Evening star., 1946-02-28
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,peu.
ARLINGTON, Va,

Dear Sir:
II would like your help in identifying
a large flock Of birds that visit our yard
every morning-they are always gone
around noon.
"The males are greenish yellow, with
yellow backs, and black and white
feathers on their wings-the beaks re-
semble cardinals, but the head is
larger and heavier than cardinal. The
females are not nearly so bright, of
course, and when they fly their backs
show white-the male shows more
bright yellow.
These birds don't come and eat with
the other birds-they seem to stay as
a flock, and pick around in the grass
and flower beds.
To-day there are about 20 here-when
they first came, about six weeks ago, as
many as a hundred would be in the
yard at one time.
Also, this morning a woodpecker
came down-a bright red head and q
gray and white body. I have seen him
several times this winter But he is
different from the vivid black and white
male with the red head; and the female
with this one is mostly gray and white,
but not striped.
Gould you help me with both of these
visitors? I see them and hate not know
ing their names.
Thank you, sincerely, c. S."
The yellow and black bird is the eve
ming grosbeak, which has been causing
such sensation in the eastern bird
world.
An advance guard of these beautiful
birds came to Bethesda, Maryland, just
two years ago, and their presence was
duly reported in this column at that
time
The invasion this year is far greater,
but still not one bird lover In a thousand
will see evening grosbeaks. Those who
do not, therefore, have a lot Of COM
pany.
It is believed that this years influx
was due to some lack of food in the
normal western haunts of this grosbeak.
These birds are very fond of sunflower
seeds. What else do they eat? Well.
they like the buds and seeds of various
trees, such as the maple, elder and ash
They also eat the fruit of the sumac.
All frozen and dried fruits on vines and
1t is claimed that the great favorite
food is apple seeds, and particularly if
they come from frozen apples. They
do not like insects at this time of year,
even when they find them They sell
dom eat any grain such as is commonly
put in mixtures for feeding wild birds
They Will occasionally eat oats, but not
by preference.
II
fruits of the box elder and the hack
berry.
This bird breeds in Western Canada.
The nest is put far out on horizontal
limb. It is not very well built affair.
The eggs are pale blue-green, or may
be called green-blue. There are
splotches Of brown at the large end.
The evening grosbeak uses a loud
piping whistle for his call note. He
also has lower utterance. When spring
comes all the male grosbeaks sing to-
gether, much as English sparrows do
and this unison singing is rather at
tractive, just as that of the common
sparrow.
Some listeners have said that the
grosbeak chorus resembles that Of the
spring pepper. If this is SO, it must be
basically rather shrill, for the hyla
chorus can be heard for at least mile.
Few bird watchers in this section
will hear the evening grosbeaks because
when spring comes, they will have gone
to their haunts in the North.
AS for our correspondents woodpeck-
ers, they probably are red bellied wood
peckers. The female does not have so
much red on top of her head. She has
splotch where her neck joins her back
and also spot of red at the root of her
bill. She is striped, but more vaguely
than the male.
The evening grosbeak belongs to the
great finch family, which includes
buntings, grosbeaks, sparrows and
finches. Bunting" means plump; "gros-
beak" means, of course, q short thick
bill; sparrow" means flutterer, and
just what finch" means, nobody knows.
These various finches comprise the
largest bird family, with about 1900
species, of which about 200 are in the
United States. Mainly the members of
this family are seed eaters, mostly weed
seeds. These birds together, it has been
estimated, save farmers millions Of doll
lars every year.