Natural
History
Notes
on the Birds
Songbirds I
Thrushes through Tanagers
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About the
categories
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Name
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Common name
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Food
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The main food category.
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Feeding Techniques
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How it acquires its food.
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Habitat
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What kind of area does the bird
live?
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Plumage
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Is there similarity between the male
and the female, between winter and spring, young and adult,
or are there variations in the plumage amongst the species.
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Distribution
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Approximately where it is found in the
United States.
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Breeding
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Unique aspects on how the species
breeds.
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About the Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Special notes on the status or natural
history of this bird.
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Notes from A. C.
Bent
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Selections from the Life Histories of
North American Birds, edited by
A. C. Bent.
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Name
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Food
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Vegetable matter, worms and other
invertebrates
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Feeding
Techniques
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Visual foraging
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Habitat
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Diverse
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Plumage
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Male
and female have similar plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout the US
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Breeding
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Female builds nest on horizontal
branch of tree, lined with grass, plant fiber; both parents
feed young.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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"thus necessitating reduction in their
numbers" - Bent is arguing that Robins eat too much fruit,
and that this necessitates eliminating Robins to protect the
fruit harvest.
depradations - refers to eating the
fruit
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Like the true thrushes the Robin
approves of a 60: 40 dietary composition, but in a reverse
sense, the larger item in its case being vegetable rather
than animal food. There is no question about Robins
sometimes taking too much cultivated fruit, thus
necessitating reduction in their numbers. However, the
woodland Robins with which we are here especially concerned
have little or no part in these depredations, and their
fruit-eating is a benefit rather than an injury because it
results in the planting of numerous trees and shrubs. The
favorite wild fruits of New York robins are those of red
cedar, greenbrier, mulberry, pokeweed, juneberry, blackberry
and raspberry, wild cherry, sumac, woodhine, wild grape,
dogwood, and blueberry.
Beetles and caterpillars are the items
of animal food taken in greatest quantity by the Robin, with
bugs, hymenoptera,
flies, and grasshoppers of considerably less importance.
Spiders, earthworms, millipeds, sowbugs, and snails are
additional sorts of animal food worth mentioning.
Various insects which are pests or
near pests in woodlots have been identified from stomachs of
Robins and we may be sure that a special study of Robins
actually living in forests would greatly increase the list.
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Name
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Food
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Vegetable matter, worms and other
invertebrates
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Feeding
Techniques
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Visual foraging
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Habitat
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Wooded areas
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout the US
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Breeding
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Female builds nest; nests vary by
geography; both parents feed young
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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tensity - the state of being
tense
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: Dawson
(1923) gives the following good description of a well-known
bit of action that is common to all hermit thrushes, and by
which they can often be recognized:
Perhaps the most prominent
characteristic of the Hermit Thrush, and the one which does
most to remove it from the commonplace, is the incessant
twinkling of the wings: the action is so rapid and the
return to the state of repose so incalculably quick that the
general impression or silhouette is not thereby disturbed;
but we have an added feellng of mobility of tensity on the
part of the bird which gives one the impression of spiritual
alertness, a certain high readiness. I tried on a time to
count these twinkles, with the compensatory flirt of the
tail, as the bird was hopping about on the ground in my rose
garden. The movements occurred about once per second, yet
oftenest in groups, and so rapidly, that not a twentieth
part of the bird's time seemed so consumed.
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Name
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Food
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Vegetable matter, worms and other
invertebrates
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Feeding
Techniques
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Visual foraging
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Habitat
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Mature wet forests
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Plumage
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Male
and female have different plumage
- Female is paler form of the male
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Distribution
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Northwest
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Breeding
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Female builds bulky nest in coniferous
tree; both parents feed young
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Samuel F. Rathbun - an ornithologist
of the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the century.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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I owe my introduction to this large
and elegant thrush to my old friend Samuel F. Rathbun, who
first showed it to me in the vicinity of Seattle and who has
given me a wealth of information on it in his copious notes.
