Part 24

SNOWY OWL Nyctea nyctea (Linnæus)

Other Names.—White Owl; Arctic Owl; Snow Owl.

Description.—Size large, head without ear-tufts; feet so heavily feathered that the claws are sometimes hidden. Plumage white, barred with dark grayish brown, particularly on the back and wings and sides of breast. Individuals vary greatly in appearance, some being pure white, others being heavily barred. Younger birds are usually darker. Eyes bright yellow. Length: About 2 feet.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rare and irregular winter visitor, particularly in the northern counties, and occasionally common as during the hiemal invasion which occurred in 1926-27.

The Snowy Owl is a bird of the open fields, not of the woodlands, and, like the Rough-legged Hawk, is likely to be seen perched on a fence-post, a hay-stack, or on the ground, rather than in a tree. Its white plumage makes it a prominent feature of the landscape save when there is snow on the ground.

In Pennsylvania, its food includes small game animals and birds, mice, and other small mammals, and, occasionally, poultry. It is not particularly harmful, since it usually confines its hunting to the open fields. In the North Country it preys upon water-fowl. Its flight is very strong and rapid. It is not protected in Pennsylvania, though it should be because of its great rarity.

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO Coccyzus americanus americanus (Linnæus)

Other Name.—Rain-Crow.

Description.—A long, slender bird about the size of a Robin, with very long tail and curved bill; feet with two toes pointing forward, two backward. Upperparts olive-gray, glossed with green, the primaries rich reddish brown, apparent in flight; tail with outer feathers black, broadly tipped with white, the outer vane of outer feathers also white; underparts white; bill blackish, the lower mandible rich yellow; eyes dark brown; eyelids yellowish. Length: 12 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A summer resident from early May to late September, found chiefly about orchards and shade trees, principally in the southern and less mountainous counties. Additional nesting records of this species are desirable.

Nest.—A loose platform of twigs placed on a horizontal branch, usually not more than 15 feet from the ground. Eggs: 3 to 6, pale greenish blue.

The cuckoos are slim, retiring birds, which often are not seen unless they fly from the thick leaves where they have been searching for caterpillars—their favorite food. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo’s very reddish wings serve to identify it at considerable distance. Its song is an unmusical series of kuks. No song is given which resembles the word “cuckoo,” our birds receiving their name merely from their relationship to the famed English bird.

BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO Coccyzus erythophthalmus (Wilson)

Other Name.—Rain-Crow.

Description.—Upperparts grayish brown, faintly glossed with greenish and bronze; outer tail-feathers narrowly and inconspicuously tipped with white; underparts white, somewhat grayish on throat and breast; bill black; eyes dark brown; eyelids red. Length: A little under 12 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A summer resident from early May to latter September. I have found this species common in some of the northern counties where the Yellow-billed species was rare.

Nest.—A rather well-built platform of twigs, lined with leaves and a few grasses, usually but a few feet from the ground on a horizontal branch in a rather thick clump of saplings or in alders. Eggs: 2 to 5, glaucous green, somewhat like those of the Yellow-bill, but darker and smaller.

The Black-billed Cuckoo is fond of lowlands which are upgrown with young saplings, or of alders along streams. It is sometimes seen in orchards. The song of the Black-bill differs from that of the Yellow-bill in that the syllables are grouped, usually in threes. The song might be written kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk, cl-uck, cl-uck, cl-uck, kuk-kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk-kuk, the last syllables dying off gently. The Yellow-bill’s song is louder.

Like its slightly larger relative, the Black-bill is fond of caterpillars, and both are very valuable birds. They eat so many “woolly” caterpillars that their stomachs become lined with the spines from the bodies of their prey.

BELTED KINGFISHER Streptoceryle alcyon alcyon (Linnæus)

Description.—Head large, with long bill and prominent crest; feet small and short; plumage firm and compact. Male: Head and crest blue-gray, the feathers with dark centers; two spots, one in front of, and one under eye, and collar about neck, white; back and band across breast blue-gray, the wings and tail considerably spotted with white; bill blackish; eyes dark brown. Female and young: Similar, but with sides and a broken band across lower breast bright reddish brown, noticeable in the field. Length: 13 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common and widely distributed summer resident from late March until the end of October; occasional in winter, when the streams are open. It does not occur along streams which have been polluted by mining refuse and other poisonous waste products.

Nest.—At the end of a 6-foot burrow in a bank, made of a few fish-bones and scales crudely scraped together. Eggs: Usually 7, glossy white. The burrow, while usually dug rather high on a bank, directly along the stream, is sometimes located at some distance from water. It is dug with the bill and feet.

The flashing white collar and underparts of the Kingfisher gleam as he flies rapidly along his chosen stream, giving his loud, rattling call. As he perches on a favorite overhanging stub, he elevates his crest, rattles once or twice, then becomes quiet as he watches the pool below him. Suddenly he dives from his perch, there is a splash, and he disappears beneath the surface. In a few seconds he arises, a slim, glistening fish in his mandibles. He makes off up stream, rattling again and again as the fish ceases its struggles, then swallows his prey, head first, entire. In addition to fish, he eats crayfish and other small aquatic creatures, and sometimes mice.

When the young hatch they are naked and ugly. They soon are covered with pin-feathers, however, and when the tips of these break, the young begin to look like their parents at once. Several days before they leave the burrow to learn angling for themselves, they scuttle about on their short feet, sometimes coming to the entrance for a moment to glimpse the world that is soon to be such an unfolding of adventure for them. They rattle like their parents, and if a hand is thrust in among them, they pick savagely at the fingers—either in anger or with the belief that a larger, finer fish than parents ever caught has come to be swallowed.

Kingfishers capture some trout and other valuable food or game-fish and are therefore not protected in Pennsylvania.

HAIRY WOODPECKER Dryobates villosus villosus (Linnæus)

Other Name.—Sapsucker (erroneous).