Identifier: ourbirdfriendsco00burb (find matches)
Title: Our bird friends; containing many things young folks ought to know--and likewise grown-ups
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Burba, George Francis, 1865-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, The Outing publishing company

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at does not glisten. Pine trees are the favorite places for their nests, and they liketo nest in groups—two or three nests in one tree sometimes, anda dozen in a cluster of pine trees is not infrequent. Before theymate in the spring, and after the young are grown, they roostin flocks and such a chattering one can hear nowhere else. Theyare not afraid of man, although they are somewhat shy, andthey go into the towns and villages at times to roost or buildtheir nests, flying far into the country for their food. But along the deep shade of the little streams is where theyare most at home; or in the low-lying meadows and skirtingthe swamps and marshes. The red-winged blackbirds live inthe swamps and marshes almost exclusively, and the crow black-birds meet and mingle with the red-winged fellows upon termsof equality. But when night comes they separate, and you willnever find a red-winged one roosting in a pine with the crowkind. Away down South they may build their nests in rotten snags
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19 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD(Agelaius phueniceusj.Vz Life-size. COPYRIGHT AND PJB^SHcO BYfKNSON, MENTZER & GROVER, CHICAGO THE BLACKBIRDS 139 of trees, but in the North they are more particular. They buildthe body of the nest of roots and small twigs and stems of grass,and line that with mud. Then they place the soft hairs andfeathers and fine grasses and prepare a respectable home forthe four or five or six eggs that are laid. The eggs are bluish,daintily marked with streaks of brown and black, somethinglike little veins broken and scattered about promiscuously. While they eat grains and berries and bugs and beetles andother things that birds eat, they love snails better than anythingelse, and the little periwinkles that one finds sticking to pebblesin shallow water. The blackbirds wade along the shore ofstreams, or balance themselves upon drooping willows thatoverlook the water, and pick up their favorite food as daintilyas a school girl handles her chocolate drops. While they spend

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