Part 3

CHIMNEY SWIFT (Chaetura pelagica)

It’s hard to figure out how these birds ever existed without urban areas, since they literally earn their first name by nesting and roosting in chimneys, propping themselves against the inside surface with short, spiny tails.

This swift is normally found only east of the great plains. Small birds at about 5 inches long, they are aloft all day long, and almost always in groups. They migrate in large flocks and nest from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Watching a flock of swifts flow funnel-like into a chimney is a startling evening experience. The birds express themselves with a chatter of chipping cries, one of the easiest identifications of the species. Their only food is insects, and they are highly beneficial.

CHIPPING SPARROW (Spizella passerina)

This slim bird is only about 5 inches long. You can spot it by a chestnut brown crown, black line through the eye, and a black bill. Chippies nest throughout the United States; they even breed as far south as Nicaragua and as far north as southern Canada, and winter in the southern United States and Mexico.

Chipping sparrows are domestic birds that show little fear of humans. They often build nests in gardens, cemeteries or golf courses, where mowed lawns provide feeding areas. Among the most insectivorous of all sparrows, their diet consists mainly of insects, supplemented by weed seeds.

Adjectives are dangerous in describing wildlife, but chippies are just plain lovable.

COWBIRD (Molothrus ater)

Cowbirds are the only native American birds to always lay their eggs in nests of other species, and have the young raised by foster parents. Warblers, finches, and sparrows, all smaller than cowbirds, are the chief victims of this practice, the fast growing foster chick monopolizing food and space to the detriment of the legitimate offspring.

This is the smallest blackbird, flocking in small groups, or mixing with grackles and red-wings. They are usually quiet, their only song a faint whistle. They range north into Canada and winter in the southeastern States. Grasshoppers, beetles, and a number of insects are eaten, and like other blackbirds, they do some damage to grain.

CROW (Corvus sp.)

Smart enough to adapt quickly to urban life, crows nest in such unlikely places as alongside the Pentagon, and feed in the White House grounds in Washington.

Typically, they feed in the early hours before many people are out, retreating to parks or fields when disturbed. Their nest-robbing, crop destroying habits are often exaggerated, and less attention paid to their diet of grubs, beetles, mice, and other pests.

Grackles, martins, flycatchers, and other smaller birds, recognizing them as marauders, will chase crows in the spring and summer. Watching the little feathered dive-bombers attack the lumbering crow is quite a show, the larger bird always retreating as best he can, sometimes losing a few feathers, but seldom his dignity.

DOWNY WOODPECKER (Dendrocopos pubescens)

Our smallest woodpecker at 6 inches; spotted with black and white. Dark bars on the outer tail feathers distinguish it from the similar but larger hairy woodpecker. Resident in the United States and the forested parts of Canada and Alaska.

This woodpecker is widely distributed, living in woodlands, orchards and gardens. Like the hairy woodpecker, it beats a tattoo on a dry resonant tree branch. To appreciative ears it has the quality of forest music. In a hole excavated in a dead branch the downy woodpecker lays four to six eggs. This and the hairy woodpecker are valuable human allies, their food consisting of some of the worst insect foes of orchard and shade trees. Beef suet, fastened too high for dogs to pirate, will attract Downies to a feeding station.

FLICKER (Colaptes auratus)

Length 13 inches; the yellow (salmon in western birds) under surfaces of the wing and tail, and white rump are characteristic. It breeds throughout the United States and in forested parts of Canada; winters in most of the southern United States.

The flicker inhabits open country and delights in parklike regions where trees are numerous but well-spaced. It is possible to insure the presence of this useful bird about the home and to increase its numbers. It nests in any large cavity in a tree and readily appropriates an artificial nesting box. The most terrestrial of our woodpeckers, it procures much of its food from the ground. The largest item of animal food is ants, of which it eats more than any other common bird. The flicker is more adapted to suburbs than to the larger cities.

GOLDFINCH (Spinus sp.)

The male is the only small, yellow bird with black wings and tail, with flight that is extremely undulating. In winter the species concentrate in areas where seed-laden plants are common.

They breed from Canada to Mexico and winter in the same range, nesting in July and August, after most birds have finished. The song is long-sustained, clear, light, and canary-like. In its flight, each dip is often punctuated by a simple cry of ti-dee-di-di.

Goldfinches are found along hedgerows, wood margins, brushy fields, and flower gardens, especially where cosmos are growing.

GRACKLE (Quiscalus quiscula)

Length 12 inches. It breeds throughout the United States west to Texas, Colorado, and Montana and in southern Canada and winters in the southern half of its breeding range.

This is a beautiful blackbird that is well known from its habit of congregating in city parks and nesting there year after year. Like other species which habitually assemble in large flocks, it is capable of inflicting damage on farm crops. It shares with crows and blue jays a habit of pillaging the nests of small birds, but it does much good by destroying garden pests, especially white grubs, weevils, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.

GREEN HERON (Butorides virescens)