While we were waiting for the good ship Tahoma to sail for
the Aleutian Islands, in May 1911, he helped our party to
locate for two weeks in the then small town of Kirkland
across Lake Washington from Seattle. At that time the shores
of the lake and the country around the little town were
heavily wooded, much of it with a primeval forest of lofty
firs, but more of it had been lumbered once and grown up
again to dense second growth, with some clearings and little
farms scattered through it. The principal forest growth
consisted of firs of two or three species, with a
considerable mixture of hemlock and cedar; and in some
places there was a heavy forest growth of large alders and
maples, with an undergrowth of flowering dogwood and wild
currant. The favorite haunts of the varied thrushes were in
their dark, shady retreats in the dense stands of firs that
were often dripping with moisture, for it rained most of the
time that we were there. Here we often heard the clear,
rich, vibrating notes of the thrushes, uttered without
inflection, but with a weird doubletoned or arpeggio effect.
Mist and rain did not appear to dampen their ardor; their
voices seem to be at their best in such gloomy weather and
to form a fitting companiment to the patter of raindrops on
the dripping foliage.
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Name
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Food
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Vegetable matter, worms and other
invertebrates
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Feeding
Techniques
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Visual foraging
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Habitat
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Spruce forests
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout the US
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Breeding
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Female builds nest on horizontal
branch of tree, lined with grass, plant fiber; both parents
feed young.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Russet-backed Thrush - earlier name
for the Swainson's Thrush
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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By early June, and sometimes sooner,
the Russet-backed Thrushes in Yosemite Valley are in full
song and may be heard during the day as well as in the
morning and evening hours. The song is set in character and
each individual thrush begins his song on about the same
key: not changing from song to song as does the Hermit. The
first syllables of any individual's song are always on the
same pitch, and full, clear, and deep; the remainder are
more wiry, ascending, and sometimes the last one goes up so
high in pitch as to become almost a squeal: wheer, wheer,
wheer, whee-ia, whee-ia, whee-ia, or quer, quer, quer,
quee-ia, quee-ia, quee-ia. The call note oftenest heard is a
soft liquid whistle, what or whoit, sounding much like the
drip of water into a barrel. An imitation of this note by
the observer will often bring a thrush into close range. Now
and then a thrush will give an abrupt burred cry, chee-ur-r;
and again there may be a single whistle, louder and higher
than the usual call. The song season lasts until early July,
after which the birds become quiet. By the end of the month
not even the call note is to be heard.
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Name
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Food
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Insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Flycatching, foraging on the
ground
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Habitat
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Open country
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Plumage
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Male
and female have different plumage
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Distribution
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Western US
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Breeding
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Nests in tree cavities
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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phlegmatic - slow, sluggish
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: In general demeanor
the Western Bluebird is much like other members of the
thrush family, being of deliberate or even phlegmatic
temperament. When perched it sits quietly, not hopping about
as do many small birds such as sparrows and warblers. It
ordinarily seeks a perch which will command a wide field of
view, as on some upper or outer branch of a deciduous tree.
* * * Upon taking to flight bluebirds make off in the open,
high in the air, uttering their soft call notes now and then
as they fly. The high course of flight and the repeated
flight calls are suggestive of the behavior of linnets
(House
Finches) under similar
circumstances. Sometimes the flight is so far above the
earth that the birds are quite beyond the range of vision of
an observer stationed on the ground, only the mellow call
notes giving indication of the passage of the birds
overhead. When bluebirds are in flocks the formation is
never compact or coherent; individuals move here and there
among their companions and single birds or groups join and
depart at intervals.
