THE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
The White-winged Crossbill is similar to the Red Crossbill, but its body is a dull crimson instead of red, and its black wing-feathers are so tipped with white as to form two broad white wing-bars. The female is olive-green, gray underneath, with a yellow rump, dark wings and tail, white wing-bars, and dark streaks on head, breast, and back.
This crossbill breeds in Canada, south to the Adirondacks, White Mountains, and Maine. Its note is a soft cheep; its song a gentle warble. To see a flock of these birds feeding silently in a grove of spruces or hear them singing their low sweet song makes a memory cherished by bird-lovers. They may be seen in winter as far south as North Carolina.
JUNCO
THE JUNCO OR SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: About 6¼ inches; slightly smaller than the English sparrow.
General Appearance: Trim, dainty little birds, all gray and white, except for a pinkish or flesh-colored bill. White outer tail-feathers, showing in flight, are distinguishing marks.
Male: Dark slate-gray above and white below. The gray extends to the center of the breast in a nearly horizontal line, and with the white under parts, gives the effect of the birds’ having waded breast-deep in the snow, or having been sliced in two, like the “sliced animals” of our childhood. Sides grayish; wings slightly darker; tail dark brown, with two outer feathers white; third feather, partly white; bill heavy, adapted to a diet of seeds.
Female: Similar to male, only brownish-gray. Winter plumage of all juncos browner than summer plumage.
Young: Light brownish, streaked with black.
Note: A gentle tseep, tseep, and a smack, smack, of alarm or distress.
Song: A tender, sweet trill in the spring. Though monotonous, the song is very pleasing.
Habitat: Groves of conifers; thickets of bushes or vines, or clumps of weeds.
Nest: Juncos’ nests are built of mosses or grasses on or near the ground. The speckled eggs and the streaked babies are excellent examples of protective coloring. The nests are sometimes placed very near houses, if the surroundings are to the liking of the birds.
Range: Eastern and northern North America. Breeds from the tree-limit of Alaska and Canada southward to northern United States,—northern Minnesota, central Michigan, Maine, the mountains of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts; winters throughout eastern United States and southern Canada to the Gulf Coast.
The Carolina Junco, nesting in the southern Appalachian mountains, is a subspecies, differing but very slightly in color.
Juncos are gentle, attractive little creatures that come to our thickets when the chill of autumn has driven away our insectivorous birds. Being seed-eaters, they do not fear winter snows, except those that cover tall weeds. According to Professor Beal, juncos should be rigidly protected. They not only destroy large quantities of weed seeds, thereby rendering service to agriculture, but they eat harmful insects, of which caterpillars are their favorite. They do no damage to fruit or grain.[17]
Mr. Forbush writes of the junco as follows: “The Snowbird does not often breed in Massachusetts, excepting on the higher lands of the north-central and western parts of the State. Pairs are said to nest occasionally in ice-houses, which are certainly cool, if not suitable situations. It is a bird of the Canadian fauna, and it winters in Massachusetts whenever conditions are favorable. In the southeastern portion of the State, where the ground is bare in sheltered places through much of the winter, or where weed seed, chaff, and other food can be secured, this bird is common in the colder months. Its notes at this season are chiefly sparrow like chirps.
“A flock of these dark birds on the new-fallen snow is an interesting sight on a cold winter’s day, as they come familiarly about the house or barnyard. Audubon says that in winter they burrow in stacks of corn or hay for shelter at night during the continuance of inclement weather. As spring comes they begin to sing much like the Chipping Sparrow. They converse together with a musical twittering, and about the first of May they leave for their northern breeding-ground.”[18]
THE SNOWFLAKE OR SNOW BUNTING
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: A little less than 7 inches; slightly larger than the junco and the English sparrow.
General Appearance: A brown, black, and white bird; the white is conspicuous on wings and tail, especially in flight. The bird has a characteristic way of “hugging the ground” when walking or running—it does not hop.
Male and Female: In winter: head brown on top, lighter on neck; white on sides of head, with a brown thumb-mark below eye; back brown, streaked with black; throat and belly white; a broad brownish band across breast; a brownish wash on sides and rump; wings black and white, some of the feathers edged with brown—in flight, the wings appear white, broadly tipped with black; inner tail-feathers black, outer feathers white. In summer: back and shoulders black, the rest of the body white; wings and tail black and white.
