Evening star., 1947-03-17
This and That
By Charles E. Trdce1DeH
CHEVY CHASE, Nd.

Dear Sir:
During the past 10 days have had
a stranger at my feeding trays, the
smallest bird to dine with me this win
ter save for the chickadee.
I'm size he fits in between the chick
adee and the junco. His breast and
head are gray; his back is gray tinted
with olive: his wings are black, and as
he stands on the tray, his wings folded
back over his body, distinctive white
stripe runs across his back about half
way from his shoulders to the tip of
his wings; lower down are several much
smaller white stripes, just above the
base of the tail.
Like the chickadee. this little fellow
is partial to sunfower seed, but unlike
the chickadee, who grabs his seed and
flies off onto tree to enjoy his food
in solitude, this little fellow stays on
the tray and eats his fill.
"He is scrapper, Notwithstanding
his size. One day a brilliant cardinal
lit on the opposite side of the tray,
whereupon this little bird dropped his
wings, opened his mouth, and gave
signs of battle to his companion, fully
three times his size.
1.-THE first time this bird appeared he
insisted on having the tray to himself;
would not even permit one Of his kind
to eat with him. Now, after repeated
visits, he not only allows birds Of his
type, but sparrows. nuthatches and
chickadees to share in the food at their
disposal. The starlings frighten him
away, but as soon as they leave, he is
back, provided there are sunflower seed
left. He seems to care for nothing else.
There has been small flock of these
little birds around every day. II they
are not orchard orioles, what are they?
Sincerely, H. j. B."
Our guess is that our correspondent
was fooled by goldfinch.
The wild canary often is mistaken for
something else in winter time. This
is because its. dress for the cold days
is entirely different from that Of
summer.
The orchard oriole is never seen here
in winter, and not too often in summer.
1t is considerably larger than the gold
finch.
The goldfinch or wild canary is a
happy-go-lucky creature. 1t often comes
to winter feeding stations for sunfiower
seed, and more or less acts in the man.
ner indicated by our correspondent.
They come In small bands. In spring
the groups are considerably larger.
There Is nothing these little birds like
better than dandelion seeds. The house
holder who frowns upon dandelions
must admit they have one good use
when he sees the goldfinches at them.
There is no more beautiful small sight
in nature than a wild canary bending
down almost till his back touches the
ground as he hangs onto a slender
branch.
Chickweed is another favorite food,
SO 1T may be realized that here Is a
most valuable bird.
His ability to bend down plant with
out touching the ground is due to his
weight of Ia ounces. But there must
be something more to it than this, too,
because the bird can watt on the end
of trumpet vine stalk as If he had
no weight at all. Evidently he is such
a buoyant creature that he acts as a
sort Of hanging balloon.
So the next time you see weeds in
your yard do not hurry out to extirpate
them. They will not. do any harm to
your garden but may do the goldfinches
great deal of good.
Sometimes home gardeners worry too
much. They should think that weed
/ seeds have a part to play in feeding the
songbirds. The mighty hosts of seed
eaters are able to clean up most of
this food but to hear some amateur
gardeners go on you might think birds
lived on air.