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Name
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Food
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Insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Flycatching, foraging on the
ground
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Habitat
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Open country
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Plumage
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Male
and female have different plumage
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Distribution
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Eastern United States
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Breeding
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Courtship: The love-making of the
bluebird is as beautiful as the bird itself, and normally as
gentle, unless interrupted by some jealous rival who would
steal his bride; then gentleness gives place to active
combat. The male usually arrives a few days ahead of the
female, selects what he considers to be a suitable summer
home, and carols his sweetest, most seductive notes day
after day until she appears in answer to his call. Then he
flutters before her, displaying the charms of his widespread
tail and half-opened wings, warbling in delicious, soft
undertones, to win her favor. At first she seems indifferent
to the gorgeous blue of his overcoat or the warm reddish
brown of his ardent breast. He perches beside her, caresses
her in the tenderest and most loving fashion, and sings to
her in most endearing terms. Perhaps he may bring to her
some delicious morsel and place it gently in her mouth, as
an offering. Probably he has already chosen the cavity or
box that he thinks will suit her; lie leads her to it, looks
in, and tries to persuade her to accept it, but much
persistent wooing is needed before the nuptial pact is
sealed. In the meantime a rival male may appear upon the
scene and a rough and tumble fight ensue, the males
clinching in the air and falling to the ground together, a
confusing mass of blue and brown feathers struggling in the
grass; but no very serious harm seems to have been done, as
t.hey separate and use their most persuasive charms to
attract the object of their rivalry. At times, a second
female may join in the contest and start a lively fight with
her rival for the mate she wants. John Burroughs (1894)
gives an interesting account of such a four-cornered
contest, too long to be quoted here, in which the female of
an apparently mated pair seemed to waver in her affections
between her supposed mate and the new rival; and the latter
seemed to have left the female of his first choice to win
the bride of the other. However, after a much prolonged
contest, the matter seemed to be satisfactorily settled, for
two pairs of bluebirds finally flew off in different
directions and started up housekeeping without further
trouble.
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Name
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Food
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Insects
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Feeding
Techniques
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Flycatching, foraging on the
ground
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Habitat
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Open country
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Plumage
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Male
and female have different plumage
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Distribution
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Western US
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Breeding
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Breeds in tree cavities
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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I once saw a flock of Mountain
Bluebirds against of field of fresh fallen snow. I can
understand Bent's phrase, "purity of beauty."
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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The mountain bluebird is not so
gaudily or so richly colored as the western bluebird, but it
is no less pleasing in its coat of exquisite turquoise-blue.
As it flies from some low perch to hover like a big blue
butterfly over an open field, it seems to carry on its wings
the heavenly blue of the clearest sky, and one stands
entranced with the purity of its beauty. As Mrs. Wheelock
(1904) says: "No words can describe his brilliancy in the
breeding season, as he flies through the sunny clearings of
the higher Sierra Nevada, or sits like a bright blue flower
against the dark green of the pines." The male certainly is
a lovely bird, and the female is hardly less charming in her
coat of soft, blended colors.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and fruit
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Feeding
Techniques
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Foraging on the ground
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Habitat
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Riparian woodland
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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California
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Breeding
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Both sexes build nest placed in low
shrub.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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"while common and widely distributed
in California, are almost exclusively confined to that
State" Bent is referring to birds such as the
Yellow-billed
Magpie, Nuttall's
Woodpecker, Oak
Titmouse, and the
Wrentit
and Tri-colored
Blackbird which have the
majority of their population in California.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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The California thrasher is
appropriately named, as it is one of a number of birds of
various families that, while common and widely distributed
in California, are almost exclusively confined to that
State, with its faunal extension, the northwestern portion
of Baja California. The range of the species extends from
the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the higher
mountains of southern California to the Pacific, and from
the head of the Sacramento Valley to about latitude 300 in
Baja California.
As pointed out by Dr.
Joseph Grinnell (1917), it is
predominantly a species of the Upper
Sonoran Zone, being most
abundant along the bases of the mountains, where it ascends
the brushy southerly and westerly slopes to an altitude of
at least 5,000 feet in the southern part of the State, but
never enters the Transition
Zone coniferous forests. Its
lower limits, however, are less strictly defined, especially
toward the south, where it follows the brush-bordered
watercourses down into the Lower
Sonoran. Dr. Grinnell suggests
that a certain degree of atmospheric humidity may also be a
requisite for this species, as it fails to follow the Upper
Sonoran Zone around the southern end of the Sierra Nevada
into apparently suitable territory on the eastern slope of
the range.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and fruit
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Desert habitat
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Southwest US
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Breeding
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Nests in cholla cactus.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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The Curve-billed Thrasher used to be
called the Palmer's Thrasher.
