[18] BIRDS OF OREGON 



that condition. Birds police the air by day and night and search the 

 treetops, the surface of the ground, and even the water. Swallows and 

 swifts, for example, feed entirely on the wing and are equipped with small 

 beaks and wide gapes that allow them literally to scoop their food from 

 the air as they dart back and forth through swarms of small insects. 

 Flycatchers dart into the air from sentinel positions, pick large and small 

 insects from the air, and return to the perch. At times late in summer 

 and in fall, they are joined by other widely dissimilar species. During 

 those seasons, Lewis's Woodpecker and bluebirds habitually feed in this 

 manner, and flickers, blackbirds, several species of sparrows, and some of 

 the warblers have been noted occasionally gathering food in this spec- 

 tacular way. Their place is taken at night by nighthawks and poor-wills. 

 Nighthawks feed high in the air and are literally open-ended projectiles 

 that dart back and forth through the air on long, powerful wings, scoop- 

 ing up small insects by the hundreds. Poor-wills feed closer to the ground, 

 behaving much more like the flycatchers. 



Coursing through the treetops are myriads of small birds, headed by 

 the warblers and vireos, that spend their waking hours gathering small 

 insects from the foliage, flowers, and buds of the trees. Chickadees, 

 kinglets, and other small treetop inhabitants join them regularly. The 

 branches and trunks of the trees are policed by woodpeckers, creepers, 

 nuthatches, kinglets, and chickadees. Throughout the year these small 

 birds search the tree crevices and crannies for insects, eggs, and larvae. 

 The woodpeckers are especially equipped with drilling tools that allow 

 them to search out and obtain wood-boring insect larvae from their homes 

 within the tree, but the other birds of these small groups work more on 

 the surface of the bark. Winter and summer alike, they are at it, and 

 because of their numbers and the fact that they are present throughout 

 the year, it seems probable that the entire surface of many of the trees is 

 searched again and again for luckless insects. On the ground, sparrows, 

 thrushes, and some of the warblers, together with a sprinkling of birds 

 from other families, work through the woodlands and brush patches 

 searching among leaves and accumulated debris for insects and seeds, 

 while meadowlarks, blackbirds, crows, magpies, robins, and hosts of 

 sparrows police the grasslands and open country. Fruit-eating sparrows, 

 thrushes, mockers, and thrashers feed alike on the ground or in the 

 bushes and treetops wherever their favorite food may be available. 



The abundant food supplies of the shore lines of the larger lakes and 

 bays, as well as of the ocean beaches, are harvested periodically by 

 migrating shore birds, gulls, and a scattering of other birds. Shore birds 

 feed on living insects, crustaceans, and mollusks, while the gulls are 

 scavengers but willing to take almost anything living or dead that comes 

 their way. The open surfaces of the larger lakes and streams are policed 

 by gulls and terns, and the open ocean has myriads of birds of the shear- 



