Dates of Arrival of “Summer Visitants” Near New York City
February 15 to 28
Purple Grackle
Rusty Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Robin
Winter Residents and Visitants
BIRDS SEEN IN MARCH
Winter Residents Leaving For The North
Snowflake
Northern Shrike
Horned Lark
Redpoll
Migrants Arriving From The South
Loon
4 species of Ducks
March 1 to 10
Purple Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird
Robin
March 10 to 20
Phœbe
Meadowlark
Cowbird
Fox Sparrow
Woodcock
March 20 to 31
Kingfisher
Mourning Dove
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Wilson’s Snipe
BIRDS SEEN IN APRIL
Winter Residents Leaving For The North
Junco
Tree Sparrow
Winter Wren
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Migrants Arriving From The South
April 1 to 10
Great Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Osprey
Vesper Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Tree Swallow
Myrtle Warbler
Hermit Thrush
April 10 to 20
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Barn Swallow
Yellow Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Louisiana Water-thrush
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Green Heron
April 20 to 30
Whip-poor-will
Chimney Swift
Least Flycatcher
Towhee
Purple Martin
Cliff Swallow
Bank Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Black and White Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Brown Thrasher
Spotted Sandpiper
BIRDS ARRIVING IN MAY
May 1 to 10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
Nighthawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Crested Flycatcher
Kingbird
Baltimore Oriole
Bobolink
Indigo Bunting
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Scarlet Tanager
Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-winged Warbler
Parula Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Maryland Yellow-throat
Oven-bird
Redstart
House Wren
Catbird
Wood Thrush
Veery
May 10 to 20
Wood Pewee
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-winged Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-poll Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Canadian Warbler
Marsh Wrens
Olive-backed Thrush
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Bicknell’s Thrush
SUMMER VISITORS THAT BREED FARTHER SOUTH AND ARE OCCASIONALLY SEEN NEAR NEW YORK
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Summer Tanager
Carolina Chickadee
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Mockingbird
Numerous Water-birds that nest in the Antarctic regions visit our shores during the summer.
FALL MIGRATION
Summer Residents Leaving For The South
September 1 to 10
Orchard Oriole
Rough-winged Swallow
Worm-eating Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
September 10 to 20
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Martin
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
September 20 to 30
Green Heron
Hummingbird
Kingbird
Crested Flycatcher
Wood Pewee
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Hooded Warbler
Louisiana Water-thrush
Veery
Migrants Arriving From The North
September 1 to 10
Black-poll Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
September 10 to 20
Wilson’s Snipe
Olive-backed Thrush
Bicknell’s Thrush
September 20 to 30
Herring Gull
Junco
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Myrtle Warbler
Yellow Palm Warbler
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Winter Wren
Gray-cheeked Thrush
October 1 to 10
Black-crowned Night Heron
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Least Flycatcher
Bobolink
Indigo Bunting
Scarlet Tanager
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bank Swallow
White-eyed Vireo
Black and White Warbler
Oven-bird
Redstart
Wood Thrush
October 10 to 20
Spotted Sandpiper
Whip-poor-will
Nighthawk
Red-eyed Vireo
Maryland Yellow-throat
Catbird
Brown Thrasher
House Wren
Marsh Wren
October 20 to 31
Phœbe
Towhee
Tree Swallow
Migrants Arriving From The North
October 1 to 10
Bronzed Grackle
Rusty Blackbird
Hermit Thrush
Canada Goose
Loon
Pintail and Mallard Ducks
October 10 to 20
Fox Sparrow
October 20 to 31
Horned Lark
Tree Sparrow
Snowflake
Redpoll
Northern Shrike
NOVEMBER
Migrants Leaving For The South
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Purple Grackle
Vesper Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
BIRDS SEEN IN DECEMBER
Permanent Residents
Winter Residents and Visitants
It is interesting to note that the earliest arrivals in the spring are the last to migrate in the fall. The reason is the food-supply. The insectivorous birds arrive later and leave earlier than those that have a more varied diet. An unusually severe winter sends birds south of their usual winter range.
The dates of migration must necessarily vary with latitude. Migrants arrive near Washington a week or two earlier than near New York City, and near Boston a few days later. The lateness of the spring sometimes causes a delay of a week or two. The May arrivals appear more nearly on schedule. After May 15 birds begin to decrease in number, the “Transient Visitors” passing farther north; by June 5 we have with us our “Permanent Residents” and “Summer Residents.”
In the fall the mildness of a season may cause November migrants to remain into December, or an open winter may tempt those that habitually migrate only a short distance to remain north of their usual winter range.