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Food: The food of Palmer's is very
similar to that of the other thrashers, including numerous
insects and their larvae as well as various fruits and
berries. Its feeding methods remind one of our eastern brown
thrasher. It is fond of water and comes freely to bird baths
and other places where it can find water about houses, as
well as resorting to open water holes. Florence
Merriam Bailey (1923)
writes:
One was seen drinking from a dripping
faucet and another seen perched on top of a viznaga reaching
down with its long curved bill digging out the shining black
seeds and the moist pulp which the House
Finches had also found a ready
source of both food and moisture. A Thrasher accidentally
caught in a trap, January 28, had an empty crop but a
gizzard full of seeds of cactus (Opuntia sp. ?), and the
shrubbery hackberry (Celtis
pallida), a few oat shells,
one grain, a few insect remains, apparently ants, and some
gravel. One of the birds was seen, February 8, walking in
the mesquite pasture, flipping up cowchips as he went,
evidently looking for insects or other toothsome morsels
below: a scorpion had been found under one of
them.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and fruit
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Sagebrush
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Western US
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Breeding
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Both sexes build nest in sagebrush or
similar brush
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Food: Ira La Rivers (1941) gives the
sage thrasher credit for being one of the three species that
"fed most destructfully" on the Mormon cricket
(Anabrus
simplex). "Eggs as well as
adults were consumed. From my observations, the thrasher
played nearly as important a role in the destruction of
cricket egg-beds as did the more conspicuous
Western
Meadowlark. ... The cricket,
actually a long-horned grasshopper, yearly cause damage in
Elko, Eureka, Lander, and Humboldt counties, Nevada, by
destroying large quantities of range and field forage,
crops, and garden stuffs." He found this thrasher feeding
not only on the migrating crickets, in company with mice and
shrews, "but also digging up crickets from partly-finished
wasp burrows. One individual was surprised in the act of
eating a black wasp (Chlorion laeviventris) which had
been left by a marauding shrew."
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Name
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Food
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Insects and fruit
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Dense thickets
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Eastern US
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Breeding
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Both sexes build nest placed in low
shrub.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: As suggested by Miss Sherman
(1912) and as mentioned in the first part of this account,
there seems to be some variation in the general behavior and
in the disposition of the brown thrasher in New England from
what has been noted in the Midwest and South. In
Massachusetts I have always regarded it as a shy, retiring,
and somewhat unfriendly bird, shunning human society and
especially hostile to the intruder near its nest in other
parts of the country, it seems to be more sociable, more
friendly, and more inclined to make its home in parks in
towns and villages, or even cities, in gardens, orchards,
and close to human dwellings. These are not, however, hard
and fast rules, for there are exceptions in both
cases.
The thrasher is one of the most
valiant and aggressive defenders of its nest and young among
all our small birds, exhibiting the greatest bravery and
boldness. While the late Herbert K. Job and I were
photographing birds near West Haven, Conn., on June 5, 1910,
we found a thrasher brooding her young in a nest 5 feet from
the ground in a thick bush. She allowed Mr. Job to stroke
her on the nest before she left and then set up a loud cry
of protest and defiance, which soon brought her mate to join
in the attack. As I attempted to examine the young, both
birds flew at me and attacked me savagely; they flew at my
face, once striking a stinging blow close to my eye and
drawing blood; within a few seconds I was struck on the side
of my head, and we decided to withdraw from the scene of the
battle, leaving the brave birds masters of the situation.
Mr. Job had had a similar experience with fighting thrashers
a few years previously; they attacked his hands, when he
attempted to touch the young, and scratched and bit holes
through the skin.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and berries
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Feeding
Techniques
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Foraging while watching from a
perch
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Habitat
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Higher coniferous forests
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Primarily in the western US
states
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Breeding
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Nests on or near the ground; both
parents feed young
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
mandibles - the beak
cedar-bird - Cedar Waxwing
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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Behavior: Many of the solitaire's
traits have been referred to above, as well as some of the
points on which it resembles other species in appearance and
manners. Dawson
and Bowles (1909) have summed this up very well, as
follows:
Barring the matter of structure, which
the scientists have now pretty well thrashed out, the bird
is everything by turns. He is Flycatcher in that he delights
to sit quietly on exposed limbs and watch for passing
insects. These he meets in mid-air and bags with an emphatic
snap of the mandibles.
He is a Shrike
in appearance and manner, when he takes up a station on a
fence-post and studies the ground intently. When its prey is
sighted at distances varying from ten to thirty feet, it
dives directly to the spot, lights, snatches, and swallows,
in an instant; or, if the catch is unmanageable, it returns
to its post to thrash and kill and swallow at leisure.
