Narration - The Children's Book of Birds
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EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Transcript
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Section 18 of the Children's Book of Birds. This is Eli Bravo recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox dot org. The Children's Book of Birds by Olive Thorn Miller. Section 18, the crossbill branch, the American or Red Cross Bill is the more common of our two. He travels about all over the northern states and California, but he's very particular about a place to nest and is suited only in the northern parts or in the mountains. The Red Cross Bill seems to be a whimsical fellow. One never knows where to find him. One year he will come with all his friends to a place and the next year there will not be one there. The male is a dull red, more or less streaked all over with brown. His mate is olive green modeled and mixed with blackish crossbills go in flocks. They are usually seen among the evergreens where they find their food. They are much attached to one another. I had a chance one summer to get well acquainted with a flock of American crossbills. I found them very odd in their manners. They had the queerest songs and calls of any bird. I know these were not musical but sounded like such things as the squeaking of a wagon wheel or the sawing of wood. The birds were very fond of calling and singing and they kept up a constant chattering as they flew from spruce to spruce. They spent most of their time on these trees eating the seeds of the cones. The white winged crossbill lives about as the red one does, but he has a really fine song. It is full of trills, something like a canary song. One of the odd things about these birds is their habit of nesting in winter. A main hunter was once shooting moose in the middle of January when he came upon the nest of a crossbill with the bird sitting, the weather was cold, of course. And there was deep snow on the ground. The nest was in the woods and made of twigs with long gray moss outside. It looked so like a bunch of moss that it was hard to see other nests have been found in winter. Also, Mr Naing says that if one of these birds is caught, the rest of the flock will not leave him. They stay around him, crying and showing their distress in every way. And if one is put alone in a cage, he will die. End of section 18, read by Helen Cole 2023.
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Narrator, Articulate, Caring, Chipper, Comforting, Warm, Personable