Southeastern Pennsylvania Shore Birds

     While watching a few pairs of American robins hunting invertebrates along a stream on the edge of a woods, I thought about the other little, food-gathering shore birds I have seen in southeastern Pennsylvania over the years.  I don't mean shorebirds, including sandpipers and plovers, nor herons, gulls and others that are food-seeking bird species normally along the edges of water, but small, perching birds such as robins.  These small birds don't compete much with sandpipers, gulls, herons and others for food because they search for sustenance along water where those latter birds usually don't search for food.
     Song sparrows, robins and purple grackles, red-winged blackbirds, gray catbirds and American goldfinches, Louisiana waterthrushes, American pipits, swamp sparrows and winter wrens, and palm warblers, northern waterthrushes and rusty blackbirds are "song" birds that regularly and commonly get invertebrate and seed food on the shores of inland streams and ponds.  All these bird species are adaptable and common.  And with a little watching in habitats both natural and human-made, where these birds live at least part of their lives, one can see many of them along the edges of streams and ponds in southeastern Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.
      Permanent resident and camouflaged song sparrows live the year around along small waterways that flow through thickets.  There they consume invertebrates during the warmer months and seeds in the colder months.  One can see song sparrows hopping and walking energetically along the muddy or gravelly shores of ponds and small waterways, like small sandpipers, as they look for food. 
     Song sparrows also nest along waterways, placing their grassy cradles in protecting shrubs, if there are any, or on the ground, hidden among the bases of tall grasses.  I have seen song sparrow nurseries in both those niches.
     Some song sparrows live permanently in niches away from water, areas dominated by tall grass, or thickets, or shrubbery on suburban lawns.
     The lovely and familiar robins and grackles nest mostly on grassy, tree-dotted lawns, the robins as single pairs, mostly in deciduous bushes, and the grackles in colonies in planted, half-grown coniferous trees.  Both species look for invertebrate food to feed their young, and themselves, food they get from lawns, fields and along waterways and ponds, if they are near their nesting territories.  Robins run and stop along the muddy edges of ponds and streams, while grackles walk on those shores, and even in inch-deep water.  Grackles also flip over dead leaves and stones along the water's edge to catch invertebrates that were hiding underneath.     
     Summering red-winged blackbirds, gray catbirds and American goldfinches also get much food on the shores of farmland ponds and streams.  Red-wings attach their grassy nests to the stalks of cattails on the edges of ponds.  Therefore, muddy pond edges are handy to red-wings.
     Catbirds raise young in shrubbery, often along the edges of water.  Catbirds, too, find much invertebrate food along the shores of ponds and waterways.  I sometimes see red-wings and catbirds on the same mud flats in search of food at the same time. 
     Goldfinches, however, come to the shores of farmland ponds and waterways to eat algae.  The black and bright-yellow males are vivid among the green plants and mud on the water's edge.   
      Louisiana waterthrushes patrol the edges of woodland streams for invertebrates.  Each bird bobs and dances as it walks along the shallow, running water.  I think that is a form of camouflage that mimics the bouncing of debris in the current.  This species creates a nursery in crevices in stream banks.
     Some camouflaged and sparrow-sized American pipits winter along brooks in farmland pastures in southeastern Pennsylvania.  There they eat tiny invertebrates from the very edge of the running water.
     The well-camouflaged swamp sparrows and winter wrens winter along streams in thickets and woodlands respectively.  The sparrows mostly ingest seeds while the wrens catch tiny invertebrates from along the water's edges.  Both species spend winter nights in protective cover near the water.
     And palm warblers, northern waterthrushes and rusty blackbirds are migrant birds in this area, during April mostly.  All these bird species feed on invertebrates on the ground by shallow waters in woodlands to fuel up before continuing their northbound migrations.  Interestingly, palm warblers and waterthrushes have bobbing motions as they walk across the ground to get food.  Like with Louisiana waterthrushes, these birds may have developed that bouncing when they evolved around running water that had objects bouncing in the currents.  
     These small songbirds live along inland waters where they get much of their food.  They all are interesting to experience in southeastern Pennsylvania, whenever and wherever they are found.