is another bird which climbs, and, unlike either the woodpeckers or creepers, he goes down the tree head first, instead of backing down, and for this reason has been nicknamed “Devil Downhead.” There are two nuthatches which are fairly common during the winter months, the white-breasted and the red-breasted. The former more commonly frequents orchards and the roadside, while the latter prefers to frolic, with the chicadees, among the evergreens. They seldom stay with us in the summer, usually nesting farther north.

The goldfinch is also a regular winter visitor; but at this season he has none of his bright colors of the summer time; but is a plain little olive green bird, with dark wings and a gray breast. They feed considerably on thistles, but when the snow falls they take whatever berries they can find. I remember seeing four or five of them, one day two winters ago, coming up and feeding upon the berries of a honeysuckle vine near my window, and at another time I saw them eating with chicadees in some cedars.

Cedar birds, although they do not stay with us any length of time, may be seen at different periods during the winter. They are very pretty birds, being brownish drab above and sulphur yellow below, while the wings are marked by spots of bright red. They travel in very large flocks and soon have one locality completely cleared of food, when they depart elsewhere. One is first attracted by their peculiar lisping notes, which, coming from so many throats, make quite a noise, and upon looking up, he will see them perhaps in flight or more probably roosting on the branches of some elm or oak; or flitting about a cedar, stripping it of its berries. They are also great lovers of cherries, and when this fruit is ripe they may be seen in large numbers in some orchard.

A journey into the woods on a cold winter day may reveal to one a flock of small birds, which have the appearance of a lot of sparrows which had been dyed purple, the colors of the sparrow plainly showing, beneath the purple tinge or wash on their backs and heads. These are lesser redpoll linnets. Very hard working little birds, that usually delight in the arctic regions, we see them only when the severest cold drives them south. They fly in very large flocks, and Miss Blanchan says of them, “First, we see a quantity of dots, like a shake of pepper, in the cloud above, then the specks grow larger and larger, and finally the birds seem to drop from the sky upon some tall tree that they completely cover – a veritable cloudburst of birds.”

The red crossbill is a similar bird to the redpoll, but is larger and has the two mandibles of his bill crossed, by the means of which he extracts the seeds from the pine cones. We only see him in the coldest winters, but then he is very tame and may allow one to pick him up, and he has even been known to stay in a cage without a murmur.

These are all our important winter birds, but the robin and bluejay might be mentioned although they are more birds of the summer than winter.

    Winthrop Smith.

THE BROAD-WINGED HAWK

(Buteo latissimus.)

And up through the rifled tree-tops
That signaled the wayward breeze
I saw the hulk of the hawk becalmed
Far out on the azure seas.

    – James Whitcomb Riley, “A Vision of Summer.”
The Broad-winged Hawk has a wide range, including the whole of North America, east of the great plains and extending from New Brunswick and the Saskatchewan region on the north to Northern South America on the south. It nests throughout its range within the borders of the United States.

Its confidence in man is not surpassed by that of any other hawk. Dr. Fisher says that “of all our hawks this species seems to be the most unsuspicious, often allowing a person to approach within a few yards of it, and when startled flies but a short distance before it alights again.” As a rule it is a very quiet bird, but during the nesting period it is fully as noisy and demonstrative as are many of the other hawks. If disturbed while on its nest its shrill call notes will soon attract its mate, when both will continue noisily complaining till the intruder retreats. Though solicitous for their eggs or young, they will never attack a person. It is said that “for days after they have been robbed these birds will utter their complaints when anyone approaches their homes.” They are good parents, both sexes assisting in the care of the eggs and young.

Not infrequently this Hawk will sit for hours on the dead top of a tall tree at the edge of a forest, and with its body erect and motionless will often seem almost a part of the tree. Its food is usually procured on the ground, and it is near the ground or among the denser growths of the forest, where it may find insect larvæ, that it is more often seen.

The Broad-winged Hawk may truthfully be called a friend of the agriculturist, for it seldom feeds on bird life of any kind, but rather upon mice and other rodents, toads, frogs and insects.

Dr. Fisher, in his valuable work, “The Hawks and Owls of the United States,” says: “The only act of the Broad-winged Hawk which seems injurious to agriculture is the killing of toads and small snakes, the former of which are exclusively insect eaters, the latter very largely so. In one respect its enormous value ranks above all other birds, and that is in the destruction of immense numbers of injurious larvæ of large moths, which most birds are either unable or disinclined to cope with.” In the examination of stomachs of sixty-five of these Hawks Dr. Fisher obtained the following results: Two contained small birds; fifteen contained mice and thirteen other mammals; in eleven the remains of reptiles, and in thirteen batrachians were found; thirty contained the remains of insects, two earthworms, four crawfish and seven were empty. The results were surely in favor of the bird. Well may the farmer listen to the words of Alexander Wilson:

“Kill not thy friend, who thy whole harvest shields,
And sweeps ten thousand vermin from thy fields.”

The poultry yard is safe from the depredations of these quiet birds, which, though sluggish and heavy in flight, can move with great rapidity and soar high in the air if they so desire. Even the small birds in the woods seem to consider them to be harmless, for they give them but little attention. When this bird does attack small birds it is either, as a rule, when they are very young or injured in some manner.

Its nest is usually made of sticks and twigs and lined with soft fibrous strips of bark, leaves and feathers that fall from the breasts of the setting birds. The nests are placed in either evergreen or deciduous trees, and seldom more than thirty or forty feet from the ground. They are frequently much lower and occasionally in the tops of very tall trees. They have been known to use the deserted nests of other birds, especially that of the crow, which is nearly as large as their own structure.

Dr. Fisher says that one of its notes quite closely resembles that of the wood pewee. Another writer says that “their call note is a peevish ‘chee-e-e-e,’ prolonged at pleasure and uttered in a high key. However, to fully appreciate their shrill note of complaint it must be heard.”

THE BIRD’S COMPLAINT

Great Nature, lend an ear while we,
The feathered fowls of air,
From mead and furrow, bush and tree,
From pool and mountain, shore and sea,
With one accord pour forth to thee
Our earnest cry and prayer.

From lime and net, from gin and snare,
And from those vile decoys
That slay their thousands unaware,
We pray thee save us, and declare
Thy wrath against what man soe’er
Such evil means employs.

Chasten, correct and scourge the boys
Who count it nobly done
To turn to grief our marriage joys,
To take our precious eggs for toys,
And bear away with mocking noise
The spoil so foully won.

But most from men that use the gun,
That engine of ill scope,
For refuge unto thee we run;
They march to slay us in the sun,
And through the dark, which others shun,
Their murderous way they grope.

Lastly, we pray thee, on the Pope
Prevail to let us be;
We would not hang him in a rope,
And have as good a right, we hope,
Unstrangled under heaven’s high cope,
To live our lives as he.

    – Henry Johnstone.

CALIFORNIA POPPIES

A flower of the South and the Sun,
Sown upon limitless plains;
Fed by the death of the summer grasses,
Watered by winter rains.

When the wild spring streams are running,
She raises her head and cries,