During this pouncing foray, the display of white in the
Solitaire's tail reminds one of the Lark
Sparrow. Like the silly
Cedar-bird,
the Solitaire gorges itself on fruit and berries in season.
Like a Thrush, when the mood is on, the Solitaire skulks in
the thickets or woodsy depths, and flies at the suggestion
of approach. Upon alighting it stands quietly, in
expectation that the eye of the beholder will thus lose
sight of its ghostly tints among the interlacing
shadows.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and berries
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages while on the ground
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Habitat
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Suburbia, towns, agricultural areas,
open country
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Throughout most of the US; rarer in
the north
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Breeding
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Nests in shrub or small tree.
Male Northern Mockingbird will sing late into the night
to attract a mate.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Duck Hawk is an older name for the
Peregrine Falcon
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
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The spirit of play appears well
developed in the mocker also. It is somewhat reminiscent of
the duck
hawk (Falco
peregrinus anatum) in this
respect. It seems to delight in bedeviling dogs and cats and
puts either to flight. A neighbor of the writer in
Charleston maintained a kennel of hunting dogs for some
years, and the mockers of the neighborhood would often
"dive-bomb" these dogs, plunging upon them as they slept, or
else they roamed about the enclosure and frequently drove
them to the shelter of the kennels, tails between legs! At
times they would actually alight on a dog's back and peck
savagely. M. G. Vaiden (MS.), of Rosedale, Miss., says that
"I have seen the mockingbird ride my Belgian shepherd's back
more than once, near the nesting site, and usually the dogs
find some other places to ramble than those near a mocker's
nest." It often attacks snakes also, and an instance of this
is related by Mrs. J. L. Alley (1939), of Tavernier, Fla.
She states that she witnessed an attack on a
coachwhip
snake (Masticophis
flagellum) near St. Petersburg in the summer of 1939.
The bird repeatedly alighted on the head of the snake and
pecked it viciously. The encounter was watched for a
considerable time, the snake finally seeking sanctuary under
some bushes.
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Name
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Food
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Insects and fruit
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Feeding
Techniques
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Forages on the ground
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Habitat
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Thickets and suburbia
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Plumage
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Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
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Much of the US; except Pacific states
to western Texas
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Breeding
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Nests in shrubs or small trees.
Actively attacks Cowbird's
eggs when they appear in the nest.
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
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Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: Although the catbird usually
establishes itself in a well-defined territory to which it
challenges all intruders, it does at times live in harmony
with other birds. E. A. Doolittle (1923) writes of a catbird
nest containing four eggs that was built in a little
thornbush hardly 3 feet high. Less than 4 feet from the
catbird's nest and on the same level was a nest and five
eggs of the yellow
warbler. Apparently the
catbirds made no effort to disturb their smaller neighbors
and were indulgent with their presence.
The catbird is not so adapatable in
solving unusual situations with which it may be confronted,
as some other birds. Dr. A. A. Allen (1912) found that if a
cloth is placed over a phoebe's nest, the bird with a single
glance grasped the situation and immediately removed the
obstacle. The catbird, however, was at a total loss as to
what to do under a similar situation.
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Name
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Food
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Scavenger
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Feeding
Techniques
|
Bold aggressive scavenger
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Habitat
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Farm areas and anywhere where people
provide it food.
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Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
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Distribution
|
Throughout the world
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Breeding
|
Cavity nester
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About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Not native to the US. As detailed in
the notes from Bent, the Starling was brought over from
Europe and "introduced". It seems that the introduction that
worked was accomplished by somewhere between 80 and 100
individual birds. From that number we now have over 100
million.
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|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
We probably shall never know how many
unsuccessful attempts have been made to introduce the
starling into North America; Edward
H. Forbush (1927) mentions the
following introductions: "Cincinnati, Ohio (1872-43);
Quebec, Canada (1875); Worcester, Massachusetts (1884);
Tenafly, New Jersey (1884); New York City (1877, 1887, 1890,
1891); Portland, Oregon (1889, 1892) ; Allegheny,
Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Massachusetts (1897) ; and
Bay Ridge, New York, about 1900." Apparently all these
attempts were failures except those made in New York City in
1890 and 1891. May Thacher Cooke (1928) mentions an
unsuccessful attempt made at West Chester, Pa., before
1850.