DESCRIPTIONS AND BIOGRAPHIES
THE AMERICAN ROBIN
Thrush Family—Turdidæ
Length: 10 inches.
Male: Head black; bill yellow; a white spot above and below eye; throat white, streaked with black; back and wings gray; tail black, with white spots near tips of outer feathers; white beneath tail; entire breast and sides reddish-brown; color less brilliant in autumn and winter, and bill darker.
Young Female: Paler than male.
Young: Similar to female, except for speckled breasts and backs.
Call-note: A sharp tut, used to express anger or alarm; also a sweet tender note, with which it encourages its young or converses with its mate.
Song: A loud, clear morning song, Cheer-up, cheer-up, cheer-up, cheer-up, sweeter and more subdued toward evening. The song varies decidedly with different individuals. Many robins seem to enjoy improvisations; we may hear them sing their somewhat monotonous strain with pleasing variations. During their sojourn in the South they sing but little, and live in flocks remote from human habitations; consequently they are not loved as they are in the North.
Range: North America, breeding from the tree-limit south to the northern part of the Gulf States and Mexican tableland; in winter, to Florida and the highlands of Guatemala.
None of our birds is so well-known and so universally beloved as the robin. He, together with the song sparrow and the bluebird, arrives at a time when we are weary of winter and yearning for spring. He seems to show so much eagerness to return to us that he receives a hearty welcome. He is the first bird that we knew in childhood, unless it be the English sparrow; our earliest books were filled with tales and poems concerning him. Most of us have a fund of anecdotes that we could relate.
ROBIN
A robin has distinct individuality. His is a many-sided nature. He is cheerful and optimistic, aggressive and fearless, pugnacious and ardent—like the brave Lochinvar, “so daring in love and so dauntless in war,”—yet withal tender, joyous, and lovable. He is a fighter at mating time, but a gentle husband.
There are few bird-choruses as sweet as robins’ rain-song or even-song. I recall a flock of these happy birds singing from maple-tops in a little village nestled beside a brawling river, when patches of brown earth showed beneath melting snow, and heavy rain-clouds broke away to reveal a golden western sky. The robins sang with the joy that my own heart felt at the renewal of life on the earth. I once heard their even-song in an elm-shaded college-town of Massachusetts during a lovely Sunday evening in June, when church-bells rang and robins held a vesper service all their own. My sister and I walked beneath the great arched trees and found ourselves speaking in whispers, as was our habit in the cathedrals of the Old World.
The robin’s tut-tut, or tut-tut-tut′-tut-tut-tut-tut,—his scolding note,—is very similar to the exclamation of reproof our grandfather used to administer to us for childish misdemeanors. It is amusing to see how robins use this form of remonstrance to humans. John Burroughs wrote that he was kept out of his own summer-house by a female robin that was nesting there. She scolded him so soundly for trespassing upon his own property, which she had appropriated, that he could have no peace. He finally left her in possession till her young had flown.[49] I had a similar experience when picking cherries in a friend’s garden. A robin had preceded me and resented my intrusion in no uncertain manner. No angry fishmonger of Billingsgate ever hurled more noisy vituperation at a thief than did that robin fling at me, especially when I coolly refused to heed his commands to “Keep Off.”
I recall an amusing experience with a robin family one summer. The second brood of hungry babies were clamoring for “More,” and following their overworked father about as I have seen human babies tease their mothers. He was decidedly “frayed” as to temper, but he chose to assume the entire parental responsibility. His faded, bedraggled spouse, perched disconsolately upon the roof of the chicken-house, flew down two or three times into the bosom of the family and endeavored to “do her bit”; but her testy husband drove her off each time with a sharp tut-tut, until in despair she remained upon the ridge-pole peeping forlornly. The father proceeded to pull up worms for his gaping brood in a manner so irritated and strenuous that I wondered whether he had had a “family jar,” or was only worn out with anxiety and overwork. It is a huge task to feed one baby robin alone, who can eat sixty-eight angleworms a day,[50] or one hundred and sixty-five cutworms.[51]
Robins do good to the soil by dragging forth earthworms and preventing their too rapid increase. Mr. Forbush calls attention to the value of these birds in devouring “dormant cutworms and caterpillars even in February,” also quantities of the larvæ of March flies and white grubs that injure grass. The robin is an enemy of caterpillars, especially those that live near the ground; his destruction of cutworms and white grubs alone entitles him to our gratitude. He does eat early cherries, and has been bitterly arraigned for so doing. When later cherries, apples, peaches, pears, and grapes are ripe, wild fruits and mulberries which he eats by preference, have also matured; so on the whole, he does little harm.[52] He is now protected in most of our states.
