Cedarbird

“ The Kingbird is a very satisfactory bird to beginners; the color pattern is so marked and the bird is so fond of exposed situations that it is seen and recognized without difficulty. Except the Cedarbird, whose tail is tipped with yellow, I know no other small bird of the eastern United States whose tail feathers are all tipped with a regular edge of light color. The Kingbird is the bird most commonly seen from a car window ”

“ It would be safe to affirm that the cuckoo or the cedarbird which we happened to be watching, would in the course of time come to a certain branch, look about, advance to the nest along a certain path, marked out previously by habit, test the throat of one of the eager young, watch for the swallowing reaction, inspect and take the sac, if forthcoming, in the bill, but here no one could say whether the sac would be borne away, and the bird return thereafter with food, or whether it would be eaten, and the bird remain at the nest to brood. ”

“ At the other extreme stand the common altrices, like the robin or cedarbird, which are blind at birth, and so helpless that they would shortly succumb without that parental care and protection which is so faithfully rendered. Growth and development are continued after hatching, but under new conditions, and at the age of two weeks, when the nest is commonly deserted, the young so far as instincts and intelligence are concerned are at about the same stage as many of the precoces at birth. ”

“ Remove the blind and naked cedarbird from its nest, and the complex food-reaction is given as regularly and as continuously as before (Fig. 26) . By the second or third day, however, all this has changed, and it is difficult to get any food-response if the bird be out of its nest with which association has become established. If the young are not removed, however, the feeding reaction is usually regularly given, unless checked by satiety or the rise of the instinct of fear. Association in the early life of young birds thus tends, as we have seen ”

“ The curves showing the rate of wing-growth in both cuckoo and cedarbird (Fig. 28) follow those of body-weight very closely, but there is possibly a variation in other organs, such as the leg or tarsus, but it is difficult to obtain reliable measurements on some of these parts. The most vigorous nestling (No. 1) more than doubled in weight on the first day, more than trebled on the second, and more than quadrupled on the third, while on the twelfth day, when it left ”

“ The young are at first fed on insects, but after a week the parents procure different kinds of fruits for them. The Cedar Bird nestles less frequently in the low lands than it does in the upper parts of the country, preferring the immediate neighbourhood of mountains. These birds are more careful of themselves during the intrusion of strangers to their nest, than perhaps any other species, and sneak off, in a very unparental manner, quite out of sight, without ever evincing the least appearance of sorrow on the occasion. ”

“ The appetite of the Cedar Bird is of so extraordinary a nature as to prompt it to devour every fruit or berry that comes in its way. In this manner they gorge themselves to such excess as sometimes to be unable to fly, and suffer themselves to be taken by the hand. ”

“ Like most of our common species, as the robin, sparrow, bluebird, pewee, wren, etc., this bird sometimes seeks wild, remote localities in which to rear its young; at others, takes up its abode near that of man. I knew a pair of cedar-birds, one season, to build in an apple-tree, the branches of which rubbed against the house. For a day or two before the first straw was laid, I noticed the pair carefully exploring every branch of the tree, the female taking the lead, the male following her with an anxious note and look. ”

“ Robins by scores, sometimes by hundreds, combine with the cedar-birds and flickers and range over the country in 121 search of food. The flickers feed much of the time upon the ground among the berry-bushes, casting aside woodpecker habits and seeming more like starlings. The robins are sometimes with them upon the ground, but oftener in the wild cherry-trees with the cedar-birds, stripping bough after bough of its dark fruit. When the flock moves, the cedar-birds mass themselves and fly for a while as though linked together. ”

“ All the year the pasture cedars are beautiful, and it is hard to say whether they are at their best in the spring glow of staminate delight or now when their bronze robes bear the round, exquisitely blue berries which are really cones. I have an idea the birds like them best now. The robins, the cedar-birds, and a host of others eat these berries gladly, and fly far with them, planting the seeds as they go. They find shelter in the close drawn blanket of evergreen foliage which the trees seem to wrap about them to keep out the cold and they fill the pasture with flitting wings all the month. ”

“ The habits of the common Cedar-Bird are eminently nomadic, and, so far as those of the Waxwing are known, correspond in all respects, except in the more general and especially the more southern distribution of the present species. They are found throughout North America at least so far as the wooded country extends, and they breed from Florida to the Red River country. They are a common bird in New England, and would be much more so but that their fondness for cherries and other small fruits, and their indifference to danger, makes them an easy and frequent mark for destruction. ”

“ It has the crest of the cedar-bird, the same yellow border to its tail, but is marked with white on its wings, as if a snowflake or two had adhered to it from the northern cedars and pines. If you see about the evergreens in the coldest, snowiest weather what appear to be a number of very large cherry-birds, observe them well, for the chances are that visitants from the circumpolar regions are before your door. It is a sign, also, that the frost legions of the north are out in great force and carrying all before them.
Our cedar or cherry bird is the most silent bird we have. ”

“ When a flock of red crossbills do this, they sprinkle the air and the earth with sweet notes; but the cedar-birds have no joy in their one chilly whistle, and there is more of aimless, witless indecision in their flights than there is of romping. ”

“ The distinction, however, between these two species is now clearly ascertained.
THE CEDAR BIRD. (Ampelis Americana.) This bird is also known by the names of the Crown Bird, and the Cherry Bird. It abounds in the United States, and is found as far south as Mexico, and northward to Canada. During the Summer months flocks of Cedar birds are found in the mountainous tracts of our country, where they find abundant food in the whortleberries with which, at that season, the Blue Mountains, the Alleghanies, and the Cumberland abound. ”

“ The cedar-bird builds a very neat nest in a tree, and feeds his mate while she is sitting, as well as helps her feed the little folk. The young cedar-bird is a winsome youngster, gentle in his ways, and pretty in his soft gray suit and spotted breast. ”

