In the bands
of little birds which in winter visit the trees about the houses, there are
often three different species, all of which find their food on the trunks or
large limbs of trees, but by such different methods that a study of their
habits is not only interesting but also extremely instructive. The little Downy
Woodpecker, like all its tribe, hitches up the trunk or along the upper side of
the limb, using its stiff tail feathers as a support, and holding on to the
bark by its two pairs of sharp claws. The Nuthatch, with a short weak tail, and
toes arranged as in all song birds, three in front and one behind, has the
toes, however, spread so wide that it can climb head downward, over, under, or
around the limb. Least known of the three is the Brown Creeper. It, too, has
three toes in front and one behind, but although not related to the
Woodpeckers, it has developed stiff and pointed tail feathers. It therefore
clings to the bark in an upright position, and it commonly begins at the bottom
of the tree and works steadily upward, often in a spiral.
During the
winter months, the Brown Creeper probably visits every village street and every
city park in the Northern States, but as it is just the color of the weathered
bark and moves close to it, it escapes the notice of nearly every one. If one
learns to distinguish the fine wiry note, and watches the tree from which it
proceeds, one sees the bird flutter to the base of a neighboring tree and begin
again its steady ascent. When two birds are together, they sometimes indulge in
a very pretty flight, and tumble in the air like pigeons. As a rule, however,
the Creeper is solitary, and, in this respect, offers a marked contrast to its
companions and relatives, the sociable Chickadees and Kinglets.
The eyes of
a Creeper are so near the bark which it is inspecting, that it is not strange
that it finds food where we should look in vain. It has, besides, a very long
curved bill which will reach into crevices in the bark, and before the end of
the winter, it has undoubtedly stripped the trees of a large proportion of the
dormant insects and their eggs, especially as, like the other winter birds, it
seems to have a very regular beat, visiting the same groups or rows of trees
every day. Few birds are so strictly arboreal as the Creepers. The writer has
only once seen one alight on the ground, when the bird flew to a little stream
to bathe. In the ice storms which occasionally clothe every trunk and limb with
a glassy covering, the Creeper has to confine itself to the leeward side of the
trees. Occasionally the Creeper, on account of its practice of beginning at the
bottom of the trunk, flies to a spot on the tree below the band of tarred
paper, which protects the shade trees from the visits of the canker-worm moth.
On reaching the band, the bird makes a circuit of the trunk, in a vain attempt
to find a passage. It is better provided, however, than the wingless moths, and
when the circuit has been made, a short flight carries it over.
In April,
the Creeper leaves its winter quarters for the North, and joins many other
species in the great spruce forests of northern New England and Canada.
Occasionally, on warm mornings before its departure, the male indulges in a
little song, of the thinnest quality imaginable. When the pair reaches their
northern home, they hunt for a crevice under some great flake of loose bark,
and there construct their nest. The bark of trees, therefore, furnishes the
Creeper with a cradle at birth and a home for the rest of its life.
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