A Maine robin that had an inordinate love for cherries and garden-raspberries was at first intimidated by a most lifelike, well-set-up scarecrow placed in the garden for his benefit. But he grew wiser as the days passed: he approached the fearful creature and received no harm. Familiarity finally bred contempt, for one day he was discovered perched upon the scarecrow’s shoulder eating a raspberry!
Robins become very tame. I once had the pleasure of the companionship of a dear, gentle, little English robin—a bird very different in size and manner from his American cousin—who would come out of the shrubbery whenever I called him. He would approach within two or three feet of my chair, to snatch the soft crumbs that I placed on the ground to lure him. He rewarded me frequently with his delightful little bubbling song.
An American robin during a March ice-storm learned that bread crumbs were to be found upon the window-sill of a house in Cleveland. He flew to the sill frequently. When he found no crumb awaiting him, he would tap on the pane, then fly away a short distance and remain until a fresh supply appeared. He and his mate nested in an apple-tree near by. They and their brood were fed in this way the entire season by their bird-loving friends, until they were in danger of becoming pauperized! One morning the following March while the Cleveland family were breakfasting, they heard the familiar tap upon the pane! There was Robin back again—you may imagine his welcome! For four years, he continued to announce his arrival in the same manner, and to build in the same yard; each year he and his family were supplied with part of their food by their devoted friends. Then ill must have befallen him, for he never returned.
To another Ohio woman came the joy of having a robin enter her room frequently. She had tempted him with crumbs inside a window-sill. One day he perched upon the sewing-machine where she was at work, and sang his sweet song to her, as the busy machine hummed its tune.
A robin’s nest is an untidy affair, but it is something that we should miss were it not a part of our environment. Few birds’ eggs are more lovely in color than those of the familiar robins’-egg blue, nestled in their grass-lined cup of clay. Olive Thorne Miller wrote of a clever robin that wished to build her nest during an almost rainless spring. She could find no mud, so she waded about in her drinking-dish to wet her legs; she then hopped into the dust, and with her bill scraped the mud off her legs. This she did repeatedly, until she had the necessary amount.[53]
I once saw a mother-robin sheltering her brood during a rainstorm of great violence. Her soft body and outspread wings were pelted by the rain, but she seemed quite oblivious to everything except to keep harm from her young. Her protecting attitude and the look in her bright eyes made as beautiful an expression of mother-love as I ever witnessed.
THE BLUEBIRD
Thrush Family—Turdidæ
Length: About 6½ to 7 inches.
General Appearance: Upper parts bright blue; under parts reddish-brown; no crest.
Male: Head, back, and tail bright blue; wings blue, edged with black; in the fall, edged with reddish-brown; throat, breast, and sides reddish-brown; white from center of breast to tail.
Female: Similar to male, but paler; wings and tail brightest in flight.
Young: Grayish-blue, speckled with whitish; wings and tail bluish.
Call-note: An indescribably sweet rendering of the syllables, Cheer-e-o, given usually while the bird is on the wing.
Song: A gentle warble of exceptional sweetness—whew′-ee, whew′-ee, whew′-ee, uttered tenderly and pensively.
Habitat: Orchards and gardens. The birds are usually seen in pairs, and like rather conspicuous perches, such as fence-posts and telegraph wires.
Nest: Made of grasses and placed in old hollow trees, preferably apple-trees. One objection raised against tree-surgery is that it deprives bluebirds of nesting-sites, but that objection may be removed by furnishing nesting-boxes.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Canada and Newfoundland to the Gulf Coast and Florida, west to the Rockies; winters in the southern half of the eastern U. S., south to Guatemala.
BLUEBIRD
As spring approaches, I invariably “go a-hunting,” not for “rabbit-skins,” but for song sparrows and bluebirds. Robins usually seek us, and sometimes their blue-winged cousins call Cheer-e-o as they fly swiftly over our housetops; but I am never happy until I have visited an orchard or pasture frequented by these heaven-sent birds. “My heart leaps up when I behold” once more their exquisite blue and hear their soft, delightful warble. Then I know that spring is really on her way, and I am again eager and expectant.
