Natural
History
Notes
on the Birds
Ducks, Geese, Swans, Doves and
Pigeons
|
About the
categories
|
|
|
Name
|
Common name
|
|
Food
|
The main food category.
|
|
Feeding Techniques
|
How it acquires its food.
|
|
Habitat
|
What kind of area does the bird
live?
|
|
Plumage
|
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.
|
|
Distribution
|
Approximately where it is found in the
United States.
|
|
Breeding
|
Unique aspects on how the species
breeds.
|
|
About the Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Special notes on the status or natural
history of this bird.
|
|
Notes from A. C.
Bent
|
Selections from the Life Histories of
North American Birds, edited by
A. C. Bent.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and other plants; sometimes
mollusks
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Pulls food using its strong beak; is
able to use its long neck to reach plants in deeper water
than other ducks and geese. Will also feed on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Breeds on tundra ponds. Winters in
agricultural areas and wildlife refuges.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
, juvenile has grayer plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the northern portions of
the United States but not consistently. Numbers seem to be
returning. In 1978 numbers were estimated to be about
100,000. For an opportunity for 4th to 6th grade school
classes to become involved in a study of Tundra Swans check
out Shadow
a Swan Project.
|
|
Breeding
|
Majority of birds breed in Alaska;
rest breed in northern portions of Canada;
"Nests - Situated near water; a heap
of rubbish gathered from the immediate vicinity, comprising
grass, moss, and dead leaves ; sometimes lined with down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Swans are protected from hunting now.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
I had lived to be nearly 50 years old
before I saw my first wild swan, but it was a sight worth
waiting for, to see a flock of these magnificent, great,
snow-white birds, glistening in the sunlight against the
clear blue sky, their long necks pointing northward toward
their polar home, their big black feet trailing behind, and
their broad translucent wings slowly beating the thin upper
air, as they sped onward in their long spring flight. If the
insatiable desire to kill, and especially to kill something
big and something beautiful, had not so possessed past and
present generations of sportsmen, I might have seen one
earlier in my life and perhaps many another ornithologist,
who has never seen a swan, might have enjoyed the thrill of
such an inspiring sight. No opportunity has been neglected
to kill these magnificent birds, by fair means or foul,
since time immemorial; until the vast hordes which formerly
migrated across our continent have been sadly reduced in
numbers and are now confined to certain favored localities.
Fortunately the breeding grounds of this species are so
remote that they are not likely to be invaded by the demands
of agriculture; and fortunately the birds are so wary that
they are not likely to be exterminated on migrations or in
their winter resorts.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and other plant
material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on both land and water. Uses
long neck to reach underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Wetlands, agricultural fields but also
canbe found in small wooded ponds.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
e, juvenile has grayer
plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
The Northwest especially. Found in
selected pockets elsewhere in the country.
|
|
Breeding
|
"Nest - placed near water; large,
composed of hay, down and feathers intermixed, or of sod,
grass and rushes lined with feathers and down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Strong efforts are bringing this
species back from the brink of extinction.
"melted its primaries" - a poetic
reference to the eclipse plumage when many waterfowl molt
out their flight feathers and for a brief time are unable to
fly.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
This magnificent bird, the largest of
all the North American wild fowl, belongs to a vanishing
race; though once common throughout all of the central and
northern portions of the continent, it has been gradually
receding before the advance of civilization and agriculture;
when the great Central West was wild and uncultivated it was
known to breed in the uninhabited parts of many of our
Central States, even as far south as northern Missouri; but
now it probably does not breed anywhere within the limits of
the United States, except possibly in some of the wilder
portions of Montana or Wyoming; civilization has pushed it
farther and farther north until now it is making its last
stand in the uninhabited wilds of northern Canada.
E.
H. Forbush (1912) has summed
up the history of its disappearance very well, as
follows:
The trumpeter has succumbed to
incessant persecution in all parts of its range, and its
total extinction is now only a matter of years. Persecution
drove it from the northern parts of its winter range to the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico; from all the southern portion
of its breeding range toward the shores of the Arctic Ocean;
and from the Atlantic and Pacific slopes toward the
interior. Now it almost has disappeared from the Gulf
States. A swan soon at any time of the year in most parts of
the United States is the signal for every man with a gun to
pursue it. The breeding swans of the United States have been
extirpated, and the bird is pursued, even in its farthest
northern haunts, by the natives, who capture it in summer,
when it has melted its primaries and, is unable to fly. The
swan lives to a great age. The older birds are about as
tough and unfit for food as an old horse. Only the younger
are savory, and the gunners might well have spared the adult
birds, but it was 'sport" to kill them and fashion called
for swan's-down. The large size of this bird and its
conspicuousness have served, as in the ease of the
whooping
crane, to make it a shining
mark, and the trumpetings that were once heard over the
breadth of a great continent, as the long converging lines
drove on from zone to zone, will soon be heard no more. In
the ages to come, like the call of the whooping crane, they
will be locked in the silence of the past.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material; see below in
Notes from A. C. Bent
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds while on the water and on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Nests in northern tundra and spends
the winter on wetlands and agricultural areas.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Pacific coast, Rocky mountain flyway
and midwest flyway during the winter.
|
|
Breeding
|
Breeds near the Arctic Circle. Nest is
depression in ground lined with vegetation and down. Has a
dark morph which used to be considered a separate species.
"Nest - On wet ground; made of
grasses, mosses and down.." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
The Snow
Goose Problem is highlighted
in this article by USGS.
Empetrum nigrum is the scientific name
for Crowberry. A USGS article discribes the plant. "Low
growing, shrubby evergreen up to 12" high, resembling a
miniature fir tree, with short, needle-like leaves (grooved
underneath), which are turned under at the margins, and
stems with long woolly hairs. The flowers are small (3 mm),
pinkish and inconspicuous, in loose clusters in leaf axils
bearing 3 stamens, and 6-9 short-lobed stigma. The fruits
are black to dark purple drupes, juicy and berry-like,
containing up to 9 white, hard seeds."
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The food of the snow goose is
largely vegetable, in fact almost wholly so during the
greater part of its sojourn in its winter home. In the
spring this consists largely of winter wheat and other
sprouting grains and grasses; and in the fall the stubble
fields are favorite feeding grounds, where large flocks are
known to congregate regularly. According to Swainson and
Richardson (1831) it "feeds on rushes, insects,
and in autumn on berries, particularly those of the Empetrum
nigrum." Doctor
Coues (1874) gives the best
account of its feeding habits, as follows:
Various kinds of ordinary grass form a
large part of this birds food, at least during their winter
residence in the United States. They gather it precisely as
tame geese are wont to do. Flocks alight upon a meadow or
plain, and pass over the ground in broken array, cropping to
either side as they go, with the peculiar tweak of the bill
and quick jerk of the neck familiar to all who have watched
the barnyard birds when similarly engaged. The short, turfy
grasses appear to be highly relished and this explains the
frequent presence of the birds in fields at a distance from
water. They also eat the bulbous roots and soft succulent
culms of aquatic plants, and in securing these the
tooth-like processes of the bill are brought into special
service.
Wilson again says that, when thus
feeding upon reeds. " they tear them up like hogs " a
questionable comparison, however, for the birds pull up the
plants instead of pushing or "rooting" them up. The geese, I
think, also feed largely upon aquatic insects, small
mollusks, and marine invertebrates of various kinds; for
they are often observed in mud flats and rocky places by the
seaside, where there is no vegetation whatever; and it is
probable that when they pass over meadows they do not spare
the grasshoppers. Audubon
relates that in Louisiana he has often seen the geese
feeding in wheat fields, where they plucked up the young
plants entire.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds while on the water and on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Nests in northern tundra and spends
the winter on wetlands and agricultural areas.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters in isolated pockets in
California, Texas, New Mexico
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is depression in ground lined
with vegetation and down.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The smallest and the rarest of the
geese which regularly visit the United States is this pretty
little white goose, hardly larger than our largest ducks, a
winter visitor from farthest north, which comes to spend a
few winter months in the genial climate of
California.
Spring: Whither it goes when it wings
its long flight northeastward across the Rocky Mountains in
the early spring no one knows, probably to remote and
unexplored lands in the Arctic regions. At certain places it
is abundant at times, as the following account by Robert S.
Williams (1886), of Great Falls, Montana, will illustrate;
he writes
On the 17th of April, 1885. after
several days of stormy weather, with wind from the
northwest, accompanied at times by heavy fog and rain, there
appeared on a bar in the Missouri River at this place a
large flock of Ross's snow geese. In the afternoon of the
same day, procuring a boat, we rowed toward the flock, which
presented a rather remarkable sight, consisting as it did of
several thousand individuals squatting closely together
along the edge of the bar. Here and there birds were
constantly standing up and flapping their wings, then
settling down again, all the while a confused gabble, half
gooselike, half ducklike, arising from the whole flock. We
approached to within a hundred yards or so, when the geese
lightly arose to a considerable height and flew off over the
prairie, where they soon alighted and began to feed on the
short, green grass. While flying, often two or three birds
would dart off from the main flock, and, one behind the
other, swing around in great curves, quite after the manner
of the little chimney swift in the East. Apparently these
same birds remained about till the 26th of April, long after
the storm was over, but they became broken up into several
smaller flocks some time before leaving.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material, but recently
has become a general scavenger in suburban areas.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds while on the water and on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Still found in the wilds but more and
more perfers parks, suburan areas
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US. The growing
population of Canada Geese is becoming a problem in some
areas of the country. Their waste matter causes pond and
lake water to become toxic to people.
|
|
Breeding
|
Will nest in a variety of places,
including artificial nest sites. Nest is depression in
ground lined with vegetation and down.
"Nest - Usually in swampy situations,
but on dry ground, more rarely on a stump or in a tree in an
old nest of some other bird; constructed of twigs, weeds,
grasses or reeds, with abundant lining of down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Young: The period of incubation varies
from 28 to 30 days; probably the former is the usual time
under favorable circumstances. The gander never sits on the
nest, but while the goose is incubating he is constantly in
attendance, except when obliged to leave in search of food.
He is a staunch defender of the home and is no mean
antagonist. Audubon
(1840) relates the following:
It is during the breeding season that
the gander displays his courage and strength to the greatest
advantage. I knew one that appeared larger than usual, and
of which all the lower parts were of a rich cream color. It
returned three years in succession to a large pond a few
miles from the mouth of Green River, in Kentucky, and
whenever I visited the nest it seemed to look upon me with
utter contempt. It would stand in a stately attitude until I
reached within a few yards of the nest, when suddenly
lowering its head and shaking it as if it were dislocated
from the neck, it would open its wings and launch into the
air, flying directly at me. So daring was this fine fellow
that in two instances he struck me a blow with one of his
wings on the right arm, which for an instant I thought was
broken. I observed that immediately after such an effort to
defend his nest and mate he would run swiftly toward them,
pass his head and neck several times over and around the
female, and again assume his attitude of
defiance.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds while on the water and on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Mostly marshes and fields
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Found wintering in California, Oregon,
New Mexico, Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is depression in ground lined
with vegetation and down. See below.
"Nest - On the ground, near water,
often in wooded districts; made of grass and feathers and
lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
John Murdoch (1885) says that at Point
Barrow: the eggs are always laid in the black, muddy tundra,
often on top of a slight knoll. The nest is lined with
tundra moss and down. The number of eggs in a brood appears
subject to considerable variation, as we found sets of 4, 6,
and 7, all well advanced in incubation. The last-laid egg is
generally in the middle of the nest and may be recognized by
its white shell unless incubation is far advanced, the other
eggs being stained and soiled by the birds coming on and off
the nest.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material, but also
invertebrates such as mollusks
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds while on the water and on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
This species is generally found along
the coast.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Found primarily along the Pacific
coast, but also along Atlantic coast
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is depression in ground lined
with vegetation and down.
"Nest - On marshy ground; a simple
depression, abundantly lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Witherby's 'Handbook of British
Birds', published in 1921.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: According to Witherby's Handbook
(1921) the food of the brant on its breeding grounds
consists of "grass, algae, moss, and stalks and leaves of
arctic plants (Eriophorum, Ranunculus, Cerastium, Oxyria,
and Saxifraga) ." The "young feed on Gramineae and
Oxyria."
While on our coasts their chief food
is eelgrass (Zostera
marina), which grows so
extensively in our shallow bays and estuaries. At certain
stages of the tides, the last half of the ebb or the first
half of the flood, when the beds of eelgrass are uncovered
or covered with shallow water, the brant resort to them in
large numbers to feed. They prefer the roots and the whitish
lower stems, but they eat the green fronds also. As soon as
the water is shallow enough for them to reach the grass by
tipping up they begin to feed, and they keep at it until the
tide again covers the flats too deeply. While most of the
birds are feeding with heads and necks below the surface
there are always a few sentinels on watch to warn them of
approaching danger.
