Of a Feather: ‘Dickcissel,’ he said, excitedly

COURTESY ANDY REAGO & CHRISSY MCCLARREN
The dickcissel (Spiza americana) is one of those sparrow-like open-country birds that used to be more widespread in the Northeast. Clearance of the deciduous woodlands of eastern North America by European settlers began, of course, as soon as they got here in numbers in the early 17th century, but it reached its maximum extent in the late 19th century. The Civil War and the concerted push westward onto the frontier drained the Northeast of its farmers and the landscape began to go back, more or less, to the way it had been.

I lived in western and central New York for 25 years before moving back to New England, and there is still plenty of farming out there, especially among the Finger Lakes and westward. So, the loss of habitat story is not ironclad. The modern range is shown to barely extend across the Pennsylvania line into Erie County in the southwesternmost corner of the state. Corey Finger does not include it in his 2016 “Field Guide to the Birds of New York,” although he does have an excited January 2012 entry at 10000birds.com about a dickcissel he saw in a flock of house sparrows at Inwood Park in Manhattan. MacGowan and Corwin, however, do include in the “Breeding Bird Atlas of New York State” (2008).

As recently as 1917 “Birds of America” (T. Gilbert Pearson, ed.) describes its range as “north … to southern Ontario, etc., formerly to eastern Massachusetts. Now chiefly restricted during the breeding season to the region between the Allegheny Mountains [a western ridge of the southern Appalachians] and the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains having, for unknown reasons, become practically extinct since about 1870 throughout the whole of the Atlantic coastal plain.” The text of the description notes that “About Civil War times, Dickcissels were not rare in western New York and western Pennsylvania, areas in which they are now counted only as accidental visitors.” Its present breeding range is almost a map of the flat farming and ranching country of North America.

This year dickcissels began showing up on the NH Bird Forum in mid August and have been a persistent inclusion on the weekly Rare Bird Alert through last week. The range map at allaboutbirds.org shows that it is a regular visitor in migration to the mid-Atlantic coast between New Jersey and North Carolina on its winter home in northern South America and west coast of Central America and Mexico.

It is sometimes called the “little meadowlark” because it lives in the same habitat and has the same yellow wash and black V on this chest. When it was first described in the late 18th century, its vernacular name was “black-throated bunting,” which turns out to be taxonomically accurate. Although it looks like a sparrow and often consorts with sparrows, it is a member of the Cardinalidae and thereby related to various buntings (but not the lark bunting, which is closer to being a sparrow; sigh).

Dickcissels are 6.5 inches long, which is larger than most sparrows, but smaller than the likes of the white-throated or white-crowned sparrow. They are built like house sparrows, stocky and short tailed. The males have the yellow wash and black V on the chest, but both genders have a white patch under the bill and a thin black line trailing down from the base of the beak. The patch behind this line is yellow in the breeding male and white in the female. A black-lined streak over the eye is washed with yellow in the male and and white to buff colored in the female. The cheeks and crown are gray. The shoulders are rufous and the back gray streaked with black in both sexes. There is also a white patch under the tail. In spite of the slight resemblance to the spike-billed meadowlark, the dickcissel is a strikingly unique looking bird.

Its name is onomatopoetic. Sibley renders the song as “skee-dlees-chis-chis-chis” but parenthetically includes the traditional interpretation of “dick-dick-ciss-ciss-ciss.” Pearson is grudgingly appreciative of the song. “It is too simple to be counted as good bird music. But the constant repetition comes to influence the listener with pleasure because there is a summery, homely sweetness about the persistency of the notes that matches the season.”

Even back in 1917, the bird was said to be very unevenly distributed, quite common in some parts of its range and rare in others, especially along the lengthy outer edges of its range. According to Avian Conservation Partners, it is killed in great numbers on its wintering grounds because it is regarded as an agricultural pest in Latin America. For this reason it declined greatly in numbers before 1980, but has now stabilized and is still regarded as abundant.

Avian Conservation Partners describe its ecology: “Suitable breeding habitat may be found in native prairies, restored grasslands, hayfields, lightly grazed pastures, early successional fields, and linear grassland strips as along fences and roadsides. In all of these areas, high forb cover (>50 percent) is important for song perches, nesting cover and support, and an abundance of invertebrate prey. Patches >10 ha [hectares; about 25 acres] are preferred. Recent heavy grazing, burning or mowing can temporarily reduce suitability of habitat until vegetation recovers. Reproduction may suffer with heavy grazing in shortgrass areas, but appears stable with moderate grazing in tallgrass.”

There is no longer much land east of the Appalachians that meets that description. The dickcissel has proven more adaptable than, say, the greater prairie chicken (known as the “heath hen” on the east coast) when it comes to coping with the alteration of the prairies. But it doesn’t tolerate just letting the land go back to deciduous forest interrupted by suburban lawns, office parks, and golf courses.

Except during migration. The most recent one was seen in Manchester on Tuesday, Nov. 30, hanging around with a bunch of house finches.

Bill Chaisson has been a birdwatcher from the age of 10. He is a former managing editor of the Eagle Times and now lives and works in the town of Wilmot. Contact him at [email protected].