This large goose is the earliest to arrive in spring, and is the most southern breeder, nestingthroughout the wooded country.
She needs them to form nestingplaces for the birds, and she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter and a home.
The plume hunters invade the nesting places of the egrets, herons, and flamingos, often leaving not a single bird in what were once happy colonies, except the starving little ones.
Such refuges are now scattered all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as at various other localities throughout the country which are favorite nesting places for the birds.
They are not only saving the birds about our homes but are attracting others by putting out food, planting trees that bear attractive fruit, and making nesting places for the birds.
They once adorned the mother bird at nesting time in some far marsh.
Illustration: We can help to conserve bird life by providing safe nesting places for our feathered friends.
The birds commonly met with are considered, and their habits of feeding and nesting are described.
Birds swarming--nesting or swinging by the rotan canes.
Mossy banks overhanging low sea cliffs are its usual nesting places, and there it excavates a tunnel through the soft moss and turfy soil, and at a distance of more than two feet from the aperture forms its nest.
Young unfledged gannets were waddling about among the bushes, and as regards the other birds, their nesting season also seemed to be over.
During the nesting season only a single pair can be found in a place, but at other times the species is more or less gregarious in the regions in which it is numerous.
He wears his bright trappings during courting and nesting time, and the rest of the year doffs his scarlet and wears olive-green like that of his modest mate.
The few species of hawks which now nest in hollows have gone back to that method after a long period of open nesting and have retained the nest material even here where it seems unnecessary.
At last comes the summer truce and happy days of peace in the tangled jungle of the marsh, with the wild duck and bittern nesting beside his watery path, the marsh wren weaving her rushy bower above it.
If there go also some eggs and callow young of ground-nesting birds, why should you question his right, you, who defer slaughter out of pure selfishness, that a little later you may make havoc among the broods of woodcock and grouse?
Groups of this class can easily be made to show the ordinary nesting and breeding habits of the animals represented.
The nesting and burrowing habits of these builders of "homes without hands" afford a most interesting field for investigation and study, and one which is of great interest to everyone.
Precisely in line with our idea, these groups were intended to show the birds in their haunts, and, as far as possible, to show their nesting habits.
Besides teaching what the nesting habits of the gray squirrel are, it also impresses upon the observer the very important fact that the habits of different individuals of a given species are capable of wide variation.
Although arriving from the south long after most raptors have begun their nesting, the kites are not further delayed by establishment of territories and choosing of mates, and nesting is underway soon after their arrival.
The longer interval on July 19 to 21 may have resulted from the greater furtiveness of the adult kites at this stage in their nesting cycle.
In the nesting season many of both sexes perch together in the same tree, and groups tend to keep together as they forage.
By the time nesting has begun the trees have leafed out, and the nests are well concealed.
He indicated an area of less than two acres west of the artesian well to which the colony had been limited in its nesting in 1936, because at that time few trees were available as nest sites.
When my observations were made in 1961, the nesting area was co-extensive with the cottonwood groves, and there were literally thousands of trees within the area that provided adequate sites for nests.
Just now our thoughts are so taken up with our nesting that we have little time for song.
On the third night we secured the blessed opportunity of nesting in a farmer's granary.
Around us, on the swells, gray gophers whistled, and the nesting plover quaveringly called.
An old proverb says, "No one can keep the birds from flying about his head, but one can keep them from nesting in his hair.
Both mice were dormant, covered by nesting materials and curled up in the aforementioned hibernating posture.
The most marked feature was the wonderful abundance of bird life, for almost all the birds frequenting the shores of the continent were found nesting there.
At this point McLean came along from the west with the news of silver-grey petrels and Cape pigeons nesting in hundreds.
During the nesting time much disorder prevails, and fights, in which beaks and flippers are energetically used, may be seen in progress at various places throughout the rookery.
Royal penguins' rookeries, from which they travel to the beach in a long procession Sooty albatrosses nesting A white Giant Petrel on the nest A Giant Petrel rookery The Macquarie Island party.
Returning early in August, they do not start nesting until the beginning of October.
