GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR
BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK
Common Crow. Fish Crow. American Raven. Purple Grackle. Bronzed Grackle. Rusty Blackbird. Red-winged Blackbird. Purple Martin. Cowbird. Starling.
See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the Wood Pewee and other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink.
BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK
COMMON CROW
(Corvus americanus) Crow family
Called also: CORN THIEF; [AMERICAN CROW, AOU 1998]
Length -- 16 to 17.50 inches. Male -- Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw-toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. Female -- Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. Range -- Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrations -- March. October. Summer and winter resident.
If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the br strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in brdaylight, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assurance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers.
In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet.
Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill, in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we remember the crow's depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is the farmer's true friend.
FISH CROW (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family
Length -- 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the robin. Male and Female -- Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections, generally greener underneath. Chin naked. Range -- Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gult of Mexico, northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers or) the Pacific coast. Migrations -- March or April. September. Summer resident only at northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about half-way to Albany.
Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies over the southern waters -- a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too, differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the difference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-r-r instead of a loud, clear caw, means little until we have had an opportunity to compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's familiar call.
From the farmer's point of view, there is still another distinction: the fish crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field-mice, grubs, and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst nest robber we have; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young birds as its larger cousin.
The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the shad and herring -- a saw which science unkindly disapproves.
AMERICAN RAVEN
(Corvus corax principalis) Crow family
Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN; [COMMON RAVEN, AOU 1998]
Length -- 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a robin. Male and Female -- Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and breast long and loose, like fringe. Range -- North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very abundant in the northwest. Migrations -- An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it finds its way.
The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any language -- Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license -- people of all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an "I told you so," as they solemnly wag their heads when they hear, of some death in the village after "the bird of ill-omen" has made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood--it receives the blame for every possible misfortune.
When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less flapping, and he delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him.
These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera. In the art of nest building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take many curious freaks of color and markings, they are pied black and white, suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so far as plumage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them -- grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a conspicuously omnivorous bird.
PURPLE GRACKLE (Quiscalus quiscula) Blackbird family
Called also: CROW BLACKBIRD; MAIZE THIEF; KEEL-TAILED GRACKLE; [COMMON GRACKLE, AOU 1998]
Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male -- Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper, and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and conspicuous. Tail longer than wings. Female -- Less brilliant black than male, and smaller. Range -- Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. Migrations -- Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March and September.
This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; for, although in many sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds.
Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind reciprocates its suspicion.
The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and markings that different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike. The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another peculiarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes to turn its direction or alight.
Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye, the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus!" The grackle's mate alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx. With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be recorded of both crows and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell characterizes them in these four lines:
"Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees, And settlin' things in windy Congresses; Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned If all on 'em don't head against the wind."
The Bronzed Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula aeneus) differs from the preceding chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of iridescent bars. Its range is more westerly, and in the southwest it is particularly common; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England in large numbers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical.
RUSTY BLACKBIRD (Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family
Called also: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE; RUSTY CROW; BLACKBIRD
Length -- 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. Male -- In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. Female -- Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light line over eye. Smaller than male. Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Plains. Migrations -- April. November. A few winter north.
A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller flocks, the rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other feathered friends in marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by its rusty feathers and pale yellow eye, and easily distinguish the rusty-gray female from the female redwing that is conspicuously streaked.
In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, secluded streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water or brookside plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times they often indulge in a curious spluttering, squeaking, musical concert that one listens to with pleasure. The breeding range is mostly north of the United States. But little seems to be known of the birds' habits in their northern home.
Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds which are so frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's.
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
(Agelaius Phamiceus) Blackbird family
Called also. SWAMP BLACKBIRD; RED-WINGED ORIOLE; RED-WINGED STARLING
Length -- Exceptionally variable--7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually about an inch smaller than the robin. Male -- Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow. Female -- Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing-coverts black, tipped with white, or rufous and sometimes spotted with black and red. Range -- North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, and throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico to 57th degree north latitude. Migrations -- March. October. Common summer resident.
In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His notes, "h'-wa-ker-ee" or "con-quer-ee" (on an ascending scale), are liquid in quality, suggesting the sweet, moist, cool retreats where he nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the marshes are still frozen); enjoying not only the company of large flocks of his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can scrape acquaintance; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs, and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food -- the blackbird is an impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life.
Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the blackbird is the greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is simply indulging its social instincts. They complain, too, that the blackbirds eat their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable grubs from it during the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a share of the profits. Though occasionally guilty of eating the farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has been found that nearly seven-eighths of the redwing's food is made up of weed-seeds or of insects injurious to agriculture. This bird builds its nest in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low in the bog grass of marshes. From three to five pale-blue eggs, curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with black or purple, constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in July the young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders.
"The blackbirds make the maples ring With social cheer and jubilee; The red-wing flutes his '0-ka-lee!'" --Emerson.
PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) Swallow family
Length -- 7 to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the robin. Male -- Rich glossy black with bluish and purple reflections; duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the tail, which is forked. Female -- More brownish and mottled; grayish below. Range -- Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to South America. Migrations -- Late April. Early September. Summer resident.
In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honeysuckle and roses climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and hollyhocks crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be seen with a pair of these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. Bur now, alas! the boxes, where set up at all, are quickly monopolized by the English sparrow, a bird that the martin, courageous as a kingbird in attacking crows and hawks, tolerates as a neighbor only when it must.
Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes dangling from poles about the negro cabins all through the South. One day he asked an old colored man what these squashes were for.
"Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks carryin' off de chickens so long as de martins am around."
The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They often lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in the crotch of their tent poles to invite its friendship. The Mohegan Indians have called it "the bird that never rests"--a name better suited to the tireless barn swallow, Dr. Abbott thinks.
Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute its diet -- another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple enough to distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their larger size and iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which is very soft and sweet, like musical laughter, rippling up through the throat.
COWBIRD (Molothrus ater) Blackbird family
Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD; COW BUNTING; [BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, AOU 1998]
Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male -- Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish. Female -- Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and streaked with paler shades of brown. Range -- United States, from coast to coast. North into British America, south into Mexico. Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident.
The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow or heifer, walking briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for its insect prey.
Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and utterly irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a surreptitious egg, never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but selecting in a cowardly way a small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its place. Not finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray.
Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few sharp notes.
STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris)
[Called also: EUROPEAN STARLING, AOU 1998]
Length -- 8 to 9 inches. Weight about equals that of robin, but the starling, with its short, drooping tail, is chunkier in appearance. Male -- Iridescent black with glints of purple, green, and blue. On back the black feathers, with iridescence of green and bronze, are tipped with brown, as are some of the tail and wing feathers. In autumn and early winter feathers of sides of head, breast, flanks and underparts are tipped with white, giving a gray, mottled appearance. During the winter most of the white tips on breast and underparts wear off. Until the first moult in late summer the young birds are a dark olive-brown in color, with white or whitish throat. These differences in plumage at different seasons and different ages make starlings hard to identify. Red-winged blackbirds and grackles are often mistaken for them. From early spring till mid-June, starling's rather long, sharp bill is yellow. Later in summer it darkens. No other black bird of ours has this yellow bill at any season. Female -- Similar in appearance. Range -- Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100 miles inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.) Migrations -- Permanent resident, but flocks show some tendency to drift southward in winter.
This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he has been painted. Like many other European immigrants he landed at or near Castle Garden, New York City, and his descendants have not cared to wander very far from this vicinity, preferring regions with a pretty numerous human population. The starlings have increased so fast in this limited region since their first permanent settlement in Central Park about 1890 that farmers and suburban dwellers have feared that they might become as undesirable citizens as some other Europeans -- the brown rat, the house mouse, and the English sparrow. But a very thorough investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of Biological Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its results.
Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (1) the starling must plead guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is often a persecutor of native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; (3) his roosts, where he sometimes congregates in thousands in the autumn, are apt to become public nuisances, offensive alike to the eye, the nose and the ear.
But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does not eat so many cherries as our old friend the robin, though his depredations are more conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones and twos will pilfer steadily from many trees for many days without attracting notice, a crowd of starlings is occasionally observed to descend en masse upon a single tree and strip it in a few hours. Naturally such high-handed procedure is observed by many and deeply resented by the owner of the tree, who suffers the steady but less spectacular raids of the robins without serious disquiet,
Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment of some native birds. "Unrelenting perseverance dominates the starling's activities when engaged in a controversy over a nesting site. More of its battles are won by dogged persistence in annoying its victim than by bold aggression, and its irritating tactics are sometimes carried to such a point that it seems almost as if the bird were actuated more by a morbid pleasure of annoying its neighbors than by any necessity arising from a scarcity of nesting sites...
"In contests with the flicker the starling frequently makes up in numbers what disadvantage it may have in size. Typical of such combats was the one observed on May 9, at Hartford, Conn., where a group of starlings and a flicker were in controversy over a newly excavated nest. The number of starlings varied, but as many as 6 were noted at one time. Attention was first attracted to the dispute by a number of starlings in close proximity to the hole and by the sounds of a tussle within. Presently a flicker came out dragging a starling after him. The starling continued the battle outside long enough to allow one of its comrades to slip into the nest. Of course the flicker had to repeat the entire performance. He did this for about half an hour, when he gave up, leaving the starlings in possession of the nest...
"Economically considered, the starling is the superior of either the flicker, the robin, or the English sparrow, three of the species with which it comes in contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and young of bluebirds and wrens may be protected by the use of nest boxes with circular openings 1 1/2 inches or less in diameter. This leaves the purple martin the only species readily subject to attack by the starling, whose economic worth may be considered greater than that of the latter, but in no case was the disturbance of a well-established colony of martins noted."
As for the nuisance of a big established roost of starlings, it may be abated by nightly salvos of Roman candles or blank cartridges, continued for a week or at most ten days.
So much for the starling in his aspect as an undesirable citizen. Government investigators, by a long-continued study, have discovered that his good deeds far outnumber his misdemeanors. Primarily he feeds on noxious insects and useless wild fruits. Small truck gardens and individual cherry trees may be occasionally raided by large flocks with disastrous results in a small way. But on the whole he is a useful frequenter of our door-yards who 'pays his way by destroying hosts of cut-worms and equally noxious' insects. "A thorough consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food habits, the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin, catbird, flicker, red-winged blackbird, or grackle." Need more be said for him?
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