The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-04-24
SOUTH DAKOTA BIRDS
The Kildeer and the Yellow
Warbler and Their
Habits.

Prof. s. $. Visher of the University
of South Dakota: The Killdeer (Oxey-
chus vociferus) is certainly our most
common water bird. Almost every
pond, or ever permanent puddle has
It's brood and each lake is the home
of several pairs. Though in ouI state
Killdeers prefer to nest near water, |
have found broods in the drier portions
of the state that C uld claim only a
| small patch of moist earth as their
own. But you may be sure this wet
ground was claimed as vociferously as
hough il had been an artesian fed lake.
The killdeer is one of the noisiest Of
birds. It's loud killdee. willdee, will
dee, repeatedly, necessarily. is heard
so frequently as to be fam liar to all.
In fact its hsrshness lie such that it of
ten is an UNIV leone call. However. L
nave never met a 'man with a soul so
dead as not to be thrilled by the
cheerful calls of the first killdeer to
return in March.
This bird has an exasperating habit
of signaling the approach of an in
trudeI. Often it will fly a quarter
of a mile, with loud outcries, to
meet and scold the sportsman who is
trying to get within shot of a flock
{ ducks, and will often follow a man
or a dog a long way. advertising his
presence. If the nest of drowsy
young be approached the parents re-
double the complaints and many be-
come almost fra tic in their endeavors
TO lead us away. They run ahead,
limp, ia ! over, lutter seemingly help
lessly, and other wise pretend to be
wounded. / suspect that every boy
al least once in bis career was so
we'll dece we'd that he chased after
the wounded bird only to find that a
sudden cure had taken place. Again
and again have / seen a daring mother
so tempt a dog by fiuttering almost
within his reach as to lead him far
from her helpless young. Such is the
mother instinct.
The killdeer is particularly valuable
to the far Der On account of its fondness
for grasshoppers and for insects of Gull
tivated land. AS many as 40 locusts
have been taken from a single kill
detr's stomach and the average of
six stomachs was A"
Description: Length 10 inches.
Gray brown; rump rusty; tail rather
long; white below; two black bands
across breast; forehead, eyeline and
wing bars white; bill black; runs very
swiftly.
The Yellow Warbler (Dendroica aesti-
va OF yellowbird, is often called ''the
wild canary" because it resembles the
canary. The black and yellow gold
finch, however, might more correctly
be so nRmed ince it belongs to the
canary or sparrow family. The yell
lowbird is our most common warbler
and because il nests abundantly in
willow thickets, small groves and
orchards it is quite frequently seen.
As it fits about, it distinctly sug-
gests a flash of golden sunlight. Its
simple song has a pleasing happy ring
and a surprising penetration. The
| food of warblers consists very largely
! Of insects.
The yellow warbler arrives from
the tropics during the first week in
May and departs early in August.
The nest is built very soon and is com
monty placed in some low bush or
! shrub. often a rose bush. 1t usually is
made largely of light colored fiaxen
materials gathered from various weed
stalks and is often lined with the cot
ton from the seeds of the willow and
cottonwood.
The yellow warbler is constantly vic
timized by the cowbird, which you
know, is too lazy to rear its own
young. Where this parasite is abun.
dant, many deserted nests are found
containing from two to four eggs of
the cowbiid with or without some of
the wsrbler's own. This clever warb-
Ter sometimes covers a cowbird's eggs
| with a layer of material, and l have
found two nests where a second false
bottom had been added to cover ad-
ditional eggs of the intruder. result
ing In a three storied nest.
Description. Length FIVE inches,
yellow, darkest ON back. The male
has reddish. brown streaks on the
breast.