A pair of sooty albatrosses were seen nesting on the front of a rocky steep, but on climbing up we found that they had not yet laid.
Bird life was not plentiful, being limited to a few skuas, Wilson petrels and snow petrels; the latter nesting under slabs of rock.
In another continent, in the Transcaspian deserts, they have, according to Zarudnyi, the same habit of nesting together.
Sometimes the cave-dwellings are superposed in storeys, and they certainly recall much more the nesting colonies of swallows than the dens of carnivores.
Among the gulls (Larus argentatus), Polyakoff saw on a marsh in Northern Russia, that the nesting grounds of a very great number of these birds were always patrolled by one male, which warned the colony of the approach of danger.
Life in societies does not cease when the nesting period is over; it begins then in a new form.
It is difficult to state its preference in regard to its choice of nesting sites, for it will select any place that suits its fancy.
Except during the nesting season the Pine Grosbeaks are gregarious and are frequently seen in flocks of fifteen or more individuals.
Yet they go and come with remarkable precision, and there are many instances of a pair nesting in the same tree or crevice or broken limb for several years in succession.
In the adjacent Green River Basin to the east, paleontologists from the University of Wyoming have found nesting grounds of Eocene flamingos in slightly younger sediments of the Green River Formation.
As already mentioned, we also found in April the Dunlin nesting on the lower Guadalquivir, and our friend Mr. W.
In another part of the wood was a nesting colony of the Black Kite (Milvus migrans), several of which soared high overhead.
This smart and handsome bird, though more abundant in Estremadura and the Castiles, is fairly numerous on the wooded prairies of Andalucia, where its curious nesting habits may be observed with ease.
One of the commonest birds in spring and summer, nesting in swarms in the towns, on churches, &c.
The late Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria also appears to have found a tawny eagle nesting in Andalucia ("Sport and Ornithology," p.
Occasionally, where there was much water, we have found the Montagu's Harrier also nestingin brushwood, three or four feet above the ground.
We had, however, some reward for this enforced tramp in discovering the Dunlin (Tringa alpina) nesting at a point over a thousand miles south of any previous record of its breeding-range.
The crows were winging their way to their nesting ground; the rabbits were seeking their burrows; the whole animal world was faring homeward.
While it is probable these birds do not see well by day, they possess an exquisite facility of hearing, which renders it almost impossible to approach their nesting places without discovery.
Some of these nesting places have been occupied every spring and summer for many years by nearly a hundred pair of Herons.
The Mocking Bird does not properly belong among the birds of the middle or eastern states, but as there are many records of its nesting in these latitudes it is thought to be safe to include it.
The nesting season begins in the latter part of May, the nest being built in low thick woods or on the skirting of tangled thickets; very often also, in an orchard, on the horizontal limb of a low tree or sapling.
Even upon our own shores their nesting places are often occupied by many hundred pairs, whilst further north they congregate in countless multitudes.
The girls were at first a trifle disappointed, but when they found that a phoebe was nesting on the ledge above their very door, undisturbed with their passing in and out, they were quite delighted.
It was not the ocean, to be sure, but Betty was satisfied when she first realized the loveliness of the place, its tall trees, the birds nesting close by and their songs in the morning.
This duck is wild except at the nesting season; then it is as tame as the domestic fowl and makes its nest not only around and on top of the buildings but frequently inside them.
Some of the islands and reefs are the homes of sea fowl and at the nesting season are literally covered with their eggs.
Lest it be thought the idea that excessive courage and pugnacity are harmful is mere fancy, let us quote from the account of the nesting habits of the White-rumped Swallow (Tachycineta leucorrhoa) given by Mr W.
But the nesting habits of this peculiar species are in all respects similar to those of the other species of dove.
Allied species of birds, even though their nesting habits are very different, as a rule lay similarly coloured eggs.
He says that no matter how many nesting sites are available, there is always much fighting amongst these birds for the best places.
It was to the full as pleasant on the side of the river where dwelt her father, where complained her maiden aunt, and where after their kind racketed and stormed her roving vagabond bird-nesting brothers.
I heartily confounded that little bird-nesting minx who had got me into such a scrape.
