The Birds of Washington (Volume 1 of 2): A complete, scientific and popular account of the 372 species of birds found in the stateDawson, William Leon
Science
The Birds of Washington (Volume 1 of 2): A complete, scientific and popular account of the 372 species of birds found in the state
Dawson, William Leon
Birds -- Washington (State)
Description.—_Adult male_: Black, white, and orange; bill, lore, a
line thru eye, and throat (narrowly) jet black; pileum, back,
scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, primary coverts, and tertials chiefly
black, or with a little yellowish skirting; remiges black edged with
white; middle and greater coverts continuous with edging of tertials
and secondaries, white, forming a large patch; tail chiefly yellow but
central pair of rectrices black terminally, and remaining pairs tipped
with blackish; remaining plumage, including supraloral areas
continuous with superciliaries, orange yellow, most intense on sides
of throat and chest, shading thru cadmium on breast to chrome on rump,
tail-coverts, etc. In _young adults_ the orange is less intense and,
encroaches upon the black of forehead, hind-neck, etc., altho the tail
is more extensively black. _Adult female_: Above drab-gray, clearest
on rump and upper tail-coverts; wings fuscous with whitish edging;
pattern of white in coverts of male retained but much reduced in area;
tail nearly uniform dusky chrome; underparts in general sordid white;
chin and lores white; forehead, superciliary, (indistinct), cheeks,
hind-neck and chest more or less tinged with chrome yellow. _Young
males_ resemble the female but soon gain in intensity of yellow on the
foreparts, gradually acquiring adult black along median line of throat
and in streaks on pileum. Length of adult male about 8.25 (209.5);
wing 3.89 (99); tail 3.07 (78); bill .73 (18.5); tarsus .98 (25).
Female a little smaller.
Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; black, white, and orange of male
distinctive; slender blackish bill of female strongly contrasting with
the heavy light-colored bill of female Western Tanager with which
alone it is likely to be confused by the novice. General coloration of
female ashy or drab rather than olivaceous, yellow of tail contrasting
with whitish or light drab of tail-coverts.
Nesting.—_Nest_: a pouch of cunningly interwoven grasses, vegetable
fibers, string, etc., 5 to 9 inches deep and lashed by brim to
branches of deciduous tree. _Eggs_: usually 5, smoky white as to
ground color, sometimes tinged with pale blue, more rarely with faint
claret, spotted, streaked and elaborately scrawled with purplish black
or dark sepia, chiefly about larger end. Elongate ovate; av. size .94
× .63 (23.9 × 16). _Season_: May 20-June 15; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States, southern British Provinces and
plateau of Mexico; breeding north to southern British Columbia,
Alberta and southern Assiniboia east to eastern border of Great Plains
in South Dakota, Nebraska, etc., south to northern Mexico; in winter
south to central Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Regular summer resident in eastern Washington
thruout settled sections and along water courses; rare or casual west
of Cascades.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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