BIRD LIFE IN WASHINGTON 
7 
“Look up, spheral, spheral.” His call 
note is a single whistle much like we give 
to Fido when we want him to prick up 
his ears. It is easy to imitate this. If you 
whistle to him, lie’ll answer from the 
thicket. 
In choosing a location for a nest, most 
birds take three things into consideration: 
light, cleanliness, and safety. Their homes 
will he in open places, along paths, or 
water courses, but we may crawl through 
the heavy ferns of the deep woodland, or 
push our way through the thicket where 
it is too dense for ferns, fighting the dead 
branches from our eyes at every move. 
Here we may flush Russet-back. 
Photo by the Author 
NEST AND EGGS OF RUSSET-BACKED THRUSH 
The nest may be fastened to a fragile 
bracken fern, or it may be twenty feet up 
