Color Key to North American Birds Part 23

Spoonbills build a rude nest of sticks in mangrove bushes or small trees and lay three to five whitish eggs speckled with shades of brown.

Ibises are usually found in flocks along the sh.o.r.e of lagoons, lakes, etc., or in marshy places. They fly with the neck outstretched and are generally silent. Their nests of reeds, weed stalks, etc., are sometimes placed in low bushes, at others in gra.s.sy marshes. The eggs number from three to five. They are plain blue in the Glossy Ibis, greenish white with chocolate markings, in the White Ibis.

The Storks are largely Old World birds, only three of the some twenty known species inhabiting the Western Hemisphere. But one of these is found regularly north of the Rio Grande, the so-called Wood Ibis which is abundant in southern Florida. It lives in flocks and builds a nest of sticks usually in cypress trees, often forty feet from the ground, laying two or three white eggs. When flying the neck is extended. It progresses by alternate flapping and sailing and occasionally soars high overhead in circles, like a Vulture.

The Bitterns and Herons unlike our other long-legged wading birds, fly with a fold in the neck. They belong in two subfamilies, the _Botaurinae_ and _Ardeinae_, respectively. The Bitterns are usually solitary birds inhabiting gra.s.sy or reedy marshes where their colors harmonize with their surroundings and render them difficult to see.

The American Bittern nests on the ground and lays three to five pale brownish eggs. The Least Bittern usually weaves a platform nest of reeds among rushes growing in the water and lays four or five bluish white eggs.

Herons feed along the sh.o.r.e and are consequently more often seen than Bitterns. With the exception of the Green Heron and the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, which usually nest in isolated pairs, our species gather in colonies to nest. Several hundred pairs occupying a limited area in some wooded or bushy swamp to which, when undisturbed, they return year after year.

Herons build a rude platform nest of sticks, sometimes placing it in bushes, sometimes in the tallest trees, and at others on the ground or beds of reeds in marshes. The eggs are greenish blue in color and usually four in number. It is among those Herons, which in nesting time are adorned with delicate plumes or aigrettes, that the greatest ravages of the millinery hunter have been made. Attacking these birds when they have gathered on the nesting ground, they are not permitted to rear their young and the species is thus exterminated branch and root.

The voice of Herons is a harsh squawk varying in depth of tone with the size of the bird.

Flamingo, Spoonbill and Ibis

[Ill.u.s.tration: 182.]

=182. Flamingo= (_Phoenicopterus ruber_). L. 45; from toe to bill, 60.

_Ads._ Rosy red, lighter on back; primaries and secondaries black.

_Yng._ Smaller, grayish brown; lighter below. _Notes._ A _honk_ resembling that of a Canada Goose.

Range.--Atlantic coasts of tropical and subtropical America; resident (breeding?) in southwestern Florida (Monroe county); casual west to Texas, north to South Carolina.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 183.]

=183. Roseate Spoonbill= (_Ajaia ajaja_). L. 32. _Ads._ Head and throat bare; sides of breast and end of tail rusty buff; lesser wing-coverts, upper and under tail-coverts carmine. _Yng._ Head feathered, buff and carmine replaced by pink.

Range.--Tropical and subtropical America; north to Gulf States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 185.]

=185. Scarlet Ibis= (_Guara rubra_). L. 24. _Ads._ Scarlet: tips of primaries black. _Yng._ Grayish brown, lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts white; underparts dull white.

Range.--"Florida, Louisiana and Texas, southward to the West Indies and northern South America. No record of its recent occurrence in the United States." (A.O.U.)

Ibises

[Ill.u.s.tration: 184.]

=184. White Ibis= (_Guara alba_). L. 25. _Ads._ White, tips of outer primaries black, face orange red. _Yng._ Grayish brown, rump, breast and belly white. _Notes._ When near nest, _crook_, _croc_, _croo_; when disturbed, a loud, hoa.r.s.e, _bunk_, _bunk_, _hunk_. (Audubon).

Range.--Tropical America; breeds north to Lower California, southern Indiana, southern Illinois and South Carolina; winters from Gulf southward; accidental in South Dakota, Connecticut and Long Island.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 186.]

=186. Glossy Ibis= (_Plegadis autumnalis_). L. 24. _Ads._ Front of head black with greenish reflections. _Yng._ Head and neck fuscous brown margined with white, rest of underparts fuscous brown; back with greenish reflections.

Range.--Tropical and subtropical regions in America; rare or local in southeastern United States; casual north to Ma.s.sachusetts and Illinois.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 187.]

=187. White-faced Glossy Ibis= (_Plegadis guarauna_). L. 24. _Ads._ Front of head _white_. _Yng._ Resembles young of No. 186.

Range.--Tropical and subtropical America; north to California, (rarely British Columbia), Texas, Kansas, east rarely to Florida; winters south of United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 188.]

=188. Wood Ibis= (_Tantalus loculator_). L. 40. _Ads._ Head and neck bare; white, primaries, secondaries and tail blackish.

_Yng._ Resembles ad. but head and neck feathered, grayish brown.

_Note._ When alarmed, a rough, guttural croak. (Audubon.)

Range.--Tropical and subtropical America; breeds In Gulf States, (Lower California?), and later may stray as far north as New York, Wisconsin, and California.

Bitterns

[Ill.u.s.tration: 190.]

=190. American Bittern= (_Botaurus lentiginosus_). L. 28. _Ads._ A glossy black streak on either side of the neck. _Yng._ Similar to ad. but colors much deeper, more rusty. _Notes._ Call, _quawk_; song, _pump-er-lunk_.

Range.--North America north to Labrador and British Columbia, breeding chiefly north of lat.i.tude 35; winters from about lat.i.tude 35 southward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 191.]

=191. Least Bittern= (_Ardetta exilis_). L. 13. _Ad._ [Male]. Hindneck rufous, foreneck, underparts, and under tail-coverts white and buff.

_Ad._ [Female]. Similar, but crown and back brown, below streaked with brownish. _Notes._ Call, an explosive _quab_; song, a soft _coo_ repeated four or five times.

Range.--North America; breeds from Gulf States to New Brunswick and Manitoba; winters from Gulf States southward. "Less common west of Rocky Mountains; on the Pacific coast north to northern California."

(A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 191.1]

=191.1. Cory Bittern= (_Ardetta neoxena_). L. 13. _Ad._ [Male].

Hindneck black, foreneck chestnut, belly mixed black and chestnut, under tail-coverts black. _Ad._ [Female]. Similar, but crown and back duller.

Range.--Eastern North America; recorded from Florida, Ontario, (breeding), Ma.s.sachusetts, and Michigan; about 20 specimens known.

Herons

[Ill.u.s.tration: 192.]

=192. Great White Heron= (_Ardea occidentalis_). _Ads._ White, no "aigrette" plumes. A white Heron about the size of a Great Blue Heron.

What is supposed to be a gray-blue phase of this bird has been called _Ardea wuerdmanni_, a bird which resembles No. 194, but has the head and neck whitish.

Range.--Southern Florida, Cuba and Jamaica.