They pull up much more eelgrass than
they can eat at once; this floats off with the tide and
often forms small floating islands, far off from shore, to
which the brant resort at high tide to feed again. John
Cordeaux (1898) says that the longer pieces of Zostera "are
neatly rolled up, like ribbons, in their stomachs"; they
also devour the fronds of some species of algae.
crustaceans, mollusca, worms, and marine insects. Gatke says
that at Heligoland, when the sea is calm, small companies
will approach the cliffs and pick off the small mollusca and
crustaceans.
I have at times been greatly
entertained in watching a flock of brant feeding in shallow
water, close inshore, the greater portion of the birds
upside down, their rumps and tails showing the white
coverts, only visible as they greedily tear at the blades
and roots of the grass wrack, whilst others are seizing the
floating fragments of the plant, broken off and dislodged by
their mates; and on the outside there are always some with
heads held high, over on the watch, and ready to give alarm.
All the time they keep a continuous, noisy gabbling and
grunting, the rear birds constantly swimming forward to get
in advance of their fellows, a procedure which I have known,
more than once, bring them within range of an ordinary
sporting gun.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds chiefly while on land.
|
|
Habitat
|
Coastal waters
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Rare nortwest visitor
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is depression in ground lined
with vegetation and down.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The handsomest and the least known of
American geeses confined to such narrow limits, both in its
breeding range and on its migrations, that it has been seen
by fewer naturalists than any other goose on our list. On
the almost inaccessible, low, marshy shores of Alaska,
between the mouths of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, it
formerly bred abundantly; but recent explorations in that
region indicate that it has been materially reduced in
numbers during the past 30 years. My assistant, Mr. Hersey,
who spent the season of 1914 at the Yukon delta, saw less
than a dozen birds, where Doctor Nelson found it so abundant
in 1879. The decrease is partially, if not wholly, due to
the fact that large numbers are killed every year and their
eggs taken by the natives, even within the limits of what is
supposed to be a reservation.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Tips over and dabs at the water. Beak
serves as a filter system to capture the plant material.
|
|
Habitat
|
Lakes, ponds; especially municipal
parks.
|
|
Plumage
|
Male and female have very distinctly
different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the United States.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests away from water and will place
nest in a variety of different places. Usually on the
ground. Hybridizes
very easily with other ducks.
"Nest - Generally on ground near
water, hidden in clumps of willows, weeds, tules, but more
often in tall grass; crudely made of leaves and grasses but
warmly and copiously lined with down; about seven inches in
inside diameter." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Mallards are essentially
fresh-water ducks and find their principal feeding grounds
in the sloughs, ponds, lakes, streams, and swamps of the
interior, where their food is picked up on or above the
surface or obtained by partial immersion in shallow water.
In Alaska and on the Pacific coast they feed largely on dead
salmon and salmon eggs, which they obtain in the pools in
the rivers. On or near their breeding grounds in the prairie
regions they feed largely on wheat, barley, and corn which
they glean from the stubble fields. On their migrations in
the central valleys they frequent the timbered ponds,
everglades, and wooded swamps, alighting among the trees to
feed on beechnuts and acorns or to pick up an occasional
slug, snail, frog, or lizard. In the South they resort to
the rice fields and savannas in large numbers, feeding both
by day and night if not disturbed; where they are hunted
persistently they become more nocturnal in their feeding
habits.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Tips over and dabs at the water. Beak
serves as a filter system to capture the plant material.
|
|
Habitat
|
Lakes and ponds.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily the northeast of the United
States.
|
|
Breeding
|
Hybridizing
with Mallards is diminishing their numbers.
"Nest - On the ground; constructed of
weeds, grass, and feathers." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: The black duck starts into
flight, from land or water by a powerful upward spring,
rising perpendicularly 8 to 10 feet into the air before it
starts away in its swift and direct flight. When once under
way its flight is strong and swift, usually high in the air,
unless forced by strong adverse winds to fly low; its long
neck is outstretched and its wings vibrate rapidly, the
white underside of the wings flashing in the light and
serving as a good field mark at a long distance. When
descending from a height to alight in a pond the pointed
wings are curved downward and rigidly held, as the smooth
body glides through the air, tipping slightly from side to
side, gradually dropping in a circle until near enough to
check its momentum with a few vigorous flaps and drop into
the water, feet first, with a gentle, gliding
splash.
On land the black duck walks with ease
and grace, running rapidly, if necessary, and holding its
head high. It is ever on the alert and can seldom be
surprised. It swims lightly and gracefully and with some
speed. It does not ordinarily dive, but it can do so, if
necessary, as every gunner knows who has wounded one and
chased it. I have read that this duck can detect the
presence of danger by the sense of smell, but I doubt it; it
would not come so readily to well-concealed duck stands,
where human beings are living constantly, if its nostrils
were very keen. I should think it more likely that it
depends on its sight and hearing, both of which are very
acute and highly developed.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dabbling duck
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, small lakes, marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
During the winter it is found
throughout the US but abundant in the west. It breeds in
Canada.
|
|
Breeding
|
Often nests away from water. Little
territorial defense results in high predation of eggs.
"Nest - Usually in tall grass on dry
ground but near water; a crude structure of dry grasses
lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Once, on May 17, while sitting
overlooking a series of small ponds, a pair of pintails
arose and started off, the male in full chase after the
female. Back and forth they passed at a marvelously swift
rate of speed, with frequent quick turns and evolutions. At
one moment they were almost out of view high overhead and
the next saw them skimming along the ground in an involved
course very difficult to follow with the eye. Ere long a
second male joined in the chase, then a third, and so on
until six males vied with each other in the pursuit. The
original pursuer appeared to be the only one capable of
keeping close to the coy female, and owing to her dextrous
turns and curves he was able to draw near only at intervals.
Whenever he did succeed he always passed under the female,
and kept so close to her that their wings clattered together
with a noise like a watchman's rattle, and audible a long
distance. This chase lasted half an hour, and after five of
the pursuers had dropped off one by one the pair remaining
(and I think the male was the same that originated the
pursuit) settled in one of the ponds.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dabbling duck
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, small lakes, marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
During the winter it is found
throughout the US but abundant in the west. It breeds in
Canada and the upper midwest
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near water,
protected by tall vegetation.
"Nest - In grass on dry ground but
usually close to water; composed of grasses and tules and
lined with down; resembles that of Mallard."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
oak mast - the acorns of oak trees; an
important source of food for birds and mammals
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: The gadwall can walk well on
land, where it forages for oak mast in the woods and for
grain in the open fields, often a long distance from water.
It takes flight readily from either land or water, springing
into the air and flying swiftly away in a straight line.
When migrating, it flies in small flocks of about a dozen
birds; in appearance and manner of flight it greatly
resembles the baldpate,
but the male can usually be distinguished from the latter by
the white speculum and the brown wing coverts; a similar
difference exists between the females, but only to a slight
degree; practiced gunners claim to recognize other field
marks, but they have proven too subtle for my eyes, and I
have frequently mistaken one species for the other. The
gadwall ought not to be mistaken for any other species,
except the baldpate
or the European
widgeon, but it frequently is
confused, by ignorant gunners, with the young males and
females of the pintail,
though its flight and general appearance are entirely
different; the name "gray duck" has been applied to both the
gadwall and the pintail, which has led to much confusion of
records and to erroneous impressions as to the former
abundance of the gadwall in New England, where, I believe,
it has always been a rare bird.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Plant material and small invertebrates
and vertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Uses its large beak to filter food
from the water.
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, marsh, small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US, but more commonly
in the south.
|
|
Breeding
|
Breeds in Canada and the US
"Nest - Usually on dry ground,
sometimes at a considerable distance from water; constructed
of grass and weed stems, and sometimes lined with down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Millais (1902) relates the following
incident to illustrate the activity of the shoveller in
feeding:
To the observer who sees the shoveler
casually by day he appears to be somewhat of a lethargic
nature; but, when he cares to do so, he can move faster on
the water than any of the fresh-water ducks. I have watched
with pleasure the wonderful sight, calculation, and
quickness of a male shoveler that I once kept in confinement
on a small marshy pond at Fort George. About the last week
in April a certain water insect,
whose name I do not know, would "rise" from the mud below to
the surface of the pool only to be captured by the shoveler,
who, rushing at full speed along the water, snapped up the
beetle the moment it came to the surface. How it could see
the insect in the act of rising I could never make out, for
it was invisible to me standing on the bank above, and I
could only just catch a glimpse of it as the shoveler
reached his prey and dexterously caught the beetle as it
darted away again. After each capture the duck retired to
the side of the pool again and there awaited the next rise -
commonly about 25 feet away.
While thus occupied he seemed to be in
a high state of tension; the feathers are closely drawn up
and be kept his neck working backwards and forwards, in
preparation, as it were, for the next spring, exactly like a
cat "getting up steam" for the final rush on a victim.
Sometimes he seemed to get into a frantic state of
excitement, darting here and there as if he saw beetles
rising in every direction. I noticed also that while
devouring his prey the pupils of his eyes were unusually
contracted, and the golden circlets seemed to shine more
brilliantly than usual.
The food of the shoveller consists of
grasses, the buds and young shoots of rushes, and other
water plants, small fishes, small frogs, tadpoles, shrimps,
leeches, aquatic worms, crustaceans, small mollusks,
particularly snails, water insects, and other insects, as
well as their larvae and pupae.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material;
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while in water; uses its beak
to strain plant material from water. See below.
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, marsh, small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Western and southeastern
states
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near water,
protected by tall vegetation.
"Nest - On the ground near water;
constructed of grass and feathers placed in a thick growth
of grasss." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The green-winged teal enjoys a
varied diet which it obtains in various ways in different
parts of its habitat. In its summer home it loves to dabble
in the shallow water about the edges of the sloughs, ponds,
creeks, with its body half immersed, its feet kicking in the
air and its bill probing in the mud for aquatic
insects
or their larvae, worms, small mollusks and crustaceans, or
even tadpoles. In such places it also feeds on the soft
parts of various water plants and their seeds. In harvest
time it wanders to the grain fields and picks up the fallen
grains of corn, wheat, oats, barley, and buckwheat, where it
also feeds on various other seeds, grasses, and vegetable
matter. At this season and in the winter, when it lives in
the southern rice fields feasting on the fallen harvest, it
grows very fat and its flesh becomes desirable for the
table, equaling the finest of the ducks.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material and seeds; also
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while in water; uses its beak
to strain plant material from water.
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, marsh, small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Western and southeastern
states
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is situated on the
ground.
"Nest - Usually on dry ground near
fresh water, and hidden in tall grass; made of grass or
reeds and lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Young: As the male deserts the female
soon after the eggs are laid, incubation is performed solely
by her. Incubation does not begin until after the last egg
is laid, one egg having been laid each day until the set is
complete. The period of incubation is from 21 to 23 days.
The young hatch almost simultaneously, or at least within a
few hours; they remain in the nest until they have dried off
and are strong enough to walk, when they are led to the
nearest water and taught by their devoted mother to feed.
Their food at this age consists mainly of soft insects,
worms, and other small, tender, animal food, but they soon
learn to forage for themselves and pick up a variety of
vegetable foods as well. The young are guarded with tender
care by one of the most devoted of mothers; when surprised
with her brood of young she resorts to all the arts and
strategies known to anxious bird mothers to draw the
intruder away from her brood or to distract his attention,
utterly regardless of her own safety, while the young have
time to hide or escape to a place of safety. The young are
experts at hiding, even in open situations, where they squat
flat on the ground and vanish; but they usually run or swim
in among tall grass or reeds, where it is almost useless to
look for them. All through the remainder of the summer,
until they are able to fly, she remains with them teaching
them where to find the choicest foods and how to escape from
their numerous enemies; they learn to know her warning
calls, when to run and when to hide, and by the end of the
summer they are ready to gather into flocks for the fall
migration.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material and seeds and
some animal matter; see below
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while in water; uses its beak
to strain plant material from water.
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, marsh, small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Western states
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near water,
protected by tall vegetation.
"Nest - Situated in grassy fields or
among tules, sometimes above shallow water but more often
above damp ground, at times some little distance from water;
made of grasses or tules compactly woven together and deeply
saucer-shaped." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Mr. Douglas C. Mabbott (1920) says:
Like the greenwing
and the bluewing,
the cinnamon teal lives mainly upon vegetable food, this
comprising about four-fifths (79.86 per cent) of the total
contents of the stomachs examined. And, like the other
teals, its two principal and most constant items of food are
the seeds and other parts of sedges (Cyperaceae) and
pondweeds (Naiadaceae). These two families of plants
furnished 34.27 and 27.12 per cent, respectively, of the
bird's entire diet. The grasses (Gramineae) amounted to 7.75
per cent; smartweeds (Polygonacene), to 3.22; mallows
(Malvaceae), 1.87; goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae), 0.75;
water milfoils (Haloragidaceae), 0.37; and miscellaneous,
4.51.
