Christmas trees used to have candles. So a flock of flame-colored birds sitting in trees resembled Christmas trees with candle flames. Thus a (nick?)name, "Christmas-tree birds". My very fuzzy recollection is 1600's Manhattan. So perhaps I saw it in the Mannahatta exhibit/project/book? But I don't quickly see it on [1]. And Google/Bing are giving me nothing related.

Upon reflection, I'm now unsure the "yell to be heard in Manhattan" story was the same bird - I may well be folding together two stories there.

[1] https://welikia.org/