author and lifelong birder
Barn Swallow Photo Credit – Birds and Blooms Magazine My local Barn Swallows have arrived and have been constructing mud nests and feeding their offspring under the roof eaves of houses along the Corte Madera Creek near San Francisco. These avians make an …
Cory’s Shearwater off the coast of Madeira, Portugal Photo Credit – Author Cory’s Shearwater is a large, heavy bird and a member of the seabird family Procelleridae. It breeds primarily in the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira and the Canary Islands, Spain. …
Northern Mockingbird
Amidst a cacophony of mid-morning birdsong, a medium-sized bird, approximately 10 inches (25 cm) in length, caught my eye. Its tail, as long as its body, was a striking feature. The bird’s plumage was a mix of grey, darker above and lighter below, adorned with distinctive white patterns on its wings and tail, which were particularly noticeable when it took flight. The bird was a Northern Mockingbird, a captivating sight indeed.
The bird appeared in the exact location a year earlier, in a housing development near the Corte Madera Creek in northern California. The purpose of its song was unclear. Maybe it was calling a mate, protecting its territory, catching insects, or simply listening to its voice. During my childhood bird watching in England, the Northern Mockingbird was a species I had never encountered. The bird, a member of a group of New World species, is a rare vagrant in Britain, with years passing between individual sightings. The occasional appearance is thanks to Atlantic tailwinds or even boats offering unexpected lifts, adding a touch of mystery to its presence.
Northern Mockingbird
The Northern Mockingbird is a testament to adaptability, breeding from southern Canada across the United States and south into Mexico and the northern Caribbean islands. It has even managed to establish itself in Hawaii. Most birds are yearlong residents, but a few occasionally wander in the fall and winter, especially those that breed in the north. The species expanded its range along both coasts into Canada during the 20th century and prefers open land below about 1000 feet (300 meters), where shrubs and small trees provide cover. If you have encountered Western or Eastern Mockingbirds, they are sub-species of the Northern variety.
Northern Mockingbird Range Map
Orange – Breeding; Green – Permanent Resident; Blue – Non-Breeding Resident
At the turn of the last century, California’s standard range for these birds was restricted to the Central Valley, as far north as Merced and along the coast south of Los Angeles; now, the species has become more broadly distributed, and in San Francisco, you may encounter them in the Presidio. The development of farmland, the outlawing of trapping to make them cage birds, and banning shooting them as an agricultural pest have supported this expansion. The species has been common in the southern United States and is the state bird in five states: Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.
Texas Mockingbird and Bluebonnet
As the novel To Kill a Mockingbird says, the mockingbird is innocent and harmless and should be allowed to sing and add beauty to its surroundings. Current population estimates are around 30 million in the United States and a little over 40 million worldwide.
The Northern Mockingbird sings repeated phrases throughout the day and often into the night. A single bird will develop a repertoire of up to 150 to 200 songs during its lifetime. It mimics the songs of other birds and impersonates cats, car alarms, lawnmowers, and police sirens. Expect to hear different songs in the fall from those in the spring. However, estimates are that 90 percent of its songs are pure mockingbird, and 10 percent are mimicry. The bird’s scientific name mimus polyglottos translates into “mimic of many tongues”. Native Americans used a name that translates into “four hundred tongues”. Maybe due to their noisiness, they are caught by cats, attacked by raccoons, and taken by birds of prey.
Northern Mockingbird Winter Diet
For food, their diet changes during the year. In summer, they primarily eat insects; in fall and winter, they consume fruit. They forage on the ground or in vegetation. Visits to garden bird feeders are rare, but in winter, suet, mealworms, and fruit may attract them. Their average life span is eight years, but some are known to live as old as 15.
Blue Mockingbird
If you visit southwestern Mexico, do not be surprised to see a “blue” version of the mockingbird. The Blue Mockingbird is indigenous to Mexico, with an estimated population of up to five million. Both mockingbird species are of “least concern” from a conservation perspective.