Notes: Thoreau calls their note “a rippling whistle.” He says also, “Besides their rippling note, they have a vibratory twitter, and from the loiterers you hear quite a tender peep.”[19]
Habitat: The tundras of North America. Snow buntings breed in the treeless regions of the North; they migrate southward during the winter.
Range: Northern Hemisphere. In North America, they breed from 83° north (including Greenland), to the northern part of Canada and Alaska; winter from Unalaska and south-central Canada to northern United States, irregularly to northern California, Colorado, Kansas, southern Indiana and Ohio, and Florida.
SNOWFLAKE
Snow Buntings, or “Brown Snowbirds” as they are called to distinguish them from the juncos, or “Gray Snowbirds,” are not generally known because of the infrequency and irregularity of their visits. They belong to the Sparrow family, but have so much black and white on their wings and tail as to appear very unlike their relatives.
Snowflakes are gentle, fearless little birds, possibly because they come from the sparsely settled regions of the North, where they need not learn to fear human beings. Like chickadees, they appear to love driving storms, and to frolic during February blizzards with as keen delight as warmly clad children; like tree sparrows, they are protected by a layer of fat that keeps out the cold. As they, too, are seed-eaters, snow buntings must journey southward during the winter to regions where deep snows do not bury the weeds.
Few people are aware that in the treeless plains of the north there lives a bird that resembles the much-admired skylark of England in its way of singing. Both snow buntings and skylarks begin to sing as they rise from the ground, sing while on the wing or high up in the air, then drop swiftly to the ground.
Dr. Judd writes as follows about the snowbird: “The snowflake is a bird of the arctic tundra, above the limit of tree growth. In North America it breeds about Hudson Bay, in the northernmost parts of Labrador and Alaska, and to the northward. In its northern home it is a white, black-blotched sparrow, of whose habits very little is known, except that it makes a feather-lined nest on the ground, in which it rears four or five young on a diet which probably consists principally of insects. After the breeding season, however, a buffy brown comes mixed with the black and white, and the birds assume a more sparrowlike aspect. They migrate southward with the first severe cold weather, some of them coming as far south as the northern half of the United States, where their appearance is regarded as a sure sign that winter has begun in earnest. Often a flock of a thousand will come with a blizzard, the thermometer registering 30° to 40° below zero; and in their circling, swirling flight, as they are borne along by the blast, they might well be mistaken at a distance for veritable snowflakes. They settle in the open fields and along railroad tracks, where they secure some food from hayseed, grain that has sifted out of the grain cars, and seeds of weeds that grow along the tracks. Here they remain until April, when, in obedience to the migrating instinct, they journey north to nest on the treeless plains of the arctic regions.
“The snowflake differs from many other winter sparrows, such as the tree sparrow, junco, and white-throated sparrow, in that its flocks act more nearly as units, the alarm of a single member causing the whole flock to whirl up into the air and be off. A further difference may be noted in its strictly terrestrial habits. When not flying, it is almost invariably found on the ground; and when it does happen to alight in a tree, awkward wobblings betray its discomfort. Where the feeding conditions are favorable, immense flocks of snowflakes may be seen apparently rolling like a cloud across the land, this curious effect being due to the rear rank continually rising and flying forward to a point just in advance of the rest of the flock.”[20]
Dr. Judd says that little information can be given concerning the summer food of this bird, but that it probably feeds on the seeds of shore or marsh plants. The winter food consists of grain, mostly gleanings or waste, and of weed seed which is consumed in enormous quantities. “On account of its good work as a weed destroyer and the apparent absence of any noticeably detrimental food habits, the snowflake seems to deserve high commendation, and should receive careful protection.”
THE TREE SPARROW OR WINTER CHIPPY
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: A little over 6 inches; about the size of the English sparrow.
General Appearance: A small brown bird with a gray breast that has an indistinct black spot in the center.
Male and Female: Crown reddish-brown; a gray line over the eye, a reddish-brown line back of eye; gray below eye; a reddish-brown streak curving from bill; bill short and thick; back brown, streaked with black and buff; wings dark brown, edged with white, and with two white wing-bars; tail brown, slightly forked, outer feathers edged with white; sides brownish, other under parts white; the black spot in the center of the breast, the identification mark.
Notes: Cheerful twitters and chirps.
Song: A sweet, gentle trill, very delightful to hear.
Habitat: Fields, especially those bordered by bushes that can be used as shelter at night and as a refuge from enemies.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds in northern and central Canada; winters from southern Minnesota and southeastern Canada to eastern Oklahoma, central Arkansas, and South Carolina.
TREE SPARROW