BLUEBIRD (Sialia sialis) 



Length,* about 6]^ inches. 



Range: Breeds in the United States (west to 

 Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana), 

 southern Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala; 

 winters in the southern half of the eastern 

 United States and south to Guatemala. 



Habits and economic status : The bluebird is 

 one of the most familiar tenants of the farm 

 and dooryard. Everywhere it is hailed as the 

 harbinger of spring, and wherever it chooses 

 to reside it is sure of a warm welcome. This 

 bird, like the robin, phoebe, house wren, and 

 some swallows, is very domestic in its habits. 

 Its favorite nesting sites are crannies in the 

 farm buildings or boxes made for its use or 

 natural cavities in old apple trees. For rent 

 the bird pays amply by destroying insects, and 

 it takes no toll from the farm crop. The blue- 

 bird's diet consists of 68 per cent of insects to 

 32 per cent of vegetable matter. The^ largest 

 items of insect food are grasshoppers first and 

 beetles next, while caterpillars stand third. 

 All of these are harmful except a few of the 

 beetles. The vegetable food consists chiefly of 

 fruit pulp, only an insignificant portion of 

 which is of cultivated varieties. Among wild 

 fruits elderberries are the favorite. From the 

 above it will be seen that the bluebird does no 

 essential harm, but on the contrary eats many 

 harmful and annoying insects. (See Farmers' 

 Bui. 54, pp. 46-48.) 



* Measured from tip of bill to tip of tail. 



ROBIN (Planesticus migratorius) 



Length, 10 inches. 



Range: Breeds in the United States (except 

 the Gulf States), Canada, Alaska, and Mexico; 

 winters in most of the United States and south 

 to Guatemala. 



Habits and economic status : In the North 

 and some parts of the West the robin is among 

 the most cherished of our native birds. Should 

 it ever become rare where now common, its 

 joyous summer song and familiar presence will 

 be sadly missed in many a homestead. The 

 robin is an omnivorous feeder, and its food 

 includes many orders of insects, with no very 

 pronounced preference for any. It is very 

 fond of earthworms, but its real economic 

 status is determined by the vegetable food, 

 which amounts to about 58 per cent of all. 

 The principal item is fruit, which forms more 

 than 51 per cent of the total food. The fact 

 that in the examination of over 1,200 stomachs 

 the percentage of wild fruit was found to be 

 five times that of the cultivated varieties sug- 

 gests that berry-bearing shrubs, if planted near 

 the orchard, will serve to protect more valuable 

 fruits. In California in certain years it has 

 been possible to save the olive crop from hun- 

 gry robins only by the most strenuous exer- 

 tions and considerable expense. The bird's 

 general usefulness is such, however, that all 

 reasonable means of protecting orchard fruit 

 should be tried before killing the birds. (See 

 Farmers' Bui. 54, pp. 44-46.) 



RUSSET-BACKED THRUSH (Hylocichla RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET (Regulus 

 ustulata) calendula) 



Length, 7% inches. Among thrushes having 

 the top of head and tail nearly the same color 

 as the back, this one is distinguished by its 

 tawny eye-ring and cheeks. The Pacific coast 

 subspecies is russet brown above, while the 

 other subspecies is the olive-backed thrush. 

 The remarks below apply to the species as a 

 whole. 



Range : Breeds in the forested parts of 

 Alaska and Canada and south to California, 

 Colorado, Michigan, New York, West Virginia 

 (mountains J, and Maine; winters from Mex- 

 ico to South America. 



Habits and economic status : This is one of 

 a small group of thrushes the members of 

 whicli are by many ranked first among Ameri- 

 can song birds. The several members resemble 

 one another in size, plumage, and habits. 

 While this thrush is very fond of fruit, its 

 partiality for the neighborhood of streams 

 keeps it from frequenting orchards far from 

 water. It is most troublesome during the 

 cherry season, when the young are in the nest. 

 From this it might be inferred that the young 

 are fed on fruit, but such is not the case. The 

 adults eat fruit, but the nestlings, as usual, are 

 fed mostly upon insects. Beetles constitute the 

 largest item of animal food, and ants come 

 next. Many caterpillars also are eaten. The 

 great bulk of vegetable food consists of fruit, 

 of which two-fifths are of cultivated varieties. 

 (See Biol. Surv. Bui. 30, pp. 86-92.) 



Length, about 4% inches. Olive green above, 

 soiled whitish below, concealed feathers on 

 head (crest) bright red. 



Range : Breeds in southern Canada, southern 

 Alaska, and the higher mountains of the west- 

 ern United States; winters in much of the 

 United States and south to Guatemala. 



Habits and economic status : In habits and 

 haunts this tiny sprite resembles a chickadee. 

 It is an active, nervous little creature, flitting 

 hither and yon in search of food, and in spring 

 stopping only long enough to utter its beauti- 

 ful song, surprisingly loud for the size of the 

 musician. Three-fourths of its food consists 

 of wasps, bugs, and flies. Beetles are the only 

 other item of importance (12 per cent). The 

 bugs eaten by the kinglet are mostly small, 

 but, happily, they are the most harmful kinds. 

 Tree-hoppers, leaf-hoppers, and juinping plant 

 lice are pests and often do great harm to trees 

 and smaller plants, while plant lice and scale 

 insects are the worst scourges of the fruit 

 grower; in fact, the prevalence of the latter 

 has almost risen to the magnitude of a national 

 peril. It is these small and seemingly insig- 

 nificant birds that most successfully attack and 

 hold in check these insidious foes of horticul- 

 ture. The vegetable food consists of seeds of 

 poison ivy, or poison oak, a few weed seeds, 

 and a few small fruits, mostly elderberries. 

 (See Biol. Surv. Bui. 30, pp. 81-84.) 