Authorities differ somewhat as to the
numbers of starling liberated by Eugene Scheifflin in
Central Park, New York, and as to the exact dates. Mr.
Forbush (1927) says that 80 were liberated on March 16,
1890, and 40 more on April 25, 1891. Miss Cooke (1928) says
that 80 birds were released in April 1890 and 80 more the
next year. It is generally accepted, however, that 60 birds
were introduced in 1890 and 40 more in 1891; Dr. Chapman
(1925) states that there were only 100 birds liberated in
all, and he ought to have known. From this small nucleus
have descended all the vast hordes that now overrun the
country.
For the first six years, while the
birds were becoming established, they were confined to
greater New York City, including Brooklyn and Staten Island,
though stragglers were reported in Princeton, N. J., in
1894. Then, as the population built up, the fall and winter
wanderings began in search of new territory in which to
establish a breeding range later. By 1900 they had appeared
at New Haven, Conn., Ossining, N. Y., and Bayonne, N. J. Dr.
Stone (1937) reported them at Tuckerton, N. J., in 1907, and
Dr. Townsend (1920) saw the first one in 1908 in eastern
Massachusetts. During that and the next two years, the
starlings wandered over most of Massachusetts, up to the New
Hampshire border, and over eastern Pennsylvania. Robie W.
Tufts tells me that the first one was seen near Halifax,
Nova Scotia, on December 1, 1915. By 1916, according to
Kalmbach and Gabrielson (1921), its postbreeding wanderings
extended from "southern Maine to Norfolk, Va. On November
10, 1917, one specimen was collected as far south as
Savannah, Ga. Inland it has been seen at Rochester, N. Y.,
Wheeling, WVa., and in east central Ohio." During the next
10 years starlings were variously recorded as far north as
southern Ontario, as far west as Wisconsin, Iowa, and
Illinois, and as far south as Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, and Florida. E. C. Hoffman's (1930) map shows the
range for the winter of 1929 - 30 as extending west to
southeastern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, including most of
Missouri, southeastern Kansas, much of Oklahoma and Texas,
and extending practically to the coasts of the Gulf States.
It is interesting to note that the western limit of this
range roughly parallels the 1,000-foot contour
line.
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Name
|
|
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Food
|
Invertebrates
- both aquatic and terrestrial
|
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Feeding
Techniques
|
Gleaning
|
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Habitat
|
Open country, quite often around
wetlands
|
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Plumage
|
Male
and female have the same plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Coastal states from Virginia to
Washington
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
terrestrial - ground
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior
Pipits are essentially terrestrial
birds and spend most of their time on the ground, in the
fields, meadows, marshes, mud flats, beaches, or on the bare
rocks of their summer haunts. Some writers have stated that
they never alight anywhere else, but such is certainly not
so. In Laborador we frequently saw them walking on the roofs
of tilts, where codfish was drying, or alighting on the
roofs of the fish houses and even on the roofs of the
dwelling houses and on the rocks around them. On migrations,
we often see them perched in trees, on wire fences or fence
posts, on the ridge poles of houses, and on telephone or
telegraph wires. Dr. Knowlton writes to me that, in the
locality where he collected the birds ... "thousands of
pipits were present over an area 6 to 15 miles wide. the
birds would fly ahead of the car, alighting on fence wires
near the approaching vehicle. however, when disturbed by a
man walking along the road, large numbers would sometimes
fly away and alight in the field at some distance from the
collector. ...
When on the ground the pipit walks
gracefully and prettily, with a nodding motion of the head,
like a dove, and with the body swaying slightly from side to
side as he moves quietly along; sometimes he runs more
rapidly.
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Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fruit ; during the summer will also
take insects
|
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Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages in shrubs, trees; usually as
part of a flock
|
|
Habitat
|
Varies: open country, boreal forests,
parks
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Irregular distribution. Generally
found in the north.
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Enemies: Frank L. Farley writes to me:
"Pigeon
hawks must take a heavy toll
of the Bohemian waxwings while they are gathering in the
Rockies and foothills to commence their wanderings to the
south. On several trips after big game into these regions, I
have seen large flocks of a hundred or more birds, sitting
motionless and apparently fearful, on the top branches of a
solitary leafless tree, out in an opening. If one looks
about, he is almost certain to see a pigeon hawk perched in
a nearby tree top, patiently watching the waxwings. The
birds seem to know that they are safe, if they remain in the
tree, but, if one puts them to flight, the hawk is off in a
flash and easily takes one before the flock gets a hundred
yards from the tree."
