October 13, 1983 - Where Do Birds Nest?October 13, 1983 The Suffolk Times
Where Do Birds Nest ? - F
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Having just turned in some final
reports for the season on breeding birds
in our area, it brings to mind a question I
have often been asked: where this or
that bird nests?
If it is one of the many birds of your
backyard, the nesting site is probably not
too far away. The robin could be in the
low branches of your front yard maple or
perhaps under the eaves of the porch
roof. The noisy house sparrow loves any
birdhouse that has an opening large
enough for him to enter. The raspberry -
colored house finches often choose tight-
ly- spaced ivy or rambling rose growths
to build in and the pesky starling will
often drive out the sparrow from the bird
box you put up for anyone but him. Even
the colorful cardinal will often build right
under your window in one of the bushes
surrounding your home. These and
others seem to enjoy man's company.
Then there are those birds that like
their home away from man. The more
common towhee, catbird and thrasher
are ones that like to be away from the
backyard. The towhee builds right on the
ground, while the catbird prefers his
nesting site in the low shrubbery of the
woods. The thrasher is not particular for
though he prefers the low shrubbery to
build in, every once in a while he'll build
on the ground just to be different.
Our friends of the feeder like the
chickadee, titmouse and woodpecker
build in cavities of trees. Occasionally
you might be lucky enough to lure one to
your birdhouse, but the bully sparrows or
starlings usually take over. The problem
for the chickadee, titmouse and wood-
peckers come when they go looking for a
good location and someone has cut down
the dead trees that would have been the
foundation for their new home. Such was
the frustration of one pair of chickadees
when they set up housekeeping in my
neighbor's birdfeeder right outside his
window. Here the family was raised
within eyeball view of everyone. We often
hear of birds taking advantage of situa-
tions such as when years ago a family of
chickadees built in my mother's clothes-
pin bag that hung on the line. Needless to
say the clothes weren't hung by those
clothespins until the important event of
bird rearing was complete.
Yet with all the birds that nest about us
some do not nest here at all. Our gulls do
not nest on the mainland anywhere here
on the East End, nor do the terns we see
all summer. They nest on the various
islands along the south shore and, of
course, on Plum and Gull and Gardiners
Islands. The exception to this is the least
tern, the smallest of all our terns. This
bird is on the New York State endangered
list and nests on sandy spits sparsely
scattered along our shores.
This holds true for the white egrets we
ftc,p[fl�)] @M
mn'RIE5,q
see along our creeks andbays also. They
nest on the offshore islands. The one we
see occasionally along our creeks that
does not nest anywhere on the offshore
islands or the mainland is the great blue
heron. We see this proud hunter metho-
dically stalking in the shallows of our
creeks but he is a non - breeder, a bird
that has been outcast or perhaps an
immature bird. None to my knowledge
have ever nested here on the island or
ever on the offshore islands.
This whole question of what nests
where is being investigated by a very
intensive five -year study right here in
New York State. It's called the New York
State Breeding Bird Atlas. I have been
working with other local observers feed-
ing information into this gigantic compu-
ter operation for the past four years. All
of New York State is divided into 5km x
5km blocks and all are hopefully being
covered. The British Isles and Europe
are far ahead of us in this sort of study.
By the end of next year there will be a
wealth of information available to shed
the needed light on the age -old question,
"Where does this or that bird nest ?"
GREAT BLUE HERON
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
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