The 41 cinnamon teals examined had
made of animal matter 20.14 per cent of their food. This
consisted of insects, 10.19 per cent; mollusks, 8.69 per
cent; and a few small miscellaneous items, 1.26 per
cent.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and acquatic plants
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while in water
|
|
Habitat
|
Ponds, marsh, small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Eastern states, and Pacific coast
states
|
|
Breeding
|
Breeds in tree cavity; see
below
"Nest - In hollow in a tree usually
over or near water, but occassionally some distance from it;
composed of twigs, grasses and leaves, and lined with down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
This is one of the very few mentions
of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a woodpecker that is now
considered extinct.
Beau Brummel - the Wood Duck is
compared to Beau Brummel who is a literary figure who
represents a dandy, a person who is very concerned about
their appearance.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Spring: While wandering through the
dim cathedral aisles of a big cypress swamp in Florida,
where the great trunks of the stately trees towered straight
upward for a hundred feet or more until the branches
interlaced above so thickly that the sunlight could not
penetrate, we seemed to be lost in the gloom of a strange
tropical forest and far removed from the familiar sights and
sounds of the outside world. Only the frequent cries of the
omnipresent Florida red-shouldered
hawk and an occasional glimpse
of a familiar flycatcher or vireo, migrating northward
reminded us of home. But at last the light seemed to break
through the gloom, as we approached a little sunlit pond,
and there we saw some familiar friends, the center of
interest in a pretty picture, framed in the surroundings of
their winter home, warmed by the genial April sun and
perhaps preparing to leave for their northern summer home.
The sunlight filtering through the tops of the tall
cypresses which surrounded the pool shone full upon the
snowy forms of 50 or more white
ibises, feeding on the muddy
shores, dozing on the fallen logs, or perched upon the dead
stumps or surrounding trees; the air seemed full of them as
they rose and flew away. But with this dazzling cloud of
whiteness there arose from the still waters of the pool a
little flock of wood ducks, brilliant in their full nuptial
plumage, their gaudy colors flashing in the sunshine, as
they went whirring off through the tree tops. What a
beautiful creature is this Beau Brummel among birds and what
an exquisite touch of color he adds to the scene among the
water hyacinths of Florida or among the pond lilies of New
England.
The wood duck is a strictly North
American species and principally a bird of the United
States, for its summer range extends but a short distance
north of our borders, except in the warmer, central portions
of Canada, and even in winter it does not migrate far south
of us. It is one of the most widely distributed species,
breeding throughout most of its range and wintering more or
less regularly over much of its habitat in the United
States. For these reasons its migrations are not easily
traced except in the Northern States and Provinces. It is a
moderately early migrant, coming after the ice has left the
woodland ponds and timbered sloughs. Dr. F. Henry Yorke
(1899) says:
They arrive in three distinct issues,
after sunset and through the night, suddenly appearing in
the morning upon their accustomed haunts. The first stays
but a brief period, and depart. for the north to breed; the
second puts in an appearance a few days later, but soon
leaves to nest in the northern parts of the United States;
the third arrives directly after the second leaves and
scatters over the Middle States to nest. This issue forms
the local ducks of each State it breeds in.
Nesting: The wood duck has earned the
common name of "summer duck" on account of its breeding and
spending the summer so far south; it has also been called
the "tree duck" from its habit of nesting in trees. Its
favorite nesting site is in a fairly large natural cavity in
the trunk or large branch of a tree; it has no special
preference for any particular kind of tree and not much
choice as to its location; it probably would prefer to find
a suitable hollow tree near some body of water, but it is
often forced to select a tree at a long distance away from
it and sometimes very near the habitations of man. The size
and depth of the cavity selected vary greatly, and its
height from the ground may be anywhere from 3 or 4 feet to
40 or 50. If it can not find a natural cavity that suits its
taste, the wood duck occasionally occupies the deserted
nesting hole of one of the larger woodpeckers, such as the
ivory-billed or pileated
woodpecker, or even the
flicker; sometimes the former home of a fox squirrel or
other large squirrel is selected, in which case the old
nesting material, dry leaves and soft rubbish, is left in
the cavity and mixed with the down of the duck. Such
material is often found in the nest of the wood duck, but I
doubt if it is ever brought in by the bird.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Will feed on land and on the
water
|
|
Habitat
|
Small ponds, marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near water,
protected by tall vegetation. Breeds in Canada and the
US
"Nest - Usually on high ground, and
often a considerable distance from water; a slight
depression well lined with dry grass and weed stems and
abundantly supplied with light gray down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Baldpate is a former name used for the
American Wigeon.
postnuptial molt - a molt that takes
place after breeding
eclipse pluamge - a molt that
generally occurs during the summer when the flight feathers
molt out and the bird is temporarily flightless
vinaceous - having the color of red
wine
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
When about 4 or 5 weeks old, in
August, the young baldpate assumes its first complete
plumage, the wings being the last to reach full development.
In this first mottled plumage the sexes are much alike, but
in the male the gray feathers of the back begin to appear in
September and the progress toward maturity proceeds rapidly;
the brown mottled feathers of the back are replaced by the
gray vermiculated feathers of the adult and the mottling in
the breast disappears, leaving the clear vinaceous color of
maturity; so that by December or January the most forward
birds have acquired a plumage which closely resembles that
of the old bird, except on the wings, which still show the
gray mottling on the lesser wing coverts peculiar to young
birds. In some precocious individuals the lesser wing
coverts become nearly pure white before the first nuptial
season, but in most cases the immature wing is retained
until the first postnuptial molt, which is complete. With
both old and young birds the molt into the eclipse
plumage begins in June and the
molt out of this into the adult winter dress is not
completed until October or November. At this molt the white
lesser wing coverts are assumed by the young, old and young
birds becoming indistinguishable. The seasonal molts of the
adult consist of the prolonged double molt of the body
plumage, into the eclipse in June and July and out of the
eclipse in September and October, and the single molt of the
flight feathers in August. Old males in the eclipse plumage
closely resemble females, except for the wings, which are
always distinctive.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Will feed on land and on the
water
|
|
Habitat
|
Small ponds, marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
. Rare, but regular visitor to Pacific
coast states
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near
water, protected by tall vegetation
"Nest - On ground near water; built of
grasses and dead plants and well concealed."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
phalanx - a close knit
group
pugnacious - agressive, prone to
fighting
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship: The actual courtship of the
widgeon differs somewhat from that of other surface feeders,
and the display of the male bird is an interesting one. A
female having shown herself desirous of selecting a mate,
five or six males crowd closely round, hemming her in on
every side and persecuting her with their attentions. If she
swims away, they follow her in a close phalanx, every male
raising his crest, stretching out his neck close over the
water, and erecting the beautiful long feathers of the
scapulars to show them off. He also depresses the shoulder
joints downward, so as to elevate the primaries in the air.
All the time the amorous males keep up a perfect babble of
loud "Whee-ous," and they are by far the noisiest of ducks
in their courtship. Occasionally the cock birds fight and
drive each other off, but ducks are not, broadly speaking,
pugnacious birds, and success in winning the admiration of
the female is rather a matter of persistent and active
attention than physical force.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fish and small invertebrates; see
below
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives and swims underwater to catch
small fish.
|
|
Habitat
|
Small lakes and bays.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Eastern US and the Pacific coast
states; breeds in the midwest
|
|
Breeding
|
Perfers to nest in tree cavities but
will nest under shrubs, large rocks. Will also use
artificial nesting box. Competes with Goldeneyes for
cavities.
"Nest - In hollows of trees high above
ground and near or over water; built of grasses and weeds
and lined with down from the breast of the female."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The hooded merganser lives and
feeds almost exclusively on and in fresh water; I believe
that some of its food is obtained on the surface, but it is
an expert diver and finds much of its food on muddy or on
stony bottoms. Its food is mostly animal, and consists
largely of insects.
Like other mergansers, it is expert at chasing and catching
small fish, which probably constitute its chief supply; in
muddy pools it finds frogs and tadpoles and snails, and
other mollusks; on clear stony bottoms it obtains crawfish,
caddis fly larvae, and dragon-fly nymphs; sand eels, small
crustaceans, beetles, and various aquatic insects are also
eaten. It is also known to eat some vegetable food, the
roots of aquatic plants, seeds, and grain. Dr. F. Henry
Yorke (1899) recognized among its vegetable food the
following genera of water plants: Limnobium, Myriophyllum,
Callitriche, and Utricularia.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fish and small
invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives and swims underwater to catch
fish.
|
|
Habitat
|
During the non-breeding season it is
generally found in salt water; often in bays
|
|
Plumage
|
Male has breeding and non-breeding
plumage; non-breeding plumage is similar to female's
plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Non-breeding distribution is along
both coasts, breeds inland throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Perfers to nest in tree cavities but
will nest under shrubs, large rocks. Will also use
artificial nesting box.
"Nest - On marshy land in the vicinty
of salt water, usually under the shelter of a rock, bank, or
branch of a tree. A simple structure of leaves and grasses,
lined with down from the breast of the female parent."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship: The courtship of the
red-breasted merganser is a spectacular performance. I
(1911) have described it as observed at Ipswich as
follows:
The nuptial performance is always at
its best when several drakes are displaying their charms of
movement, voice, and plumage, before a single duck, and each
vies with the other in the ardor of the courtship. The drake
begins by stretching up his long neck so that the white ring
is much broadened, and the metallic green head, with its
long crest and its narrow red bill, makes a conspicuous
object. At once the bill is opened wide and the whole bird
stiffly bobs or teeters, as if on a pivot, in such a way the
breast and the lower part of the neck are immersed, while
the tail and posterior part of the body swing upward. This
motion brings the neck and head from a vertical position to
an angle of 45 degrees. All the motions are stiffly
executed, and suggest a formal but ungraceful
courtesy.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fish and small
invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives and swims underwater to catch
fish.
|
|
Habitat
|
Small lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters throughout most of the US;
breeds in Canada
|
|
Breeding
|
Perfers to nest in tree cavities but
will nest under shrubs, large rocks. Will also use
artificial nesting box.
"Nest - Usually in hollow trees along
wooded streams, less frequently on the ground; made of
twigs, grass, lichesn, etc., lined with down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
American Merganser - a previous name
for the Common Merganser
Harry Swarth worked with
Grinnell
at the U. C. Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: The American merganser is a
heavy-bodied bird and sometimes experiences considerable
difficulty in rising from the water; if the circumstances
are not favorable, it has to patter along the surface for a
considerable distance; when flying off an island it often
does the same thing unless it gets a good start from some
high place, so that it can swoop downward. In swift water it
has to rise down-stream, as it can make no headway against
the current; but it generally prefers to fly upstream if it
can. Mr. Aretas A. Saunders writes to me, in regard to the
flight of mated pairs, noted in Montana, "that they flew
off, with the male in the lead in each case," also "that
they left the water flying in a long, low slant upstream,
not rising high enough to see them above the willows that
lined the stream until they had flown a considerable
distance." When well under way the flight of this species is
strong, swift, and direct; on its breeding grounds it
usually flies low, along the courses of rivers or about the
shores of lakes, seldom rising above the tree tops; but on
its migrations it flies in small flocks, high in the air
with great velocity. The drake may be easily recognized in
flight by its large size, loon-like shape, its black and
white appearance above, dark green head and white
underparts; its flight is said to resemble that of the
mallard. The female closely resembles the female
red-breasted
merganser, but it is a more
heavily built bird, has a more continuous white patch in the
wings, the white tips of the greater coverts overlapping the
black bases of the secondaries, giving the appearance of a
large white speculum, whereas in the red-breasted merganser
the black bases of the secondaries show below the greater
coverts, forming a black stripe through the middle of the
white speculum. When flying to its nest cavity in a tree or
cliff it rises in a long upward curve and enters the hole
with speed and precision. Mr. Harry S. Swarth (1911) refers
to a peculiar habit which made this species quite
conspicuous throughout the summer, was that of individuals
rising high in the air and circling about for hours at a
time, uttering at frequent and regular intervals a most
unmelodious squawk. Both sexes were observed doing this, and
the habit was kept up until about the end of
August.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mollusks
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives and swims underwater to obtain
food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Non-breeding habitat is ocean coast,
breeding habitat is Canadian interior
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily found along both coasts
during non-breeding, breeds inland in Canada
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests away from water, sometimes in
woodland. Males leave when incubation begins.
"Nest - On ground concealed by shrubs,
and usually near fresh water; constructed of 'rubbish' and
down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior - The flight of the
white-winged scoter is heavy and apparently labored; it
seems to experience considerable difficulty in lifting its
heavy body from the surface of the water; except when facing
a strong wind, it has to patter along the surface for some
distance, using its feet to gain momentum. But, when well
under way, it is much swifter than it seems, is strong,
direct, and well sustained. Migrating flocks, in all sorts
of irregular formations, fly high under favorable
circumstances, but when flying against the wind or in stormy
weather (northeast storms seem to be particularly favorable
for the migration of the scoters) they fly close to the
water and in rough weather they take advantage of the eddies
between the waves.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mollusks and insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives for found
|
|
Habitat
|
Non-breeding habitat is ocean coast,
breeding habitat is Canadian interior and Alaska
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily found along both coasts
during non-breeding, breeds inland in Canada and
Alaska
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests away from water; male leaves
when incubation begins. Females will often combine their
young and raise them together.
