Evening star., 1944-05-06
This and That
By Charles E. TraceDeU.
CHEVY CHASE Md

Cf1EVY 7 CHASE, Md.
Dear Sir:
We have newcomer to our feeding
station. Will you identify him for us?
His outstanding feature is his bill.
which is the same in shape but much
larger than the redbird's, and of a
peculiar green shade.
The bird itself is about the size of
cardinal, but stockier in build. His
coat Is dull gray, the breast is a light
ollve-green and the wing feathers are
edged with wide bands of dark blue.
His tail Is quite short, as are his legs.
We looked through Birds of America
thinking he might possibly be the blue
grosbeak, but he is nothing like the
colored illustration of that bird.
Ihere have been about six of them
with us for the past three weeks. and
when we first saw them we thought
they were on their way north, but thev
seem to have settled down for a real
stay with us
They make a cry which sounds like
peach, peach, peach They are almost
comcal in appearance, for their huge
bills make them look topheavy.
The brown thrashers have returned.
and we have lots of cowbirds this year.
1t Is difficult to believe that the cow
BIRD can be such villain, for both male
and female are SO quiet and well man.
nered, and they are the neatest and
best groomed of all our birds.
Very truly yours, K. S. S."
The bird with the large bill is prob
ably the female evening grosbeak.
Recently this column had report of
evening grosbeaks at an address within
few blocks of the present correspond
ents home
The description fits fairly we'll.
Mostly the evening grosbeak has black
bands, but it is very easy to see black
as blue, and blue as black, in birds
This comes about through a pecularity
OF feather construction.
GrackleS, for instance look very blue,
in some lights, but mostly appear to
the eye as shining black
The blue groSbeak will look almost
black in the shade. Sunshine is needed
to bring out the blue This species is
fairly common in the summer. The
female is plain bird, of combined gray
and buff and brown, with touches of
blue She is easily overlooked, especially
in shrubbery.
The cardinal is about 8s4 inches long
the evening grosbeak 81 inches and the
blue groSbeak 7 inches.
Evening grosbeaks have heavy bills
and short legs and tails.
+
The male blue grosbeak is often mis-
taken for cowbird, because it's blue is
so dark
The cowbird (male) is our only black
bird with brown head
The female is gray bird, in effect
When you see her walking around
cowbirds walk, instead of hop-you may
feel pretty sure that she is getting ready
TO lay an egg in some other birds nest.
We are glad our correspondent sticks
up for this species 1t needs it! But
its parasitic habits cannot change the
fact that it is a very handsome bird
The coWbirdS, as our correspondent
says, are among the neatest and best
groomed of all our native songbirdS.
They are fairly common in the sub
urban sections, but are often missed by
anxious observers, since the brown head
of the male is not seen at a little dis
tance, and the plain female is over
looked altogether.
CoWblrdS will come to feeding sta
tion placed on the ground, but will not
stay around for more than few days
at q time, so If one desires to see
this bird it must be caught on the earth.
Young cowbirds show up in the late
summer or fall. They are large, and
all spotted and streaked The impress
sion OF the average beholder is that
they are very rare birds, and he often
wonders to what species they belong.