When snow, like silence visible,
Hath hushed the summer bird,
Thy voice, a never frozen rill
Of melody, is heard.
But when from winter’s lethargy
The buds begin to blow,
Thy voice is mute, and suddenly
Thou vanishest like snow.
The tree sparrow, one of our most interesting sparrows, is another bird who does not fear the winter winds and storms. Although he carries the name of tree sparrow, he is most emphatically a bird of the ground, and may be seen during the winter months in almost any remote patch of plowed ground where there are old weed stalks for him to eat. They are especially addicted to old tomato fields and seem to delight in the seeds of this plant. This sparrow looks like a large chippy, our door yard neighbor of the summer months, excepting that he has distinguishing white bars across his wings. They travel in large flocks, and where one sees a few of them scratching in the snow, a step too close will scare dozens of them away. They associate considerably with snowbirds and where there are members of one family you will most always find the others either with them or close by.
One of our prettiest winter birds is the downy woodpecker, his glossy black and white, with the bright red spot on his head, showing up strongly from some tree trunk, where he raps for insects, as he goes up, propping himself with his tail as he works. One notices him by hearing his rapping on a branch or his loud note, which he utters frequently. He delights in boring holes in trees and, especially in the spring, he drills out complete nests which he probably has no intention of ever using. The hairy woodpecker has almost precisely the same habits and colors as the downy, and differs only in size. He, also, is one of our winter residents, but not so commonly as the other.