Mr. Cameron (1908) says that, in very
severe weather, when the waxwings were somewhat stupified by
the cold: they became the prey of ranch cats. A very fine
male which our cat brought to me on Feb. 13, 1899, was quite
fat after eighteen days of a cold wave during which 450
below zero was registered. I do not think that many Waxwings
fall victims to Prairie Falcons, as they betake themselves
to thick cover when the latter are about. On March 10, 1904.
my wife and I approached within two yards of a flock of
Waxwings, which refused to leave a low cedar when a
Rough-legged
Hawk was sailing
above.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fruit ; during the summer will also
take insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages in shrubs, trees; usually as
part of a flock
|
|
Habitat
|
Open woods, suburbs, parks
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in trees
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Howard L. Cogswell says in his notes
from Pasadena, Calif.: ''This species is often very abundant
throughout the cities in winter, especially in sections
where camphor trees and peppertrees are planted. Of late
years the peppertrees, long a recognized favorite for
berry-eating birds, have been yielding poorer and poorer
crops in the Los Angeles area. As a consequence, in the
Pasadena area at least, the waxwings and their often-present
associate, the robin, are now to be seen chiefly in the
camphor trees used extensively to line the streets of
residential districts. From their arrival in numbers in
November until about February 1, the small cherrylike drupe
of this tree seems to be the chief food of the waxwings.
Then, when these are gone, they turn to the various berries
on ornamental bushes in gardens, such as Pyracantha, Clotone
aster, and Eugenia. Many times I have also seen waxwings
eating from persimmons and apples allowed to remain on the
trees until overripe. Outside the city, they feed on toyon,
mistletoe, coffeeberries, the fruits of the sycamore tree,
and wild grapes in the lowland willow regions."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fruit
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while perched in shrubs or
trees
|
|
Habitat
|
Desert
|
|
Plumage
|
Male has purple plumage while
female is grayish
|
|
Distribution
|
Southwest - Southern California,
Arizona, New Mexico
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in trees
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The males, particularly, often carry
on flycatching activities from elevated perches, sometimes
by sallies in regular flycatcher fashion, but frequently by
hovering and fluttering about in the air in a seemingly
aimless and befuddled manner. It is often difficult to
determine whether these peculiar maneuvers represent the
prosaic pursuit of food or some odd form of play. It is
noticeable that the hunting of winged insects always is
conducted at a considerable height and never by low swoops
over the ground as is often the case with flycatchers.
Mrs.
Bailey (1896) further
describes some of the habits and mannerisms of the
phainopepla:
In feeding, the birds occasionally
flew against a bunch of berries, as Chicadees do, clinging
while they ate; and I once saw one hover before a bunch
while eating, as a Hummingbird whirrs under a flower. More
frequently they lit on a branch from which they could lean
over and pick off the fruit at leisure. I never actually saw
them eat anything but peppers, but at one time when the
brush was full of millers, the birds seemed to be catching
them; and they sometimes made short sallies into the air as
if for insects. They did this much as a Kingbird does,
flying up obliquely and going down the opposite side of the
angle.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly insects and other
invertebrates.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Gleaning and flycatching
|
|
Habitat
|
Shrubby areas, open areas with shrubby
understory
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Builds its cup nest on the ground.
Three races identified
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Dr.
Alexander Skutch -
ornithologist who has lived and studied birds in Costa Rica
for over 40 years. He is the author of many fine studies of
birds including Parent Birds and their Young.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: No comprehensive study of the
food of Wilson's warbler has appeared in the literature, and
practically nothing has been published in detail on the food
of our eastern bird. Prof. Beal (1907) examined the contents
of 53 stomachs of one of the western races of the species
and found that 93 percent of the food was animal matter and
only 1 percent of it vegetable. There is no reason to
suppose that the eastern race has not a somewhat similar
diet. Moreover, since our Wilson's warbler has been seen
repeatedly foraging among the twigs and foliage of trees and
shrubs, presumably in search of insects and their eggs and
larvae, or darting out into the air to capture flying
insects, it may be safely regarded as primarily
insectivorous and hence mainly a beneficent
species.