"Nest - On ground near water, well
concealed, usually built of grasses and lined with
dark-colored down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The food and feeding habits of
the surf scoter are practically the same as those of the
other scoters and other diving sea ducks. Their food
consists almost entirely of various small mollusks, such as
mussels, sea clams, scallops, and small razor clams. The
large beds of the common black mussel which are so numerous
and so extensive in the tidal passages of our bays and
harbors or on outlying shoals are their favorite feeding
grounds. Large flocks, often immense rafts, of scoters spend
the winter within easy reach of such beds, which they visit
daily at certain stages of the tide; although they can dive
to considerable depths to obtain food if necessary. They
evidently prefer to feed at moderate or shallow depths and
choose the most favorable times to visit the beds which can
be most easily reached. Their crops are crammed full of the
small shellfish, which are gradually ground up with the help
of small stones in their powerful stomachs and the soft
parts are digested. A small amount of vegetable matter, such
as eelgrass and algae, is often taken in with the other
food, perhaps only incidentally. Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899)
says that, on the lakes of the interior, "it feeds on
shellfish, especially mussels, crayfish, and fish spawn;
besides a few bulbs of aquatic plants."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mollusks
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives for food
|
|
Habitat
|
Non-breeding habitat is ocean coast,
breeding habitat is Canadian interior and Alaska
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily found along both coasts
during non-breeding, breeds inland in Canada
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests away from water; male leaves
when incubation begins.
"Nest - On ground, sometimes hidden in
cliffs or in hollows of steep banks; made of dry leaves,
grass, feathers and down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Young: Nothing seems to be known about
the period of incubation. This duty is performed solely by
the female, who is entirely deserted by the male at this
season. Doctor Nelson (1887) writes:
As the set of eggs is completed, the
male gradually loses interest in the female and soon deserts
her to join great flocks of his kind along the seashore,
usually keeping in the vicinity of a bay, inlet, or the
mouth of some large stream. These flocks are formed early in
June and continue to grow larger until the fall migration
occurs. Males may be found in the marshes with females all
through the season, but these are pairs which breed late. A
set of fresh eggs was taken on August 3, and a brood of
downy young was obtained on September 9. The habits of these
flocks of males are very similar to those of the male elders
at this season. They are good weather indicators, and
frequently, 10 or 20 hours in advance of a storm, they come
into the sheltered bays, sometimes to the number of a
thousand or more. At such times they show great uneasiness,
and frequently pass hours in circling about the bay,
sometimes a hundred yards high and again close over the
water, the shrill whistling of their wings making a noise
which is distinctly audible nearly or quite half a mile.
Until the young are about half grown the female usually
keeps them in some large pond near the nesting place, but as
August passes they gradually work their way to the coast and
are found, like the eiders of the same age, along the reefs
and about the shores of the inner bays until able to
fly.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Fish and invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while underwater
|
|
Habitat
|
Open ocean and tundra ponds
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Northeast coast
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest, which is a depression in the
ground, is close to water and lined with vegetation and
down.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Eiders obtain their food almost
wholly by diving to moderate depths; almost any kind of
marine animal life is acceptable and easily digested in
their powerful gizzards; most of it is found on or about the
sunken ledges or submerged reefs off rocky shores, which
support a rank growth of various seaweeds and a profusion of
marine invertebrates. They prefer to feed at low tide when
the food supply is only a few fathoms below the surface;
they often dive to depths of 6 or 8 fathoms and sometimes 10
fathoms, but when forced by the rising tide to too great
exertion in diving, they move off to some other feeding
ground or rest and play until the tide favors them again.
They are usually very regular in their feeding habits,
resorting to certain ledges every day at certain stages of
the tides, as long as the food supply lasts. They seem to
prefer to feed by daylight and to roost on some inaccessible
rock to sleep at night. Many other ducks are forced to feed
at night, as they are constantly disturbed on their feeding
grounds during the day; but the eider's feeding grounds are
so rough and inaccessible that they are seldom disturbed.
Even in rough weather these tough and hardy birds may be
seen feeding about the ledges white with breakers; they are
so strong and so expert in riding the waves and in dodging
the breakers that they do not seem to care how rough it is.
I have seen them feeding, off our eastern coasts in winter,
in water so rough that no boat could approach
them.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mollusks and other
invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while underwater
|
|
Habitat
|
Winters along both coasts, and breeds
on inland fresh water sources
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
The northwest, and northeast; also
Pacific coast states
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest, which is a depression in the
ground, is close to water and lined with vegetation and
down.
"Nest - On ground under logs,
driftwood or rocks, sometimes in stump near water and lined
with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Harlequin ducks are fond of feeding in
rough water along rocky shores or in the surf just off the
beaches, where they ride the waves lightly and dive through
the breakers easily and skillfully. They dive so quickly
that they often escape at the flash of a gun. In diving the
wings are usually half opened as if they intended to use the
wings in flight under water, which they probably
do.
The peculiar whistling note of this
duck has been likened to the cry of a mouse, whence it has
been called the " sea-mouse " on the coast of
Maine.
Mr. Bretherton (1891) describes it as
"'a shrill whistle descending in cadence from a high to a
lower note, commencing with two long notes and running off
in a long trill." Mr. Millais (1913) writes:
When first arriving at the breeding
grounds in flocks in early May they are very restless,
constantly flying to and fro, whilst the females utter their
usual call of Ek-ek--ek-ek," to which the males respond with
a low or hoarse "flu" or "Heh-lieh." These calls they also
frequently make in winter, and I have heard single females
uttering their cry constantly when flying, as if they had
lost their companions and were seeking them. When they are
paired both sexes utter a different note, "Gi-uk." and this
note is used at all times when the pair meet, until the
males leave the females at the end of June.
Mr. Aretas A. Sauntleis writes
me:
I heard these birds call several
times. True call note is usually uttered when on the wing.
It sounded to me like ' op-oy-oy-oy " rapidly repeated
usually seven or eight times. I never heard the note from
any but the males, and it was usually uttered when in
pursuit of one of the females.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mollusks, crustaceans
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while underwater
|
|
Habitat
|
Coastal waters during winter; breeds
on pools on the tundra
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters along both coasts
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest, which is a depression in the
ground, is close to water and lined with vegetation and
down.
"Nest - On ground near water, built of
grass and lined with dark-colored down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship John G. Millais (1913)
writes:
As previously stated, the actual
courtship of the male is generally aroused and brought about
by the sexual desire of the female, and amongst ducks the
females are very irregular as to the time of their coming
into season. Thus only one or perhaps two females in a large
flock may be well advanced in their summer plumage and their
breeding instincts, and these are the special objects of
desire of all the males. I have noticed a bunch of 8 or 10
females swimming apart and not a male going near them,
whilst 10 or 15 males crowd round some particular female and
lavish upon her all their arts of charm. The most common
attitude of the male in courtship is to erect the tail,
stiffen the neck to its fullest extent, and then lower it
toward the female with a sudden bow, the bill being held
outward and upward. As the head curves down, the call is
emitted. Sometimes the head is held out along the water
before the female, who herself often adopts this attitude,
or makes a "guttering note of appreciation with head held in
close to the body. Another common attitude of the male is to
throw the head right back till it almost touches the
scapulars, the bill pointing to the heavens. As the bird
throws the head forward again the call is emitted. Many
males will closely crowd round a female, all going through
the same performance. It is not long before a fight starts
amongst the males, so that the lady of the tourney is in the
midst of a struggling clamorous mass of squabbling knights,
each endeavoring to show his qualifications to love by his
extravagant gestures or strength. To add to the confusion,
any male long-tails in the neighborhood are sure to hear the
noise and come flying in all haste to take part in the
jousts. Even males still in full winter plumage will come
and be almost, if not quite, as active as the rest. They
advance with all haste, swaying from side to side, their
sharp-pointed wings being only arrested when almost above
the contest. Then they close the wings in mid-air and dash
into the fray with all their ardour. So impetuous and
gallant are males of this species that they will chase each
other for long distances, falling often in the sea and
sending the spray flying; down they go under the water and
emerge almost together on the surface to continue the chase
in mid-air. I have twice seen a male when flying seize
another by the nape and both come tumbling head over heels
into the sea in mad confusion.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly plant material
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while underwater
|
|
Habitat
|
Large bodies of water such as lakes,
estuaries
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters Pacific coast states and
southeastern states; breeds interior western
states
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest on land near water,
protected by tall vegetation.
"Nest - In a clump of reeds or tules
in a shallow pond or slough but generally near a larger body
of water; a large structure of reeds or tules well lined
with gray down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Nesting: In the summer of 1901 we
found the canvasbacks breeding quite abundantly in Steele
County, North Dakota. Even then their breeding grounds were
being rapidly encroached upon by advancing civilization
which was gradually draining and cultivating the sloughs in
which this species nests. Since that time they have largely,
if not wholly disappeared from that region, as breeding
birds, and their entire breeding range is becoming more and
more restricted every year, as the great northwestern plains
are being settled and cultivated for wheat and other
agricultural products. This and other species of ducks are
being driven farther and farther north and must ultimately
become exterminated unless large tracts of suitable land can
be set apart as breeding reservations, where the birds can
find congenial surroundings. As my experience with the
nesting habits of the canvasback in North Dakota will serve
to illustrate its normal methods, I can not do better than
to quote from what I (1902) have already published on the
subject, as follows:
The principal object of our visit to
the sloughs in Steele County was to study the breeding
habits of the canvasbacks; so, soon after our arrival here,
late in the afternoon of June 7, we put on our hip-boots and
started in to explore the northern end of the big slough
shown in the photograph. In the large area of open water we
could see several male canvasbacks and a few redheads
swimming about, well out of gun range. Wading out through
the narrow strip of reeds surrounding the open water, and
working along the outer edge of these, we explored first the
small isolated patches of reeds shown in the foreground of
the picture. The water here was more than knee-deep, and in
some places we had to be extremely careful not to go in over
the tops of our boots so that progress was quite slow. We
had hardly been wading over 10 minutes when, as I approached
one of these reed patches, I heard a great splashing, and
out rushed a large, light-brown duck which, as she circled
past me, showed very plainly the long sloping head and
pointed bill of the canvasback. A short search in the thick
clump of tall reeds soon revealed the nest with its 11 eggs,
8 large, dark-colored eggs of the canvasback and 3 smaller
and lighter eggs of the redhead. It was a large nest built
upon a bulky mass of wet dead reeds, measuring 18 inches by
23 inches in outside diameter, the rim being built up 6
inches above the water, the inner cavity being about 8
inches across by 4 inches deep. It was lined with smaller
pieces of dead reeds and a little gray down. The small patch
of reeds was completely surrounded by open water about
knee-deep, and the nest was so well concealed in the center
of it as to be invisible from the outside. The eggs were
also collected on that day, and proved to be very much
advanced in incubation.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
acquatic plants, small vertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Lakes, marshes, estuaries
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters throughout much of the
US
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest built in dense marsh. Redheads
sometimes deposit eggs in other Redhead nests. Highest known
number of eggs in one nest: 87
"Nest - On ground among thick weeds or
grass, or in rushes and over water; constructed of weeds,
grasses or rushes." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Unios refers to a European mollusk.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The favorite feeding grounds of
the redhead during the summer are in the open lakes of the
interior where it dives in deep water or in shallower places
to obtain the roots and bulbs of aquatic plants or almost
any green shoots which it can find; it is not at all
particular about its food and is a gluttonous feeder. It
also dabbles with the surface-feeding ducks in the muddy
shallows where it finds insects, frogs, tadpoles, and even
small fishes and water lizards. Audubon
(1840) says that "on several occasions" he has "found pretty
large acorns and beechnuts in their throats, as well as
snails, entire or broken, and fragments of the shells of
various small unios, together with much gravel."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
acquatic plants
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Small lakes, ponds
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters in southern half of the
US
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest built near water.
"Nest - In grass of marsh land, over
or near water; made of grass stems and sparingly lined with
down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship: Audubon
(1840) refers briefly to the courtship of this species as
follows:
They have an almost constant practice
of raising the head in a curved manner, partially erecting
the occipital feathers, and emitting a note resembling the
sound produced by a person blowing through a tube. At the
approach of spring the males are observed repeating this
action every now and then while near the females, none of
which seem to pay the least attention to their
civilities.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
acquatic plants
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Variety of water habitats; during the
winter can be found in salt-water habitats.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Found along the west, south and east
coast during the winter.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is built on land, near water,
protected by tall vegetation. Breeds in north part of
Canada.
"Nest - In tall grass on dry ground,
usually not far from water; made of grass and weeds, and
well lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Nesting: The best known, and probably
the most populous, breeding grounds of the greater scaup
duck are in northern Alaska. Dr.
