Fifty Birds of Town and City

Part 1

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has basic responsibilities for water, fish, wildlife, mineral, land, park, and recreational resources. Indian and Territorial affairs are other major concerns of America’s “Department of Natural Resources.” The Department works to assure the wisest choice in managing all our resources so each will make its full contribution to a better United States—now and in the future.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Price $4 cloth; $1.05 paper Stock Number 2410-0332

FIFTY BIRDS of Town and City

by BOB HINES Illustrator-Editor and PETER A. ANASTASI Associate Editor

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

Foreword

Early in this century, the old Bureau of Biological Survey put out a booklet called “Fifty Common Birds of Farm and Orchard,” with paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

In 1962, a former Fish and Wildlife Service staffer named Rachael Carson wrote “Silent Spring,” a book that changed American thinking about birds—and pesticides.

That first volume is out of date because of our great population shifts in six decades. And I hope that “Silent Spring” will be out of date some day; that our birds will live with us in an unpoisoned environment of cities and towns that are cleaner, healthier, greener.

So here is a new “bird book” from the Department of the Interior, geared to the 50 birds you might see in your city, with paintings done by a man who picked up the fallen Fuertes brush, Bob Hines. These are not endangered birds, except as all living things are endangered; some of them are living in or passing through your backyard or city park right now. Look well at Bob’s art; he is not commemorating the passenger pigeon but trying to open your eyes to the world about you.

And he is trying to suggest that these birds can live in our towns and cities so long as you help provide the healthy habitat they need, habitat that is healthy not just for them but for you.

Enjoy this little book, learn from it, and take a vow that our springs will not be silent of bird calls—and will be more silent of human clatter.

Secretary of the Interior

Contents

Page 1 Baltimore Oriole 2 Barn Swallow 3 Black-capped Chickadee 4 Bluebird 5 Blue Jay 6 Bobwhite 7 Brown Creeper 8 Brown Thrasher 9 Canada Goose 10 Cardinal 11 Catbird 12 Cedar Waxwing 13 Chimney Swift 14 Chipping Sparrow 15 Cowbird 16 Crow 17 Downy Woodpecker 18 Flicker 19 Goldfinch 20 Grackle 21 Green Heron 22 Herring Gull 23 House Sparrow 24 House Wren 25 Junco 26 Killdeer 27 Mallard 28 Mockingbird 29 Mourning Dove 30 Myrtle Warbler 31 Nighthawk 32 Pigeon 33 Purple Martin 34 Red-eyed Vireo 35 Red-headed Woodpecker 36 Red-winged Blackbird 37 Robin 38 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 39 Song Sparrow 40 Sparrow Hawk 41 Starling 42 Towhee 43 Tufted Titmouse 44 Turkey Vulture 45 White-breasted Nuthatch 46 White-crowned Sparrow 47 Wood Pewee 48 Wood Thrush 49 Yellowthroat 50 Yellow Warbler

BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Icterus galbula)

Look for this bird in groves and shade trees in residential areas of towns and suburbs. Smaller than a robin, the male’s fiery orange and black is easy to spot. As he wings by, his bright colors add a flick of glory to the urban scene.

The song is a rich series of whistled notes. Wintering to South America, the oriole’s summer breeding range stretches from Nova Scotia to north Texas. This is the architect of the graceful pendulent nests usually seen only after the leaves have fallen, and the birds have gone.

BARN SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica)

Length about 7 inches; distinguished among our swallows by deeply forked tail. While they breed throughout the United States, they winter to South America.

This is one of the most familiar farm birds and a great insect destroyer, seeking prey from daylight to dark on tireless wings. Its favorite nesting site was barn rafters, upon which it stuck mud baskets to hold its eggs. But modern barns are fewer and so tightly constructed that swallows can not gain entrance, and in much of this country they have turned to boat docks, commercial buildings, summer homes, and the out buildings of rural suburbs to keep the species going. Like other rural birds, they have to adjust to changing land-use patterns.

CHICKADEE (Parus sp.)

Length about 5 inches. Resident in most of North America.