Bluebirds have always been much beloved, especially in New England. Florence Merriam writes: “Although the Bluebird did not come over in the Mayflower, it is said that when the Pilgrim Fathers came to New England this bird was one of the first whose gentle warblings attracted their notice, and, from its resemblance to the beloved Robin Redbreast of their native land, they called it the Blue Robin.”[54]
The bluebird has always been a favorite theme for poets and nature-writers, especially in New England, where the beauty and warm coloring of this sweet bird seem exceptionally welcome after a long, severe winter. In Thoreau’s diary, “Early Spring in Massachusetts,” he refers to the bluebird thirteen times and writes: “The bluebird—angel of the spring! Fair and innocent, yet the offspring of the earth. The color of the sky, above, and of the subsoil beneath, suggesting what sweet and innocent melody, terrestrial melody, may have its birthplace between the sky and the ground.”[55]
Burroughs, too, makes frequent mention of the bluebird. In “Under The Maples” he says: “None of our familiar birds endear themselves to us more than does the bluebird. The first bluebird in the spring is as welcome as the blue sky itself. The season seems softened and tempered as soon as we hear his note and see his warm breast and azure wing. His gentle manners, his soft, appealing voice, not less than his pleasing hues, seem born of the bright and genial skies. He is the spirit of April days incarnated in a bird. Not strictly a songster, yet his every note and call is from out the soul of harmony.”[56]
Bluebirds are of economic as well as æsthetic value. They devour cutworms and other kinds of caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and beetles. They eat fruit in the winter; they prefer that taken from pastures, swamps, and hedgerows, rather than from gardens or orchards. They never destroy cultivated crops; on the contrary, benefit them.[57]
These birds are such devoted lovers that one is rarely seen far from its mate. The female is very gentle and timid; she seems to need reassurance and protection. There are times, however, when she knows her own mind and shows firmness of character. A male bluebird in Asheville, N. C., intoxicated by the warmth of a sunshiny January day, wooed a female ardently. She was very distant and finally dismissed him. She evidently had sufficient foresight to realize that it would be disastrous to go to housekeeping so early and therefore withheld her consent.
Numerous instances have been recorded of bluebirds that have lost their mates by accident and have mourned so deeply as to touch the heart of any one who saw the tragedy or heard the cries of sorrow.
THE SONG SPARROW
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: A little over 6 inches; about the size of the English sparrow.
General Appearance: A small brown bird with a grayish breast, a body heavily streaked with black, a black spot in the center of breast, and at each side of the throat.
Male and Female: Brown head with black streaks, a grayish line in center and over eye; brown line back of eye; back brown and gray, streaked with black; wings brown, with black spots,—no white bars; throat grayish-white; a dark patch on each side of throat; a conspicuous black spot in center of breast; belly white; sides whitish, streaked with brown and black; tail long, brown, darkest in center.
Call-note: Chip, chip—sharp and metallic.
Song: A sweet cheerful strain, with considerable variety in different individuals. It usually consists of three notes that sound like “See? See? See?” followed by a short trill. Henry van Dyke interprets the song as Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer.
Habitat: Bushes; near water, preferably.
Range: North America, east of the Rocky Mts. Breeds in Canada from Great Slave Lake to Cape Breton Island, south to southern Nebraska, central Missouri, Kentucky, southern Virginia, the mountains of North Carolina. Winters from Nebraska, Illinois, Massachusetts (locally) and New Jersey, south to the Gulf Coast.
SONG SPARROW
The Song Sparrow, like air and sunshine, is a part of our daily lives after we have once become acquainted with him. In some localities he takes up his abode permanently; in others, he arrives in late February or early March and remains until November. Joy in life and deep contentment abide with him. He is the most incurable optimist of my acquaintance. I have heard him sing beside a brook that has just broken its icy fetters, while patches of snow still remained on the ground; during days of rain which silenced most songsters; through hot summer noons and during the almost songless molting-season,—nothing seems to daunt him, from early morning until sunset. Occasionally during the night is heard his simple strain, as though he needs must sing in his sleep.
His song is pleasing, but in no way remarkable. It is in a major key and lacks the ecstasy and piercing sweetness of the fox sparrow’s, and the exquisite tenderness of the field and the vesper sparrow’s, but it possesses a charm all its own. It breathes a joy in simple things—a steadfast and cheerful courage that makes us say, “He, too, is no mean preacher.”
Song sparrows, like other members of the Finch family, are of great service in their destruction of insects and weed seeds, of which they consume enormous quantities. They eat wild berries and fruits only when their favorite food is not obtainable. They possess no bad habits and are desirable “bird-neighbors” to cultivate. Water always attracts them; one is most likely to find them near streams, in which they love to bathe.
Their nests are made largely of grasses, dead leaves, and root-fibres, and are lined with soft grasses. They are placed in bushes or on the ground. The eggs, pale in color and flecked with brown, are well concealed by their markings. Song sparrows, usually serene, grow intensely nervous when the nest is approached, and betray its whereabouts by their incessant Chip, chip.