Joseph Grinnell (1900)
describes three nests, which he found in the Kotzebue Sound
region, as follows:
In the Kowak Delta this species was
quite common in June, and on the 14th of that month I took a
set of 11 fresh eggs, also securing the female as she
flushed from the nest. This nest was on a high, dry hummock,
about 10 yards from the edge of a lake. It was almost hidden
from view by tall, dead grass of the previous years growth.
The eggs rested on a bed of finely broken grass stems, while
the rim of the nest was indicated by a narrow margin of
down. A second set of 10 fresh eggs was taken on the same
day and the nest was similar in construction, but was out on
the tundra between two lakes, and fully a quarter of a mile
from either. A set of seven fresh eggs taken on the 15th was
quite differently situated. The nest was almost without
feathers or down, and consisted of a neat saucer of matted
dry grass blades, supported among standing marsh grass and
about 4 inches above the water. It was in a broad, marshy
swab about 30 feet from a small pond of open water. The
swale was drained into the main river channel by a slough,
so that in this case there was little danger of a rise in
the water of more than an inch or two.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
acquatic plants
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Marsh ponds, lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Winters southern half of US and
Pacific coast states
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest is built on land, near water,
protected by tall vegetation.
"Nest - Concealed in grass near water;
composed of dry grass stems and lined with down."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Fulix aftinis and Fulix mania are the
former scientific names for the Greater and Lesser Scaup
Intergradation - hybrid. When two
species breed and create a hybrid. Notes
on a Northern Flicker intergrade.
Also, the hybrid
Avocet/Black necked Stilt.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Unlike the larger scaup duck, this
species is distinctly an American duck, but of wider
distribution on this continent. It is more essentially an
inland species, showing a decided preference for the smaller
lakes, ponds, marshes, and streams, whereas its larger
relative seems to prefer the larger lakes in the interior
and the seacoast in winter. Its breeding range is more
extensive and its center of abundance during the breeding
season is much farther south, its chief breeding grounds
being in the prairie regions of central Canada and the
Northern States. Though differing in distribution and in
their haunts, the two species are closely related and much
alike in appearance, so much so that so good an observer as
Audubon
failed to distinguish them; nearly all that he wrote about
them evidently referred to the lesser scaup, with which he
was most familiar, and he criticized Wilson for some of his
remarks which evidently referred to the greater scaup. Adult
males of the two species are, of course, easily recognized,
but the females and young birds are so much alike and vary
so much in size that they are often confused. Rev. W. F.
Henninger writes me that a series of Fulix aftinis which he
has examined measure up to the minimum measurements given
for Fulix mania and that the males show both purple and
green reflections on the head; this suggests the possibility
of intergradation between the two species.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
acquatic plants
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Marsh ponds, lakes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Rare visitor to the US
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
This widely distributed Palaearctic
species is closely related to our ring-necked duck and might
be said to replace it throughout its extensive breeding
range from western Europe to extreme eastern Asia. Audubon
(1840) says, referring to the ring-necked duck:
We are indebted for the discovery of
this species to my friend the Prince of Musignanoj who first
pointed out the difference between it and the tufted duck of
Europe. The distinctions that exist in the two species he
ascertained about the time of my first acquaintance with him
at Philadelphia in 1824, when he was much pleased on seeing
my drawing of a male and a female, which I had made at
Louisville, in Kentucky, previous to Wilson's visit to me
there. Wilson supposed it identical with the European
species.
Mr. Ned bluster (1919) has also
referred to this relationship. There is, so far as I know,
but one record of the capture of a tufted duck in North
American territory, for which we are indebted to Dr. Barton
W. Evermann (1913) who reported the capture of a female on
St. Paul Island, Alaska, on May 9,1911. "The bird was
accompanied by the male which escaped."
I have never seen this species in
life, but fortunately Mr. J. G. Millais (1913) has written a
very full and satisfactory life history of it from which I
shall quote, as follows:
Throughout its range the tufted duck
is essentially an inhabitant of open sheets of fresh water,
preferring those of moderate size that have a considerable
depth in the center, and whose shallows are overgrown with
reeds and other aquatic plants. They also like lakes with
numerous islands and backwater, not too narrow, where they
can sit and preen in the shallows in non-feeding hours, and
whose vegetation gives them protection from the wind. In
fact, all ducks that frequent open lakes of fresh water
dislike drafts and take full advantage of the cover that
grows along the 'banks, either sitting under the lee, or
resting and diving at such a distance from shore that some
protection is afforded. It is only in still weather or
moderate breezes that they assemble in numbers on the open
and deep parts of a lake, or when subject to frequent
disturbance.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects,
and other invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Variety of water habitats; during the
winter can be found in salt water.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the United States during
the winter.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in tree cavity. Breeds in
Canada.
"Nest - In cavities in trees over
water; a lining of down on the resitual rotten wood or other
debris." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Nesting: The American goldeneye, so
far as I know, invariably places its nest in a cavity in a
tree, preferably in a large natural cavity and often
entirely open at the top. Considerable variation is shown in
the selection of a suitable nesting site, which depends on
the presence of hollow trees. Near Eskimo Point, on the
south coast of the Labrador Peninsula, I found a nest on
June 10,1909, in a white birch stub on the hare crest of a
gravel cliff over 100 feet above the beach. The stub, which
stood in an entirely open place, was 6 feet in circumference
and about 18 feet high, broken and open at the top down to
about 12 feet from the ground. A female goldeneye flew out
of the large cavity, in which were 15 handsome, green eggs
on a soft bed of rotten chips and white down. The nest was
about a foot below the front edge of the cavity. I have
never seen another nest in such an open and exposed
situation.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Invertebrates
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Winter it is found in boastal waters
and rivers and during breeding season tends to be found in
inland water habitats.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
During the winter it is generally
found in the northwest down to Colorado.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in tree cavity. Breeds in
Canada.
"Nest - In hollows in trees; built of
grass, sticks and other debris, and usually lined with white
down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: The food of the Barrow goldeneye
seems to be the same as that of the common species. Dr. F.
Henry Yorke (1899) records it as feeding on minnows and
small fishes, slugs, snails, and mussels, frogs, and
tadpoles, in the way of animal food; he has also found in
its food considerable vegetable matter, such as teal moss,
blue flag, duckweed, water plantain, pouchweed, water
milfoil, water starwort, bladderwort, and pickerel weed Mr.
Munro (1918) says:
The feeding habits of the two species
of goldeneye are identical. Both species are greatly
attracted by the small crawfish lurking under large stones
in shallow water. While hunting these shellfish, the ducks
work rapidly along the shore, diving every few minutes, to
probe under the edges of the large stones. They invariably
try to submerge even if the water is not deep enough to
cover their backs, and I have never seen them dipping as
redheads
and scaups frequently do. One can follow the goldeneye's
movement as it encircles the large stones, by the commotion
on the surface and by frequent glimpses of the duck's back.
In shallow water, the birds remain below from 15 to 20
seconds, the crawfish being brought to the surface to be
swallowed. By the end of winter the feathers on the forehead
are generally worn off, through much rubbing against stones
in this manner of foraging.
When feeding in deep water, over the
beds of Potamogeton,
they stay in the same place until satisfied. In such places
the small snails and crustacea that attach themselves to the
stems of Potamogeton form their chief food, but little
vegetable matter being taken beyond what is eaten with the
shells. The small shellfish are swallowed while the birds
are below the surface of the water, unlike the procedure
followed with the larger crawfish. Their stay under water is
of fairly uniform duration, ranging from 50 to 55 seconds.
At the beginning of the dive the tail is raised and spread
to its full extent.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives underwater to obtain food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Variety of water habitats; during the
winter can be found on salt water.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
During the winter it is found
throughout the west and the southeast.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in Canada. Uses tree cavity for
nest.
"Nest - In hollow stump or tree, near
water; lined with down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Maj. Allan Brooks (1903) thus
describes the breeding habits of the bufflehead in the
Caribou district of British Columbia:
Almost every lake has one or more
pairs of these charming little ducks. Unlike
Barrow's
goldeneye, the nests were
always in trees close to or but a short distance away from
water. These nests were invariably the deserted nesting
holes of flickers,
and in most cases had been used several years in succession
by the ducks. The holes were in aspen trees, from 5 to 20
feet from the ground, and the entrance was not more than
31/2 inches in diameter. The number of eggs ranged from 2 to
9, 8 being the average; in color they resemble old ivory,
without any tinge of green. I have several times seen the
eggs of this duck described as "dusky green,' but these have
evidently been the eggs of some species of teal. The female
Bufflehead is a very close sitter, never leaving the nest
until the hole was sawed out, and in most cases I had to
lift the bird and throw her up in the air, when she would
make a bee line for the nearest lake, where her mate would
be slowly swimming up and down unconscious of the violation
of his hole. In many cases the eggs had fine cracks,
evidently made by the compression of the bird's body when
entering the small aperture.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds, plant roots
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Obtains food by diving underwater.
|
|
Habitat
|
Variety of water habitats
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Western United States and the
Southeast. Only widespread member of the oxyura genus.
Population not strong due to loss of breeding
habitat.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest placed in dense marsh vegetation.
Nests in the midwest and western interior states.
"Nest - Always close to water, agove
or sometimes floating upon it, and usually concealed in
tules; constructed of dry tules and lined with dull whitish
down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
They alight on the water more heavily
than most others that are not equally flattened and short in
the body, but they move on that element with ease and grace,
swimming deeply immersed, and procuring their food
altogether by diving, at which they are extremely expert.
They are generally disposed to keep under the lee of shores
on all occasions. When swimming without suspicion of danger
they carry the tail elevated almost perpendicularly and
float lightly on the water; but as soon as they are alarmed,
they immediately sink deeper, in the manner of the
anhinga,
grebes, and cormorants, sometimes going out of sight without
leaving a ripple on the water. On small ponds they often
dive and conceal themselves among the grass along the shore,
rather than attempt to escape by flying, to accomplish which
with certainty they would require a large open space. I saw
this very often when on the plantation of General Herriandez
in east Florida. If wounded, they dived and hid in the
grass, but, as the ponds there were shallow, and had the
bottom rather firm, I often waded out and pursued them. Then
it was that I saw the curious manner in which they used
their tail when swimming, employing it now as a rudder, and
again with a vertical motion the wings being also slightly
opened, and brought into action as well as the
feet.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and grains
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on land primarily
|
|
Habitat
|
Open country, marsh ponds
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Small pockets in southeast California,
Arizona, and Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests in tree cavity
"Nest - Usually in hollow trees, often
at a considerable distance from water; lining, if any,
scant, consisting of feathers and down." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Behavior: Colonel Grayson, in his
notes, quoted by Mr. Lawrence (1874), says:
This duck perches with facility on the
branches of trees, and when in the cornfields, upon the
stalks, in order to reach the ears of corn. Large flocks of
them spend the day on the bank of some secluded lagoon,
densely bordered with woods or water flags, also sitting
among the branches of trees, not often feeding or stirring
about during the day. When upon the wing they constantly
utter their peculiar whistle of pe-che-che-ne, from which
they have received their name from the natives. (The other
species is called Durado) I have noticed that this species
seldom lights in deep water, always prefering the shallow
water edges. or the ground; the cause of this may be from
the fear of the numerous alligators that usually infest the
lagoons.
When taken young, or the eggs hatched
under the common barnyard hen, they become very domestic
without being confined; they are very watchful during the
night, and, like the goose, give the alarm by their shrill
whistle when any strange animal or person comes about the
house. A lady of my acquaintance possessed a pair which she
said were as good as the best watchdog; I also had a pair
which were equally as vigilant, and very docile.
Doctor Sanford (1903)
writes:
In April, 1901, I found these birds
abundant in the vicinity of Tampico, Mexico. They were most
often seen in small flocks of from 4 to 10 on the banks at
the edge of the lagoon. Their long legs gave them an odd
look. At our approach they would run together, raising their
long necks much like geese. The flight was peculiar and
characteristic, low down and in a line, their large wings
with white hands presenting a striking aspect, and giving
the impression of a much larger bird. We saw them
occasionally on the smaller ponds, and shot several, all of
them males. In one or two instances the appearance of the
breast indicated the bird had been sitting on eggs. While
the males of this species are supposed to attend to their
own affairs during the period of incubation, it would seem
as if they occasionally assisted in nesting duties. Once or
twice I saw them near small ponds in woods, apparently
nesting, flying from tree to tree with perfect ease,
exhibiting some concern at our presence.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Omnivorous. Eats both plants and
animals.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dabbles on the surface of the water.
|
|
Habitat
|
Marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have similar plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southeastern United States
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Nesting: Audubon (1840) was the first
to describe the nesting habits of this duck, although at the
time he did not consider it as anything but a common
black
duck. He writes:
On the 30th of April, 1837, my son
discovered a nest on Galveston Island. in Texas. It was
formed of grass and feathers, the eggs eight in number,
lying on the former, surrounded with the down and some
feathers of the bird, to the height of about 3 inches. The
internal diameter of the nest was about 6 inches, and its
walls were nearly 3 in thickness. The female was sitting,
but flew off in silence as he approached. The situation
selected was a clump of tall slender grass, on a rather
sandy ridge, more than a hundred yards from the nearest
water, but surrounded by partially dried salt
marshes.