Because of its delightful notes, its flitting ways, and its fearlessness, the chickadee is one of our best known birds. It responds to human encouragement, and by hanging a constant supply of suet this black-capped visitor can be made a regular feeder in suburban gardens or city yards. Though small in size, these cousins of the titmice are highly useful against insects, gleaned mostly from the twigs and branches of trees. The chickadee’s food is made up of insects and seeds, largely seeds of pines, with a few of the poison ivy, some weeds, and sunflowers.

BLUEBIRD (Sialia sp.)

About 6 inches long, bluebirds breed in the United States, southern Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala, wintering in the southern half of the Eastern United States and south to Guatemala.

The bluebird was once a familiar tenant of towns, hailed as the herald of a new vernal season, and decidedly domestic in its habits. About the time that starlings became so very numerous, it declined in numbers. No one is sure why its numbers fell but competition for nest sites by starlings and house sparrows is certainly partly responsible. Recently it has begun to reappear in many places.

Part 2

Its favorite nesting sites are natural cavities in old trees, boxes made for its use or crannies in buildings. Nesting boxes may be restoring the species, whose occupants pay rent by destroying insects. The bluebird’s diet consists of 68 percent insects and 32 percent vegetable matter. The commonest items of insect food are grasshoppers first and beetles next, while caterpillars stand third. Small flocks sometime invade yards for the red fruits of flowering dogwood trees.

BLUE JAY (Cyanocitta cristata)

You either admire or hate this arrogant, foot-long hustler, easily identified by its brilliant colors. The blue jay is resident in the eastern United States and southern Canada, west into the Dakotas, Colorado, and Texas.

Like most insolent creatures, this jay has a dual nature. Cautious and silent in the vicinity of its nest, it is bold and noisy away from it. Sly in the commission of mischief, it is ever ready to scream “thief” at anything poaching on its domain. As usual in such cases, its epithet is applicable to none more than itself, as neighboring nest holders know to their sorrow; for during the breeding season the jay lays heavy toll upon the eggs and young of other birds. But with all its sins of pride and lust, back yards are enlivened by the presence of blue jays.

BOBWHITE (Colinus virginianus)

This quail, about 10 inches long, is known by the clear call that suggests its name. It is native in the United States east of the Rockies and has been introduced many places in the West.

The bobwhite, and its call, is loved by every countryside visitor. It is one of the most popular game birds and appreciated as a gourmet’s delight. Quail have moved into our suburbs, although its numbers have diminished in many States through loss of habitat. About half the food of bobwhites consists of weed seeds, a tenth of wild fruits, and a fourth grain. Most of the grain it consumes is picked up from stubble. Fifteen percent of the bobwhite’s food is composed of insects, including several of the most serious pests, but its greatest value is aesthetic.

BROWN CREEPER (Certhia familiaris)

Length 5 inches. Breeds from Alaska and Canada south to the Great Lakes States and Connecticut; also in the mountains south to Nicaragua; winters over most of its range.

Rarely indeed is the creeper seen at rest. It appears to spend its life in an incessant scramble over the trunks and branches of trees, gleaning its insect food. It is so protectively colored as to be practically invisible to its enemies and though delicately built possesses strong feet and claws. Its tiny eyes are sharp enough to detect insects so small that most other species pass them by. The creeper fills a unique place in the ranks of our insect destroyers: minute insects, their eggs and larvae, moths, caterpillars, small wasps, scales and plant lice are items of its diet.

It does not appear in flocks. Single birds or pairs will feed infrequently on beef suet at bird stations, but it’s seldom a regular visitor.

BROWN THRASHER (Toxostoma rufum)

About 11 inches. Breeds from the Gulf to southern Canada and west to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana; winters in the southern half of the eastern United States.

The brown thrasher is more retiring than either the mockingbird or catbird, but like them is a splendid singer. Not frequently, indeed, its song is taken for that of its more famed cousin, the mockingbird. It is partial to thickets and gets much of its food from the ground. Its search for this is usually accompanied by much scratching and scattering of leaves; whence its common name. Its call note is a sharp sound like the smacking of lips, useful in identifying this long-tailed, thicket-haunting bird, which does not relish close scrutiny. The brown thrasher is not so fond of wild fruit as the catbird and mocker, but devours a much larger percentage of animal food.

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