Birds Every Child Should Know

When the friendly little chippy leaves us in autumn, this similar but larger sparrow cousin comes into the United States from the North,

BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Golden Oriole). A flash of flame among the tender young spring foliage; a rich, high, whistled song from the blossoming cherry trees, and every child knows that the sociable Baltimore oriole has just returned from Central America.

MOURNING DOVE, Carolina Dove - Do not waste any sympathy on this incessant love-maker that slowly sings coo-o-o, ah-coo-o-o-ooo-o-o-ooo-o-o, in a sweetly sad voice.

Don't expect to meet the tufted titmouse if you live very far north of Washington. He is common only in the South and West.

High up in the top of elms and maples that line village streets where the red-eyed vireo loves to hunt, even among the trees of so busy a thoroughfare as Boston Common,

"What's in a name?" Our English cousins over the border are quite sure they hear this sparrow sing the praises of Swee-e-et Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a-da-ah,

PURPLE GRACKLE and BRONZED GRACKLE. You probably know either one of our two crow blackbirds, similar in size and habits, one with purplish,

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER - Birds for Kids. A pair of red-headed woodpeckers I know, who made their home in an old tree next to the station yard at Atlanta, where locomotives clanged, puffed, whistled and shrieked all day long, evidently enjoyed the noise, for the male liked nothing better than to add to it by tapping on one of the glass non-conductors around which a telegraph wire ran.

BOB-WHITE Bird, Partridge bird -  What a cheerful contrast is Bob White's clear, staccato whistle to the drawing coo of the amorous dove! Character is often expressed in a bird's voice as well as in ours.

When it comes to acrobatic performances in the trees, neither the chickadee nor the titmouse can rival their relatives, the little bluish gray nuthatches.

Is it not curious that among our so-called song birds there should be two, about the size of robins, the loggerhead and the northern shrike,

Do you imagine because he is called the fox sparrow that this bird has four legs, or that he wears a brush instead of feathers for a tail, or that he makes sly visits to the chicken yard after dark?

AMERICAN CROW. Two close relatives there are which, like the poor, are always with us—the crow and the blue jay. Both are mischievous rascals, extraordinarily clever, with the most highly developed brains that any of our birds possess.

FLICKER BIRD, Yellow-hammer bird, Clape, Yucker - Birds for Kids - Why should the flicker discard family traditions and wear clothes so different from those of his relations?

RUFFED GROUSE - Bob-white and ruffed grouse are the fife and drum corps of the woods. That some birds are wonderful musicians everybody knows. No other orchestra contains a member who can drum without a drum.

Count that a red-letter day on your calendar when first you see either this tiny, dainty sprite, or his next of kin, the golden-crowned kinglet, fluttering, twinkling about the evergreens.

So few birds wear their head feathers crested that it is a simple matter to name them by their top-knots alone,

When the skies are leaden and the first flurries of snow warn us that winter is near, flocks of juncos, that reflect the leaden skies on their backs,

BLUE JAY BIRD. This vivacious, dashing fellow, harsh-voiced and noisy, cannot be overlooked; for when a brightly coloured bird, about a foot long, roves about your neighbourhood with a troop of screaming relatives, everybody knows it.