Mr. George F. Simmons (1915) thus
describes a nest found in a prairie pond near Houston,
Texas:
As is the case with all ponds in this
section of prairie, the whole with the exception of a small
spot near the center was thickly covered with tall grass,
rushes, water plants of various sorts, and sprinkled with a
few bushes or reeds, locally known as "coffee-bean" or
''senna."
The nest itself was placed about 8
inches up in thick marsh grass and rushes, over water 4
inches deep, and was neatly hidden by the tops of the
grasses and rushes being drawn together over the nest. It
was but 2 or 3 inches thick, a slightly concave saucer of
dead, huffy rushes and marsh grass, supported by the thick
grasses and by two small "coffee-bean" reeds. The lining was
of smaller sections and fragments of the rushes and marsh
grass, and a small quantity of cotton; and the 11 eggs were
well, though not thickly surrounded by down and soft
feathers evidently from the breast of the parent.
Mr. George B. Benners (1887) found
three nests near Corpus Christi, Texas; "the nests were
built on the edge of the river's bank and were so carefully
concealed that if the birds had not flown up we would never
have noticed them." Mr. James J. Carroll (1900) says that in
Refugio County, Texas, it "breeds along the mainland near
the beach and on the islands in April."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Mostly invertebrates; varies with the
season
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dives into the water from the surface
to look for prey.
|
|
Habitat
|
Bays and lagoons
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Northeast coast
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Wilheim
Steller is the Russian/German
naturalist that the Steller's
Jay, and Steller Sea Lion is
named after, in addition to the Steller's Eider.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
This beautiful and oddly marked duck
was first described by the Russian naturalist, Pallas, who
named it after its discoverer.
Steller obtained the first specimens on the coast of
Kamchatka, which is near the center of its abundance and not
far from its principal breeding grounds in northeastern
Siberia. Illustrating the abundance of this species on the
Siberian coast of Berring Sea, Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883)
writes:
The first night of our arrival was
calm and misty, the water having that peculiar glassy
smoothness seen at such times, and the landscape rendered
indistinct at a short distance by a slight mistiness. Soon
after we came to anchor before the native village this body
of birds arose from the estuary a mile or two beyond the
natives' huts and came streaming out in a flock which
appeared endless. It was fully 3 to 4 miles in length, and
considering the species which made up this gathering of
birds it was enough to make an enthusiastic ornithologist
wild with a desire to possess some of the beautiful
specimens which were seen flying by within gunshot of the
vessel.
Mr. F. S. Hersey's notes of July 26,
1914, state:
As we steamed into St. Lawrence Bay
there appeared in the distance a long low, sandy island
known as Lutke Island. As we drew nearer we could see a
cloud of birds hovering above it which our glasses showed us
were Arctic terns. The island itself was very low, hardly
above the sea level, and as we looked at it seemed to be
strewn with small black rocks. With our glasses, however, we
could see some movement among these black objects. At last
we made them out to be birds, then suddenly they arose and
swept out toward us, their black and white plumage flashing
in the sunlight, and we saw that they were elders. There
were many kings and Pacifics among them, and these separated
from the main flock and went out to sea, but the remainder,
which were Steller elders, returned to the farther side of
the island. A boat was soon lowered and a party of us put
off from the ship. When we landed and started to walk across
the island the eiders again took flight but soon settled on
the water a short distance offshore. They were not at all
shy. While we stayed on the island small parties of from 2
or 3 to 5 or 10 were constantly flying back and forth, often
close to us, although we were in plain sight at all times,
for the island offered no concealment. We had no difficulty
in obtaining all the specimens we wanted.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Dabbles on the surface of the
water.
|
|
Habitat
|
Freshwater marshes
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southwest US
|
|
Breeding
|
"Nest - Usually on ground in marsh or
near water, well built and often well concealed; reported as
occasionally situated in hollow trees; built of grass and
sparsely lined with down and feathers." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Eggs: Either the fulvous tree duck
lays an extraordinary number of eggs or several females lay
in the same nest. Mr. Shields (1899) says:
We subsequently found about a dozen
nests, all similarly situated, and most of them containing
from 17 to 28, 30, 31, and 82 eggs. The smallest set found
was of 9 and another of 11 eggs, both evidently being
incomplete, as the nests were not finished and incubation
had not commenced.
Authentic sets of as many as 36 eggs
are in existence and probably much larger numbers have been
found according to F. S. Barnhart (1901), who
writes:
From time to time since 1895
pothunters have told wonderful stories of finding large
numbers of eggs piled up on bunches of dead grass and on
small knolls that rose above the water in the swamps. The
number of eggs in these nests ranged from 30 to 100 or more,
according to report, and in not a few cases the finder has
brought the eggs with him in order to prove that what he
said was true.
Probably the large numbers referred to
by Mr. Barnhart are surplus eggs laid by various individuals
and never incubated; and perhaps some of the large sets in
collections are the product of more than one female.
Evidently the fulvous tree duck is careless in its laying
habits, for Mr. Shields (1899) speaks of finding eggs of
this species in the nests of the redhead and the ruddy duck.
All of the slough-nesting ducks seem to be careless about
laying in each other's nests and to have the habit of using
"dumping nests" in which large numbers of eggs are laid and
forgotten.
In shape the eggs are bluntly ovate,
short ovate, or oval. The shell is usually smooth and
without gloss, but in many specimens, probably those that
have been incubated, the shell is quite glossy and minutely
pitted. The color varies from white to huffy white, but the
eggs are often much stained with deep shades of buff. The
measurements of 212 eggs, in various collections, average
53.4 by 40.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure 59.9 by 40.4, 52.5 by 44.03, 49.1 by 39.7 and 51.7
by 37.6 millimeters.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Omnivorous
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds from the ground and utilizes its
strong feet to stir up food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Farm area, wetlands, open areas.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
Male has very colorful plumage
and female has camolflaged
plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Found throughout the United States
except the southern states.
|
|
Breeding
|
Lay many eggs and young are
precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Introduced
species; see below.
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Although some of the earlier English
settlers in North America called the ruffed
grouse the pheasant, a name
that is still retained in the southern parts of its range,
no true pheasants are native, nor were they successfully
introduced into America until 1881, when Judge O. N. Denny,
then American consul general at Shanghai, China, after a
previous unsuccessful attempt, sent 30 ring-necked pheasants
to Oregon. Of these 26 survived and were liberated in the
Willamette Valley. Two years later more were sent (Shaw,
1908). Although several early attempts at introduction were
made, the first successful introduction of pheasants into
the East was in 1887 by Rutherford Stuyvesant, who brought
over a number of birds from England and liberated them on
his estate at Allamuchy, N. J. In the nineties, pheasants
were brought from England and liberated in various places in
Massachusetts and elsewhere.
The bird proved to be remarkably hardy
and prolific and spread rapidly, partly by natural increase
and partly by artificial breeding in private and State
farms, and by the shipment of eggs and birds to new sections
of the country. The bird thrives in the North, but south of
Baltimore and Washington, according to Dr. J. C. Phillips
(1928), although there have been many attempts at
introduction, "the stock does not hold out long if thrown on
its own resources.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
The seeds and needles of conifers
and
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds from the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Mixed forests in mountains. Habitat is
threatened. Does better in original forests.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Mountains in the west
|
|
Breeding
|
Constructs nest on the ground. Young
are precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
In a single instance only, with a
brood about ten days old, have I noted the presence of both
parents. Perched upon a fallen tree the male seemed to be on
the lookout, while the female and young were feeding close
by. This seeming indifference of the male while the brood is
very young, allowing his mate to protect them, if he really
is always near at hand, looks very strange, and yet it may
be the case, since he is generally with the covey when the
young are well grown. Directly the young are able to travel,
the hen Grouse leads them to some desirable opening,
skirting the timber or gulch, where bearberries, wild
raspberries, gooseberries, and currants, as well as
grasshoppers, worms, and grubs are abundant, managing them
just as the domestic hen does her brood. The young grow
rapidly, and when about two weeks old can do a little with
their wings; then, instead of hiding on the ground, they
flush and endeavor to conceal themselves in the standing
timber. Until almost fully grown they are very foolish;
flushed, they will tree at once, in the silly belief that
they are out of danger, and will quietly suffer themselves
to be pelted with clubs and stones till they are struck down
one after another. With a shotgun, of course the whole covey
is bagged without much trouble, and as they are, in my
opinion, the most delicious of all Grouse for the table,
they are gathered up unsparingly.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Sage leaves, buds.
Also
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking on the
ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Sagebrush
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Western interior states
|
|
Breeding
|
Shallow depression under sagebrush
with sparse lining. Young are precocial
and leave nest almost as soon as they are hatched.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The range of the sage grouse is
limited to the arid plains of the Northwestern States and
the southwestern Provinces, where the sagebrush
(Artemisia
tridentata and other species)
grows; hence it is well named sage grouse or cock of the
plains. Its range stops where the sagebrush is replaced by
greasewood in the more southern deserts. Like the
prong-horned antelope, another child of the arid plains, it
has disappeared from much of its former range, as the
country became more thickly settled and these large birds
were easily shot. It has been said that the sage was made
for this grouse and this grouse for the sage, where it is
thoroughly at home and where its colors match its
surroundings so well that it is nearly invisible while
squatting among the lights and shades of the desert
vegetation. It seldom wanders far from the sagebrush, but
may be found occasionally in the shade of the narrow line of
trees that marks the course of some small stream. Dwight W.
Huntington (1897) describes its haunts very well, as
follows:
I found the Sage Grouse most abundant
in the vicinity of Fort Bridger and south to the Uintah
Mountains. Here the tufted fields of the gray-green sage
sweep up to the sides and walls of the adjacent "bad lands,"
or buttes, devoid of vegetation but beautiful in color and
fantastic in form. The buttes are strangely fashioned by
erosion, and are full of the fossil remains of animals and
fishes. Numerous domes, spires, and pinnacles surmount the
buttes and the conglomerate layers running about them have
been compared to Egyptian carving. Towards the southwest are
the blue Uintah Mountains, with snow flashing on their
crests all summer, and towards the east the vast plain of
sage extends as far as the eye can reach, blending at the
horizon into an azure sky. The trout streams which issue
from the mountain side become the small rivers of the
plains, flowing at long intervals and nourishing a narrow
line of verdure or a yellow screen of cottonwood, which
marks their course. It is along such streams that the sage
grouse hunter must pitch his camp.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Omnivorous
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking on the
ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Deciduous woods
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Northern United States
|
|
Breeding
|
Female lines depression in ground with
leaves, feathers etc.; young are precocious
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Spring: During the first warm days of
early spring the wanderer in our New England woods is
gladdened and thrilled by one of the sweetest sounds of that
delightful season, the throbbing heart, as it were, of
awakening spring. On the soft, warm, still air there comes
to his eager ears the sound of distant, muffled drumming,
slow and deliberate at first, but accelerating gradually
until it ends in a prolonged, rolling hum. The sun is
shining with all its genial warmth through the leafless
woods, thawing out the woodland pools, where the hylas are
already peeping, and warming the carpet of fallen leaves,
from which the mourning cloak butterflies are rising from
their winter sleep. Other insects are awing, the early
spring flowers are lifting up their heads, and all nature is
awakening. The breast of the sturdy ruffed grouse swells
with the springtime urge, as he seeks some moss-covered log,
a fallen monarch of the forest, or perhaps a rock on which
to mount and drum out his challenge to all rivals and his
love call to his prospective mate. If we are fortunate
enough to find his throne, on which he has left many a sign
of previous occupancy, we may see the monarch of all he
surveys in all his proud glory.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Willow buds and other vegetation;
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking on the
ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Rocky tundra
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Parts of Washington, but mostly in
Alaska and Colorado
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Caltha leptosepala has now been
changed to Caltha palustris
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Dr. Sylvester D. Judd (1905a)
summarizes the food of this ptarmigan, as
follows:
During winter in Colorado, according
to Professor Cooke, they subsist, like other ptarmlgan,
largely on willow buds. The stomachs of two birds collected
at Summitville, Cob., in January, 1891, at an altitude of
18,000 feet, were found to contain bud twigs from one-third
to one-half inch long, but the kind of bush from which they
came could not be determined. Doctor Coues,
quoting T. M. Trippe, states that the food of this bird is
insects, leguminous flowers, and the buds and leaves of
pines and firs. According to Major
Bendire, the flowers and
leaves of marsh
marigold (Caltha leptosepala)
and the leaf buds and catkins of the dwarf birch
(Betula
glandulosa) are eaten. Dr. A.
K. Fisher examined the stomachs of two downy chicks
collected on Mount Rainier, Washington, and found beetles
and flowers of heather (Cassiope
mertensiana) and those of a
small blueberry.