“ It is no uncommon bird, haunting the sides of ponds and rivers where there is covert, and the reeds and sedges of moors. The country people in some places call it the sedge-bird. It sings incessantly night and day during the breeding-time, imitating the note of a sparrow, a swallow, a skylark ”

“ She builds her nest of moss and mud around dwelling houses, and under low bridge arches. The cedar-bird likes a cherry or a cedar tree. She makes a large nest as neat as her little quaker self, of clover stems, pine needles, grass and shredded bark. ”

“ This fresh green hue of the country is very charming, and with us it is very fugitive, soon passing away into the warmer coloring of midsummer.
The cedar-birds have been very troublesome among the fruit blossoms, and they are still haunting the gardens. As they always move in flocks, except for a very short period when busy with their young, they leave their mark on every tree they attack, whether in fruit or flower. We saw them last week scattering the petals in showers, to get at the heart of the blossom, which, of course, destroys the young fruit. ”

“ The cedar-bird is the most silent of our birds having but a single fine note, so far as I have observed, but its manners are very expressive at times. No bird known to me is capable of expressing so much silent alarm while on the nest as this bird. As you ascend the tree and draw near it, it depresses its plumage and crest, stretches up its neck, and becomes the very picture of fear. Other birds, under like circumstances, hardly change their expression at all till they launch into the air, when by their voice they express anger rather than alarm. ”

“ The Cedar-crow stopped there a day, two days ... the other birds darted past, chirping, flying races, playing with one another, rejoicing together in the good gifts of their mother-earth, the bright sun, and the Vagaï, and the delights of companionship; but the thick-billed Cedar-crow dared not leave her tree; there she sat watching that no other bird should touch her private nuts. When a woodcock did but pass, she flew to him in anxiety, crying out: 'Go away!—go away! There's nothing here for you; go back where you came from! I don't touch your things ”

“ One listens in vain for a song; only a lisping "Twee-twee-ze," or "a dreary whisper," as Minot calls their low-toned communications with each other, reaches our ears from their high perches in the cedar trees, where they sit, almost motionless hours at a time, digesting the enormous quantities of juniper and whortleberries, wild cherries, worms, and insects upon which they have gormandized.
Nuttall gives the cedar birds credit for excessive politeness to each other. ”

“ In all the common altricious birds fear, in its later stages, is attuned with the instinct of flight, or, as in the case of the cuckoo, with the power of helping itself by entry upon a climbing stage, when seven days old. In a cedar waxwing, on the contrary, it is not well matured until the thirteenth or fourteenth day, when the entire brood, standing on their nests with heads upturned, suggest a gun, loaded, capped and primed, ready to go off as soon as some one pulls the trigger, which is of the hair variety. ”

“ With birds, as with some other bipeds, the shortest way to the heart is through the stomach, and a choke-cherry tree in full blaze of fruit is always a natural aviary. Where a cedar bird has built its nest, there look some day to see a group of cherry trees; where convenient fence-perches along the roadside lead past cedar groves, there hope before long to see a bird-planted avenue of cedars. And so the marvels of Nature go on evolving,—wheels within wheels. ”

“ To-day I notice first a large flock of white-throats, and a smaller flock of cedar-birds. The latter, when I first discover them, are in the conical tops of the tall spruces, whence they rise into the air, one after another, with a peculiar motion, as if a hand had tossed them aloft. They are catching insects, a business at which no bird can be more graceful, I think, though some may have been at it longer and more exclusively. Their behavior is suggestive of play rather than of a serious occupation. ”

“ On those days you must seek them in the cuddly seclusion{110} of dense evergreens, more than likely among close-set cedars where the blue cedar-berries are still sweet and plenty. But we have had many days in this January of 1909 when the bluebirds have had a right to feel called to at least take a hurried glimpse at the bird boxes or the holes in the old apple trees, just as people take a flying trip to the summer cottage on a warm Sunday; they know they can’t stay, but it is delightful to just look it over and plan. ”

“ They will well repay all the watching one gives them. The cedar waxwing is a strange bird, with a very pronounced species-individuality, totally unlike any other bird of our country. When feeding on their favourite winter berries, these birds show to great advantage; the warm rich brown of the upper parts and of the crest contrasting with the black, scarlet, and yellow, and these, in turn, with the dark green of the cedar and the white of the snow. ”

“ In cedar the older growth of trees is always selected, and no attempt at concealment is made. I have never found a nest in a young thrifty cedar with thick foliage.
The male is always to be heard singing in the vicinity of the nest, and the old nesting localities, and occasionally the same tree is selected apparently and returned to one year after another.
Nearly all the nests reported by others were in cedars and were similar in construction to those described. There are five nests of the golden-cheeked warbler in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, of which only one was in a cedar ”

“ Here a female oriole, startled by the close proximity of a meadow-mouse, that like herself has come down to the stream to drink, flies up scolding terribly at the spectacle, and instantly the other birds gather around to inquire the reason of this consternation. The cedar-birds appear suddenly on the spot, silent but observing. The song-sparrow hops upon a twig, from his washing, preens his speckled breast, and curiously eyes his brilliant neighbor. The yellow warbler holds up her head from behind an alder-leaf, and goes skulking through the thick foliage. ”

“ As the cedar birds travel about in great flocks that quickly exhaust their special food in a neighborhood, they necessarily lead a nomadic life — here to-day, gone to-morrow — and, like the Arabs, they "silently steal away." It is surprising how very little noise so great a company of these birds make at any time. That is because they are singularly gentle and refined; soft of voice, as they are of color, their plumage suggesting a fine Japanese water-color painting on silk, with its beautiful sheen and exquisitely blended tints. ”