Dr.
Alexander F. Skutch (MS.),
speaking of the bird in Central America, says: "Among the
peculiar foods of the Wilson's warblers in their winter home
are the little, white, beadlike protein corpuscles which
they daintly pluck from the furry cushions at the bases of
the long petioles of the Cecropia tree. These minute grains,
the chief nourishment of the Azteca ants that dwell in
myriads in the hollow stems of the tree, are also sought by
a number of other small birds, both resident and
migratory."
Mrs. Edith K. Frey tells me that
she has seen Wilson's warblers and several other species of
wood warblers feeding on aphids in her shrubbery day after
day until the pests were gone.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly insects and other
invertebrates;
will eat berries
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Gleans
|
|
Habitat
|
Varied. Suburbia, parks, coniferous
forests, open farm land
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in trees, usually
coniferous
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Formerly considered two species, the
Audubon Warbler and the Myrtle Warbler. Further study showed
that they are two races of the Yellow -rumped Warbler.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Forbush
(1929) sums up the food of this warbler very well as
follows:
The Myrtle Warbler is one of the few
warblers that can subsist for long periods upon berries and
seeds, although undoubtedly it prefers insects when it can
get them. Along the coast during the milder winters there
are many flies rising from the seaweed in sheltered spots on
mild days even in January, and there are eggs of plant-lice
and some hibernating insects to be found on the trees, but
the principal food of the Myrtle Warbler in New England
during the inclement season is the bayberry. They can exist,
however, on the berries of the Virginia juniper or red cedar
and these seem to form their principal food when wintering
in the interior; berries of the Virginia creeper or
woodbine, those of viburnums, honeysuckle, mountain ash,
poison ivy, spikenard and dogwoods also serve to eke out the
birds' bill of fare. In the maple sugar orchards in early
spring they occasionally drink sweet sap from the trees. In
the southern Atlantic states they take palmetto berries.
North and south they also eat some seeds, particularly those
of sunflower and goldenrod. During spring and summer they
destroy thousands of caterpillars, small grubs and the
larvae of saw-flies and various insects, leaf-beetles,
dark-beetles, weevils, wood-horers, ants, scale insects,
plant-lice and their eggs, including the woolly apple-tree
aphids and the the common apple-leaf plant-louse, also
grasshoppers and locusts, bugs, house-flies and other flies
including caddice-flies, craneflies, calcid-flies,
ichneumon-flies and gnats, also spiders.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly insects plus some
berries
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Gleans from lower branches
|
|
Habitat
|
Breeds in mixed woods
|
|
Plumage
|
Male
and female have similar plumage
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US. Population showing
signs of decline
|
|
Breeding
|
Well hidden nest on ground
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Alexander Wilson (1766 - 1813) is
considered by many the father of American ornithology.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Alexander
Wilson discovered this species
near Nashville, Tenn., and gave it the name Nashville
warbler. Baird,
Brewer,
and Ridgway
(1874) say of its early history: "For a long while our older
naturalists regarded it as a very rare species, and knew
nothing as to its habits or distribution. Wilson, who first
met with it in 1811, never found more than three specimens,
which he procured near Nashville, Tenn. Audubon
only met with three or four, and these he obtained in
Louisiana and Kentucky. These and a few others in Titian
Peale's collection, supposed to have been obtained in
Pennsylvania, were all he ever saw. Mr.
Nuttall at first regarded it
as very rare, and as a Southern species.
This is not strange when we stop to
consider that this bird is more or less irregular in its
occurrence, apparently fluctuating in numbers in different
localities and perhaps choosing different routes of
migration. Its record here in eastern Massachusetts
illustrates this point. Thomas Nuttall never saw the bird
while he lived in Cambridge, from 1825 to 1834. Dr. Samuel
Cabot, who lived there from 1832 to 1836, told William
Brewster (1906) that he was sure that it did not occur
regularly in eastern Massachusetts at that time. According
to Brewster:
Soon afterwards a few birds began to
appear every season. They increased in numbers, gradually
but steadily, until they had become so common that in 1842
he obtained ten specimens in the course of a single
morning.
|