Mrs. Bailey
(1928) adds:
The crop of one New Mexico specimen
was filled mainly with leaves of the dwarf willow, and
fruiting spikes of Polygonum viviparum, with one flower of
Geum rossii, while the gizzard held mainly Polygonum seeds,
a few other small seeds, a few small grasshoppers, and other
small insects.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Willow buds and other vegetation;
insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking on the
ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Rocky tundra
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Alaska and Canada
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Enemies: Gulls, jaegers, hawks, owls,
foxes, wolverenes, and other predatory birds and animals
levy heavy toll on the ptarmigan and their eggs and young.
Ptarmigan are so plentiful that they furnish the principal
food supply for many of these creatures, as well as for the
human natives. Dixon (1927) writes:
After the young ptarmigan are out of
the shell they are menaced by Blackbilled
Magpies as well as by the
foxes. Thus on June 24 a family of four young and two adult
magpies was found systematically working the willows In the
Savage River bottom for ptarmigan chicks. When these magpies
located a pair of adult ptarmigan they would retire
stealthily and hide in the willows near by, until the
ptarmigan chicks began to run about. Then the magpies
swooped down and grabbed the chicks before they could hide,
and then carried them off and ate them. A cock ptarmigan
that I watched put one magpie to flight, but where there
were six and in another case nine magpies working together
against two adult ptarmigan the odds were overwhelming. As a
result of this persecution by the magpies we found that by
July 10 many families of young ptarmigan had been reduced to
only one or two individuals. Gyrfalcons
also levy continuous toll on ptarmigan; and since these
large falcons are relatively numerous in the Mount McKinley
district, the aggregate number of ptarmigan killed by them
is considerable. It is thus easy to see why the hen
ptarmigan lays from 6 to 12 eggs. If only one or two eggs
were laid each season the species would soon become
extinct.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Berries, leaves, seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Brush, subtropical areas
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have similar plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern point of Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Builds a platform with sticks off the
ground.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Sennett Warbler = Tropical
Parula
huisache - A shrub found in the Texas
area
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
This curious and exceedingly
interesting bird, the chachalaca, brings a touch of Central
American bird life into extreme southern Texas in the lower
valley of the Rio Grande, where so many other Mexican
species reach the northern limits of their ranges and where
the fauna and flora are more nearly Mexican than North
American.
On May 27, 1923, I spent a good long
day, from before sunrise until after sunset, in the haunts
of the chachalaca, with R. D. Camp, George F. Simmons, and
E. W. Farmer, the last named a chachalaca hunter of many
years' experience, who knows more about this curious bird
than any man I have ever met. The locality to which he
guided us was the famous Resaca de la Palma, where so many
other observers have made the acquaintance of the
chachalaca, only a few miles outside of the city of
Brownsville, Tex. This and other resacas in the vicinity are
the remains of old river beds of the Rio Grande, which from
time to time in the past has overflowed its banks or changed
its course, cutting these winding channels through the wild,
open country, chaparral, or forest. Some of these channels
were dry or nearly so, but most of them contained more or
less water below their gently sloping grassy borders. Above
the banks were dense forests of large trees, huisache,
ebony, hackberry, and mesquite, with a thick undergrowth of
thorny shrubbery, tangles of vines, and an occasional
palmetto or palm tree. In other places almost impenetrable
thickets of chaparral lined the banks, with its forbidding
tangle of thorny shrubs of various kinds, numerous cactuses
and yuccas. These forests and thickets were teeming with
bird life. Along the edges of the watercourses the pretty
little Texas
kingfishers were seen flying
over the water or perched on some dead snag. In some small
trees overgrown with Usnea moss the dainty little Sennett's
warblers were flitting about, reminding me of our northern
parulas. Handsome green
jays were sneaking about in
the larger trees, surprisingly inconspicuous in spite of
their gaudy colors. Brilliant Derby
flycatchers proclaimed their
noisy presence in loud, clamorous notes from the tree tops.
Sennett's thrashers scolded us in the thickets, and the
confiding little Texas sparrows hopped about on the ground
near us, scratching among the dead leaves. Many other birds
were seen, but the most conspicuous of all were the doves;
the woods and the thickets almost constantly resounded with
the deep-toned notes of the white-fronted, the tiresome
who-cooks-for-you of the white-winged,
and the soft cooing of the mourning
dove. Such is the home of the
chachalaca with some of its neighbors.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Leaves, seeds, insects
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds from the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Short grass prairie
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Northern portion of Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground. Young are
precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The prairie chicken ranks first among
the game birds of the prairies of our Middle West. It is to
the prairie what the ruffed
grouse is to the wooded
sections of the country. As intensive agriculture pushed to
all sections of the range of the prairie chicken and as
interest in hunting increased, this fine game bird at one
time seemed in grave danger of following the course taken by
the heath hen, to extinction as a game bird. In fact, it is
gone from much of its former range, and its original numbers
have been greatly reduced in practically the entire area of
its distribution.
Because market hunting has been made a
thing of the past since the beginning of the twentieth
century and also because of the increasing restrictions on
hunting by State departments, as well as various effective
conservation programs, the prairie chicken is now holding
its own and is increasing its numbers in many sections of
its present range. Another hopeful sign is the fact that it
has been extending its range to the northwest, and today the
species is well represented on the prairies of Manitoba and
is gradually spreading westward through Saskatchewan and
Alberta, where formerly it did not exist.
The State Department of Conservation
of Wisconsin has undertaken a comprehensive investigation of
the prairie chicken to ascertain all the facts that affect
its life, with the expectation that the department will be
able to carry on a more effective program of conservation.
Until the fundamental facts in the biology of our game birds
are clearly known, conservation commissions will be
handicapped in handling questions of game legislation and
game management.
Prairie chickens, in common with other
grouse, go through definite cycles of numbers. The problem
of fluctuations in numbers of various species of wild life
is not yet definitely solved, but work on it in relation to
the ruffed grouse is being undertaken by many institutions
and individuals in different parts of the country; hence
there are excellent prospects of this work being brought to
a successful conclusion.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Omnivorous
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking
around
|
|
Habitat
|
Various habitats. Wooded grasslands,
oak woodland
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Native to many areas throughout the US
but now also introduced into areas in the west.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground. Young are
precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The wild turkey of the mountain
regions of the Southwestern United States and extreme
northwestern Mexico was described by Dr. E. W. Nelson (1900)
and named in honor of Dr. C. Hart Merriam. He has
characterized it as follows: "Distinguished from M. g. fera
by the whitish tips to feathers of lower rump, tail-coverts,
and tail; from M. g. mexicana by its velvety black rump and
the greater amount of rusty rufous succeeding the white tips
on tail-coverts and tail, and the distinct black and
chestnut barring of middle tail feathers."
Nelson showed in the same paper that
the ancestors of our domestic turkeys were neither of the
forms that we now call merriami and intermedia but the more
southern, strictly Mexican form, M. gabpavo
gallopavo.
That this wild turkey is not nearly so
abundant as it was 50 years ago is shown by the following
quotation from Henry W. Henshaw (1874)
The wild turkey is found abundantly
from Apache throughout the mountainous portion of
Southeastern Arizona. In New Mexico it was met with further
to the north, in the mountains, and I was informed by
Colonel Alexander that he had found them in large numbers in
the Raton Mountains, in extreme Northern New Mexico. It
breeds abundantly through the White Mountains, Arizona, and
about the middle of August several broods of the young,
about two thirds grown, were met with. Toward the head of
the Qua, in New Mexico, the canons, in November, were found
literally swarming with these significent birds; in many
places the ground being completely tracked up where they had
been running. As many as eleven were killed by the members
of a party during a day's march.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds and leaves
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while walking
around
|
|
Habitat
|
Chaparral, grasslands, forest
edges
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Pacific coast states
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground. Young are
precocial.
"Nest - Usually a mere depression in
the ground, lined sparingly with grass and weed stems;
occasionally a more substantially built affair, though still
relatively crude, of the same materials, and placed on a
log, stump, or in a brush pile; rarely in trees or other
situations above ground." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship: W.
Leon Dawson (1923)
writes:
The Quail's year begins some time in
March or early April, when the coveys begin to break up and,
not without some heart-burnings and fierce passages at arms
between the cocks, individual preferences begin to hold
sway. It is then that the so-called "assembly call," Icu
kwalc' up, ku kwak' up, ku kwak' uick o, is heard at its
best; for this is also a mating call; and if not always
directed toward a single listener, it is a notice to all and
sundry that the owner is very happy, and may be found at the
old stand. Although belonging to a polygamous family, the
Valley Quail is very particular in his affections; and
indeed, from all that we may learn, is at all times a very
perfect model of a husband and father. Even in
domestication, with evil examples all about and temptresses
in abundance, the male quail is declared to be as devoted to
a single mate as in the chaparral, where broad acres may
separate him from a rival.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds, leaves, berries
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Desert, canyons
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southwest desert
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground; young are
precocial
"Nest - On ground beneath weeds or
brush; a slight depressoin, usually well lined with grass,
weed stems, and leaves. " Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
Abert's Finch =
Abert's Towhee
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Gambel's quail is also very
appropriately called the desert quail, for its natural
habitat is the hot, dry desert regions of the Southwestern
States and a corner of northwestern Mexico. Its center of
abundance is in Arizona, but it ranges east to southwestern
New Mexico and El Paso, Tex., and west to the Colorado and
Mohave Deserts in southeastern California. On the western
border of its range it is often associated with the valley
quail and has been known to hybridize
with it.
This beautiful species was discovered
by Dr. William Gambel "on the eastern side of the
Californian range of mountains in 1841 " and named in his
honor, according to John
Cassin (1856), who gives us
the first account of its distribution and habits, based
largely on notes furnished by Col. George A. McCall. He did
not meet with it west of the Colorado Desert barrier in
California or east of the Pecos River in Texas.
We found gambel's quail very common in
southern Arizona, especially in the lower river valleys,
where the dense growth of mesquite (Acacia
glanduloea) afforded scanty shade, or where they could
find shelter under the spreading green branches of the
paloverdes, which in springtime presented great masses of
yellow blossoms. They were even more abundant in the
thickets of willows along the streams or in the denser
forests of mesquites, hackberries, and various other thorny
trees and shrubs. We occasionally flushed a pair as we drove
along the narrow trails, but more often we saw them running
off on foot, dodging in and out among the desert underbrush
until out of sight. My companion on this trip, Francis C.
Willard, has sent me the following notes, based on his long
experience in Arizona:
Gambel's Quail is essentially a bird
of the areas in southern Arizona where the mesquite abounds.
Unlike their neighbor, the scaled
quail, they seem to require
the close proximity of a water supply. They are, therefore,
found principally along the few living streams and close to
permanent water holes. I found them swarming in the mesquite
forest along the Santa Gins River south of Tucson and almost
as plentiful along the Rillito between Tucson and the
mountains. In the valley of the San Pedro River they were
also present in large numbers. Between the valley of this
last-named river and the various ranges of mountains
fringing it are long sloping mesas from 5 to 20 miles wide
where the "black topknot" is rarely seen except close to the
infrequent water holes. In the foothills of the Dragoon,
Huachucas, Wheistones, Chiricahuas, and other less
ivell-known ranges this quail again appears in some numbers
but nothing like those in the lower valleys.
Dr.
Elliott Coues (1874) has given
us the best account of this quail, which I shall quote from
quite freely. He says of its haunts:
Gambel's Quail may be looked for in
every kind of cover. Where they abound it is almost
impossible to miss them, and coveys may often be seen on
exposed sand-heaps, along open roads, or in the cleared
patches around settlers' cabins. If they have any aversion,
it is for thick high pine-woods, without any undergrowth;
there they only casually stray. They are particularly fond
of the low, tangled brush along creeks, the dense groves of
young willows that grow in similar places, and the close-set
chaparral of hillocks or mountain ravines. I have often
found them, also, among huge granitic boulders and masses of
lava, where there was little or no vegetation, except some
straggling weeds; and have flushed them from the dryer
knolls in the midst of a reedy swamp. Along the Gila and
Colorado they live in such brakes as I described in speaking
of Abert's Finch; and they frequent the groves of mesquite
and mimosa, that form so conspicuous a feature of the
scenery in those places. These scrubby trees form dense
interlacing copses, only to be penetrated with the utmost
difficulty, but beneath their spreading scrawny branches are
open intersecting ways, along which the Quail roams at will,
enjoying the slight shade. In the most sterile regions they
are apt to come together in numbers about the few
water-holes or moist spots that may be found and remain in
the vicinity, so that they become almost as good indication
of the presence of water as the Doves themselves. A
noteworthy fact in their history, is their ability to bear,
without apparent inconvenience, great extremes of
temperature. They are seemingly at ease among the burning
sands of the desert, where, for months, the thermometer
daily marks a hundred, and may reach a hundred and forty,
"in the best shade that could be procured," as Colonel
McCall says; and they are equally at home the year round
among the mountains, where snow lies on the ground in
winter.
In New Mexico, according to Mrs.
Florence M. Bailey
(1928), it is found in the Lower Sonoran Zone in quail brush
(Atriplex lentiformis) and creosote, and in hot mesquite
valleys or their brushy slopes, in screw bean and palo verde
thickets and among patches of prickly pear. It is not
generally found so far from water as the Scaled
Quail, which eats more juicy
insect food, but at times both are seen in the same
landscape.
