Myrtle warblers are tiny mites that liven up the trees and shrubs in the spring migration. Traveling in small flocks, they seem to be constantly in motion, flitting from branch to branch searching for small insects and their eggs. Like flycatchers, they snap up larger bugs on the wing. To a quiet observer, they seem trusting birds, often singing at close range.
Some winter as far north as the New England coast, wherever bayberry thickets offer fruit and shelter, and others move on to the southern states. From these wintering grounds they migrate to nesting grounds in the evergreen forest of the northern states and Canada. In their fall flight south, they seem subdued, the bright yellow on the crown and flanks having disappeared, and the lemon colored rump the only remaining brilliant.
NIGHTHAWK
(Chordeiles minor)
Often seen on dull days as well as dawn or dusk, the long slender wings of nighthawks exaggerate their size. They are 10 inches long, but seem bigger.
At rest, they perch lengthwise on branches, crossarms, or logs, or on the ground. In the air, their flight is a series of fluttering spurts, followed by long glides. Before aviators broke the sound barrier, nighthawks had their own ‘sonic boom,’ created by diving vertically from considerable height and flaring sharply upward near the ground.
Flying insects, from mosquitoes to beetles and moths, are their only food. Nighthawks build no nest, the two young being raised on the bare ground, or flat roofs.
Nighthawks nest in all states except Hawaii and winter in South America.
