BIRDS ABOUT OUR HOMES 85 



The Bluebird, House Wren and Purple Martin must have 

 nesting boxes supplied for them. The Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker, Flicker, Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker and Crested 

 Flycatcher will be pleased to take up their abode near our 

 homes providing they can find a dead stub, or a telephone 

 pole in which to chisel out their home; or, in the case of th^ 

 Chickadee and the Crested Flycatcher, find a cavity already 

 chiseled out. Again, we may be of some help by providinp; 

 cavities for these birds, but the cavity must be carefully pat- 

 terned after the bird's own design. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Screech Owl, Sparrow Hawk, 

 Tufted Titmouse, Indigo Bunting and Phoebe occasionally 

 nest near our homes. In fact there are occasional instances of 

 quite a number of other birds that may nest in our very door 

 yards, but they are unusual, and their presence is due to 

 especially favorable conditions. In this, and other comments, 

 I am referring to the Kansas City region. 



During winter the Chickadees, Titmice, Woodpeckeis, 

 Nuthatches, Cardinals and Blue Jays come in from the woods. 

 They are hunting for food, and instinctively know that they 

 may find stray crumbs and other delicacies about our houses. 

 If they are not disappointed, and if they find a bunch of suet 

 and a few cracked nuts, they will soon return and become 

 regular pensioners. Still, they pay for their hand-out, for 

 they vary their diet of suet and crumbs with insect eggs and 

 larvae that they find in the trees and shrubs about the place. 



With these resident birds will come a number of winter 

 visitors from the north to share in the feast. Juncos and 

 Tree Sparrows are the most numerous, but occasionally 