In inhabited regions, in places where
cattle trails lead to water, the Gambel's pretty foot prints
call up pleasant pictures of morning procession of thirsty
little "black-helmeted" pedestrians, talking cheerfully as
they go. For it seems most at home about small farms, such
as those cultivated by the Spanish Americans, which dot the
narrow canyons and river valleys.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Oak grasslands
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have different plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern portions of Arizona, New
Mexico, and Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground. Young are
precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
No Bent Available
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Feeds on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Desert
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have similar plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily in Texas and New
Mexico
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests on the ground. Young are
precocial.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Enemies: Mrs.
Bailey (1928)
writes:
Although protective coloration and
attitudes partly serve their purposes, protective cover is
still vitally important, for as Mr. Ligon has found,
"Prairie
Falcons, Cooper
Hawks, Roadrunners,
snakes; skunks, wildcats, and coyotes all take their toll of
these birds or their eggs"; in the northern part of their
range, Magpies
destroy both eggs and young; and over much of their range
hail, cold rains, and winter storms deplete their
numbers.
Mr. Willard says in his
notes:
The Gila
monster, rattlesnake, and
skunk are natural enemies which take a large toll from the
nests of the scaled quail. I once observed a female quail
fluttering excitedly over a clump of grass and making dashes
down at it. On investigating I found a rattlesnake and nine
quail eggs in the nest. I dispatched the snake and on
opening it found three whole eggs inside. A Gila monster,
which I caught and caged, evidently disgorged two scaled
quail eggs, as there were two eggs in the box a short time
later, and I am sure no one had been near it but myself. In
passing, it may be of interest to say that this great lizard
will devour a hen's egg by gradually working it far enough
into its mouth to be able to clamp down on it with its
powerful jaws, crushing it, and then sucking out the
contents. They are large enough to swallow easily a quail's
egg whole. We occasionally found a mass of loose feathers of
this quail scattered on the ground and clinging to near-by
bushes. The presence of cat tracks told what was responsible
for the tragedy the feathers betrayed. On at least four
occasions I have surprised a long-legged Mexican lynx
stalking the same game I was after, and was able to collect
a cat as well as a quail.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Agricultural areas, suburbs, towns,
parks, grassland
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Nests off the ground in shrub or often
in human built structure.
"Nest - On the ground, or in bushes or
trees, sometimes as high as forty feet above the ground, but
usually six to eight feet up; a loose, flat structure, of
sticks, rootlets and grass stems, carelessly arranged; when
above ground usually situated on a horizontal branch or
limb." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
squab - young pigeon
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Gabrielson (1922), who studied the
nest life from a blind, clearly describes the process of
regurgitation thus:
At 7:30 am a squab backed toward the
blind and getting from beneath the parent raised its head
and mutely begged for food. The adult (presumably the
female) responded immediately by opening her beak and
allowing the nestling to thrust its beak into one corner of
her mouth. She then shut her beak on that of the nestling
and after remaining motionless for a short time began a slow
pumping motion of the head. The muscles of her throat could
he seen to twitch violently at intervals, continuing about a
minute, when the nestling withdrew its beak. The other
nestling then inserted its beak and the process was
repeated, 15 seconds elapsing before its beak was removed.
With intervals varying from 5 to 10 seconds (watch in hand)
four such feedings, two to each nestling, occurred. The
nestling not being fed was continually trying to insert its
beak in that of the parent and at the fifth feeding both
succeeded in accomplishing this at the same time. The
nestlings' beaks were inserted from opposite sides of the
parent's mouth and remained in place during the feeding
operation although I could not say whether or not both
received food. While being fed the nestlings frequently
jerked the head from side to side and also followed the
motion of the parent's beak by raising and lowering
themselves by the use of the legs. They were not more than
five days old but had better use of their muscles than the
young of passerine birds at from eight to ten days of age.
The entire process described above occupied about six
minutes, after which the nestlings crawled back beneath the
parent.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Nuts and berries; see below
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages while in trees
|
|
Habitat
|
Perfers wooded areas
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Primarily in the west, usually on the
Pacific coast and the southwest
|
|
Breeding
|
Often nests in a small colony of
Band-tailed Pigeons.
"Nest - A crude platform of twigs, of
very loose construction; most often situated on a moderately
large horizontal branch of an oak (less often a pine), and
at heights ranging from eight to thirty feet above ground."
Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
The book referred to is The Game Birds
of California
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Food: Grinnell,
Bryant, and Storer (1918) have published a very full account
of the food of the band-tailed pigeon, from which I can
include only a condensed summary. As their food consists
mainly of nuts and berries, which are intermittent crops,
the pigeons find it necessary to wander about considerably,
congregating in large numbers where food is abundant and
deserting these same localities during seasons of scarcity.
Acorns seem to be their chief food; probably all the oaks
are patronized, but mainly the live oaks, golden oak, and
black oak; the acorn crop lasts through a long season in
fall and winter. The acorns are swallowed whole and form an
attractive food supply in the fall. They resort at times to
the applelike fruits of certain species of manzanita, eating
them from the time they are first formed and green until
late in fall, when they are fully ripe. Early in the fall
they feed on the fruit of the coffeeberry, elderberry, and
chokecherry. In winter they have the toyon, or
Christmasberry, and when the nut and fruit crops become
exhausted they feed on the flower and leaf buds of the same
plants, such as manzanita and oak buds. Early in spring
sycamore balls are frequently eaten; as many as 35 have been
counted in the crop of one pigeon. Fruits of dogwood, wild
peas, pine seeds, and other seeds have been found in their
crops. Considerable cultivated grain is eaten; this is
mainly waste grain, picked up in stubble fields of barley,
oats, and corn; but pigeons have been known to do some
damage by pulling up newly sown seed barley; such records
are scarce, however. P. A. Taverner (1926) says that in
western Canada, "they are especially partial to peas and are
said to pull up the sprouting seeds. The flocks so engaged
are described as being numerous enough to turn the colour of
the fields they alight upon from brown to blue. As they are
large birds, each one intent on filling a capacious crop,
their power for damage is not small. In the autumn they
alight on the stooked
grain and may take a
considerable toll of it."
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Mesquite, river areas,
towns
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern portions of California,
Arizona, New Mexico and Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Builds nest off the ground; often in
cactus or shrub.
"Nest - Placed most often in mesquite,
but also in willows and other trees and shrubs; at varying
heights from four to twenty-five feet though usually about
ten feet above ground; a crude structure of twigs resembling
that of the Mourning Dove but larger." Game
Birds in California
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Courtship: Dr.
Alexander Wetmore (1920) has
published a most interesting account of his extensive
studies of the white-winged dove, from which I shall quote
freely; regarding courtship, he writes:
In displaying before females males had
a curious habit or pose in which they raised the tail high
arid tilted the body forward. At the same time the tail was
spread widely and then closed with a quick flash of the
prominent black and white markings. In the breeding colonies
males at intervals flew out with quick, full strokes of the
spread wings, rising until they were thirty or forty feet in
the air. The wings were then set stiffly with the tips
decurved, while the birds scaled around above the mesquites
in a great circle that often brought them to their original
perches. The contrasted markings of the wings showed
brilliantly during this flight and the whole was most
striking and attractive. In the cooler part of the morning
males performed constantly in this manner over the
rookery.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Eats whatever is available.
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Pecks food off the ground; prefers to
live with humans from whom it obtains most of its food.
|
|
Habitat
|
Anywhere where people are from farms
to urban centers.
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Throughout the US
|
|
Breeding
|
Perfers to nest around human
habitations.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
No Bent Available
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
River thickets, woodlands
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern tip of Texas.
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
No Bent Available
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Agricultural areas, edge
habitats
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have the same plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern Florida to southern
California.
|
|
Breeding
|
Nest on the ground or shrub. (See
below)
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
neat domiciles - nests
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
Nesting: Erichsen (1920)
writes:
In its choice of nesting sites, it
exhibits a very wide range. It most frequently selects a low
bush, either thinly or densely follaged. Other situations in
which I have found nests include the top of a low stump;
high up on a horizontal limb of a large pine; and,
frequently, upon the ground. An instance of its nesting on
the ocean beach came under my observation May 13, 1915, on
Ossabaw Island. In this case there was no attempt at nest
building, the eggs being deposited in a slight depression in
the sand; and when breeding on the ground in woodland or
cultivated fields, little or no material is assembled. In
fact, nest building occupies little of the time and
attention of this species, as when placed in trees or bushes
the nest is simply a slight affair of a few twigs loosely
interlaid. Further evidence of this bird's disinclination to
build a nest for the reception of its eggs is found in the
fact that I once found a set in a deserted nest of the
cardinal.
So gentle and confiding are these
birds that it is often possible to touch them while on the
nest, especially if incubation is advanced. Upon dropping
off the nest they always simulate lameness, dragging
themselves over the ground with drooping wings in an effort
to draw the intruder away. I am of the opinion that they
remain mated for life, since they are observed throughout
the year most frequently in pairs.
Mr. Nicholson, who has" examined
hundreds of nests," says in his notes:
Nests are built on the ground as
frequently as in vines, bushes, or trees, or along the tops
of fences. One foot to 10 or 12 feet above the ground is the
usual height.
The nests are delicate-looking
structures, made usually of fine rootlets or grasses, and
seldom any sticks are used, saddled on a limb, or among dead
vines. The diameter measures froni 2½ to 3 inches
across, by 1 inch to 2 inches thick, with scarcely any
depression for the eggs, the eggs always showing above the
rim of the nest.
A nest that I found on Murrays Key,
Bay of Florida, on April 3, 1908, consisted of merely a few
straws in a slight hollow in the ground, under and between
two tussocks of grass, which were arched over it; it was
located in an open space in the brush, with small shrubs and
weeds about it. Maynard (1896) "always found the nests in
orange groves; the neat domiciles are placed on the lower
limbs of trees." Audubon
(1840) says that the nest "is large for the size of the bird
and compact. Its exterior is composed of dry twigs, its
interior of grasses disposed in a circular form ;" he found
a nest "placed on the top of a cactus not more than two feet
high." Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson (1920) writes:
There is no bird in the United States
that to my knowledge breeds over so long a period of the
year as does the ground dove. In my experience with these
birds in Florida, I have found their nests occupying varying
situations during different seasons of the year. Thus on
February 28 and March 3, I have found nests located on the
tops of partially decayed stumps of pine trees, only about 2
feet from the ground. Later in the season I have seen
numerous nests placed on the ground, usually in fields of
weeds or in standing grain. Fields of oats seem to be
especially favored with their presence during midsummer.
Late in July, August and on to the latter part of September,
I have found their nests on horizontal limbs of large orange
trees, on the level fronds of palms, and on the cross-bars
or rails, as commonly used for supports of the widespreading
scuppernong grape-vines.
Most observers have noted that when a
ground dove's nest is approached, the brooding bird quickly
leaves the nest and flutters along the ground, attempting to
lure the intruder away by feigning lameness. But Doctor
Pearson (1920) writes:
Occasionally an individual is found
that declines to expose her treasures without an argument.
As the inquiring hand comes close to the nest, she does not
strike with her bill, nor even indulge in loud scolding, but
with ruffled feathers raises her wings in a threatening
attitude, as if she would crush the offending fingers if
they came too close. Surely a puny, hopeless bit of
resistance; nevertheless it shows that a stout heart throbs
within the feathered breast of the little mother.
Mr. Nicholson has proved to his
satisfaction that the same nest is used for a second or even
third brood in a single season, by apparently the same pair
of birds.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Towns, parks, farms
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have similar plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern Arizona to Texas
|
|
Breeding
|
Female builds nest in a wide variety
of localities.
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
The charming little Inca dove,
sometimes called the scaly dove, or the long-tailed dove,
after characteristic features, is a bird of Tropical and
Lower Sonoran Zones and occurs in the United States only in
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Formerly confined in
southern Texas to the region between San Antonio and the Rio
Grande, these doves, according to A. E. Schutze (1904), on
account of long droughts, have "moved north and eastward to
a country where they found food and water in abundance."
According to G. F. Simmons (1925), the first record of this
dove for Austin, Tex., was in1889, while, by 1909, they had
become common nesters in that region. 'Wherever found, it is
resident, although in Texas, according to the same author,
"a few birds move southward in colder, winter weather."
Appearing to delight in human companionship, the Inca dove
is rarely found at a distance from towns or the neighborhood
of houses.
|
|
Name
|
|
|
Food
|
Seeds
|
|
Feeding
Techniques
|
Forages on the ground
|
|
Habitat
|
Cities, towns
|
|
Plumage
|
The
male and the female have similar plumage.
|
|
Distribution
|
Southern part of Florida
|
|
Breeding
|
|
|
About the Notes
from A.C. Bent
|
|
|
Notes from A.C.
Bent
|
No Bent description available; this
species was probably not present during Bent's time.
|
Back
to Home