BIRDS ON ROADSIDE WIRES

      During summer and autumn, several kinds of attractive birds perch on country, roadside wires in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania croplands.  Those birds use the wires to sing to proclaim nesting territories, and rest, digest and preen their feathers between feeding forays in nearby fields.  People walking or riding along rural roads see many of those birds and know what species of them live and nest in nearby farmland.  Those roadside birds help make agricultural areas more enjoyable for people who look for nature among croplands.

     Related to each other, mourning doves and rock pigeons consume seeds and grain in fields, but frequently perch on roadside wires to rest, in pairs or as flocks.  The doves are brown, but most of the pigeons are gray, though there are white and white and gray pigeons in pigeon gatherings because of some domestic birds joining wild groups.  The brown and gray coloring blend these birds into their backgrounds as a defense against hawks and other kinds of predators.  Doves mostly nest in coniferous trees, but pigeons raise young on support beams in barns and under bridges in cropland.     

     American robins, red-winged blackbirds and starlings often sit on roadside wires.  Individual robins and gangs of starlings do so after feeding on invertebrates in neighboring fields.  Male red-wings sing from those same wires to proclaim and watch over nearby nesting territories in cattails or tall grasses in roadside ditches that collect water.  

     American kestrels, which are a kind of hawk related to peregrine falcons, and screech owls, cling to roadside wires to watch and listen for field mice and grasshoppers in roadside, plant-covered banks of soil in farmland.  Kestrels hunt for prey during the day, but the owls, of course, start their searching at dusk and into the night.  Though these raptor species hunt for the same prey, they do so at different times of day, thus reducing competition between them for food.  

     Both these raptors raise young in tree hollows, and boxes erected high in farmland trees just for them to nest in, which helps maintain their numbers.  Both species begin nesting in March.   

     Eastern bluebirds, eastern kingbirds, indigo buntings and Baltimore orioles are beautiful, farmland birds that nest, ingest invertebrates, perch on roadside wires to look for prey, and sing from those wires to announce nesting territories in agricultural Lancaster County.  Some of the hardy bluebirds are permanent residents here, eating berries in winter, but the rest of these attractive species migrate south to the American sub-tropics to escape the northern winter and find an abundant supply of invertebrates.      

     But post-breeding purple martins, which are a kind of swallow, barn swallows and tree swallows steal the country roadside wires show, starting around the end of July.  These types of swallows raise young here in Lancaster County cropland, but each species drifts south at different times to find ample flying insects to consume during the northern winter.  

     Martins are the first to gather into flocks to sweep over fields to catch flying insects and collect on roadside wires, row upon row, to rest and digest between feeding forays.  One can hear their constant twittering while on those wires.  And by early August, they're gone, moving south and feeding on flying insects along the way.   

     Barn swallows are next to gather into flocks, when they, too, line up on roadside wires by the score, to rest.  Barn swallows often fly off the wires at the approach of a vehicle, offering folks a good show of their flying prowess over the fields.  By September, most barn swallows are on their way south.

     Tree swallows also line up on roadside wires in this area, often by the hundreds per group.  They, too, scan over fields for flying insects.  And during September and early October, flock after flock of tree swallows pass over Lancaster County on their way south, catching flying insects all the way, and resting on roadside wires where they can.

     Birds perching on roadside wires help liven cropland in Lancaster County, and elsewhere.  Local people get to know what kinds of birds live in their neighborhoods, and appreciate their beauties and habits in farmland habitats.

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