Finally, you may want to listen to a singing Northern Mockingbird:
Greater Scaup (male with the white plumage) Photo Credit – Cornell Lab: All About Birds California winter visitors, the Greater Scaup, have recently left the coastal creek near my home and returned to their breeding grounds along the West Coast up to Alaska. Previously, …
Eurasian or Common Kestrel: Photo Credit – Wikipedia American Kestrel Photo Credit – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Thank you, Sonoma Land Trust, for connecting me with the beautiful American Kestrel, the smallest raptor in North America, during a recent visit to the Sonoma …
Humming-bird Hawk-moth
Hummingbirds are small, often migratory birds that inhabit the Americas. They have compact bodies, long, narrow beaks, and relatively long blade-like wings. The latter allows them to fly in every direction and to hover. Typically, they migrate alone and travel up to 500 miles a day. The people of California benefit from the beauty, courage, and entertainment of hummingbirds in California.
The weight of hummingbirds is typically less than two pennies and the noise their wings make gives them their name. Distribution of this family is limited to the American continents, with approximately 350 species, including 15 in the United States and Canada. If you see one in Europe, it is likely that you either observe an escaped cage bird or a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, an insect that looks like a hummingbird when feeding. The moth’s range is Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. Let’s start with hummingbirds generally and finish with California’s hummingbirds.
Anna’s Hummingbird (male)
First, the evolution of hummingbirds is a puzzle. The oldest hummingbird fossils are not in the Americas but in Germany, Poland, and France, and date back 30 plus million years. Today, these birds are extinct. Did they die out because of competition for food or because of an increasingly cold climate in Europe that persuaded them to move across the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska? From here, they could have colonized southwards and developed a diverse and rapidly expanding population. Alternatively, could there have been a natural convergence of evolution and the New World species developed independently? It is probable that we will never know.
Hummingbirds Range
Hummingbirds feed on nectar (occasionally insects) and consume up to 160 per cent of their body mass daily. They have a bias for red flowers and red feeders. This is in part due to the rich source of food, and partly because they possess trichromatic visual senses that prefer the range yellow to red and mute other colors such as blue. However, the main attraction is the quality of nectar, and it does not need to be colored! There is no need for you to add red food dye to the water you place in the hummingbird feeder. These birds are highly territorial and will fight to protect their mate, source of food, and their nest. This includes attacking bees, butterflies, and moths. I have even seen a hummingbird chase a raptor, presumably because it came too close to the hummingbird’s nest.
Black-chinned Hummingbird (male)
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (male)
There are seven hummingbird species present in California. Only three appear regularly in my part of California, north of San Francisco, so I must travel to see the other four. Because hummingbirds are small and fast, it is difficult to distinguish one species from another. The four requiring that I travel are as follows:
Calliope Hummingbird (male)
Costa’s Hummingbird (male)
Anna’s Hummingbirds
Anna’s Hummingbirds – These medium-sized, stocky, flashy, feisty, and fearless birds are named after Anne d’Essling, the wife of the Duke of Rivoli. She never likely saw one. The French naturalist René Primevère Lesson gave the name to the bird after observing the species in California, presumably to sponsor favor with the Italian family.
Anna’s Hummingbirds are common along the western coast of North America from northern Baja to southern Canada and many are permanent residents within this range. Their distribution explains why I have so many that visit my bird feeders year-round. Eight million Anna’s Hummingbirds are estimated to live in the western United States, and their numbers represent a substantial increase over the early 1970s. As temperatures warm, the territory for Anna’s Hummingbirds has expanded into the mountains of California, allowing their numbers to increase. Males are distinguished by a reddish-pink throat and reddish crown, an iridescent bronze-green back, pale grey belly, green flanks, and a slightly forked tail.
Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbirds
Allen’s Hummingbirds – small, compact, aggressive, territorial birds, and relatively rare. They migrate north beginning as early as December, and occupy a narrow strip of coastal forest, meadows, and gardens from Santa Barbara to southern Oregon. Their journey back to central Mexico takes place inland from June to August, although the birds that live around Los Angeles are often year-round residents. The species name celebrates Charles Andrew Allen, an American collector and taxidermist who identified the bird in 1879 in Nicasio, California. The species population has fallen by around 80 percent since 1968 to around 1.5 million. They are hard to distinguish from Rufous Hummingbirds. Males are identified from their green back and forehead, rust-colored flanks, rump, and tail, and iridescent orange-red throat. Females and immature adults are virtually identical in appearance to their equivalent Rufous Hummingbirds.
Rufous Hummingbirds – small, aggressive birds that pass through California (February to April and July to early October) on their nearly 4000-mile journey from Mexico, to breed north of California, as far north as Alaska, and then return home for winter. The population has declined significantly during the past 50 years but is large enough that these migrants remain familiar across California. Males are distinguished by their copper-orange back (although some are partially green, confusing their identity with Allen’s Hummingbirds). Their throat is an iridescent reddish-orange; they have a white breast and a white patch behind their eyes.
And finally:
Which are the smallest hummingbirds? The Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world, is found only in Cuba. It is two and a quarter inches long and weighs less than a dime.
Which are the largest hummingbirds? The Giant Hummingbird is nine inches in length and is found throughout the Andes on both the east and west sides.
Belted Kingfisher Photo Credit – I-naturalist (Birds of San Diego County) I usually hear the Belted Kingfisher rather than see one when walking alongside the Corte Madera Creek near San Francisco. Occasionally, you might observe one perched above the water or hovering on rapidly …
Eurasian Collared Doves Photo Credit – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Recently, I was walking alongside my local creek-side in Northern California when I heard the purring sound of goo-Goo-goo, and strove to find out what it was. I discovered a pair of Eurasian Collared …
Western Bluebirds Male & Female
The number of Western Bluebirds fluttering and dropping to the ground in search of insects appears to have dramatically increased this fall around the golf course I use here in northern California. What is going on, I ask?
First, an introduction to Bluebirds. There are three species in North America: the Eastern, the Mountain, and the Western; some are resident and some migrate. The northern populations head south for winter. The Eastern is the most common and is found east of the Rockies; the Mountain Bluebird lives high in the Rockies, as far north as Alaska and the Yukon and east into Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. The Western Bluebird is restricted to the Pacific Northwest and down to the southern Rocky Mountains and Mexico. Western Bluebirds in the south tend to be year-round residents. All three species are members of the thrush family.
Mountain Bluebird Western Bluebird Eastern Bluebird
Bluebird Range Map
The Western Bluebird is the dominant species that forages across my Bay Area golf course. Their plumage is a brilliant royal blue across their top half, they have a rusty brown-red neck and upper breast, and their lower breast is gray. The plumage on the female is duller, and both genders are slightly smaller than an American Robin. They forage by sitting and waiting on low-to-the-ground perches, inspecting beneath them for insects, and then swoop down to catch their prey. Nesting takes place in tree cavities and artificial nest boxes, but they also have to compete with other cavity-nesters such as starlings, certain swallows, and wrens for this right to occupy a nesting site. Their breeding habitat includes open woodlands, ranch environments, and streamside groves, but the winter habitat expands to include oak and riparian woodland, coastal chaparral, and pasture fields. Their summer diet is mainly insects, but in winter its food expands to include berries such as grapes, mistletoe, and poison oak.
Western Bluebird Nesting
Philopatry is the tendency of creatures to remain or habitually return to where they were born. Natal refers to the bird’s birthplace. It appears that mother Bluebirds can affect the everyday behavior of their male chicks while their offspring are still in the egg. They allocate different levels of testosterone and related hormones into the eggs, dependent on the competitiveness of the environment in which they have lived. If there is little competition for breeding and foraging, stay-at-home sons are born. When the reverse exists, more hormones are added, and the male chicks become more aggressive and more likely to disperse away from home.
Western Bluebird Diet of Berries
The life span of a Bluebird is around four years, and its clutch size is around 2 to 8 eggs, a situation that appears to encourage growth in population. Where I play golf, there are plenty of oak trees and open “pastures”, and I rarely see starlings who might compete with them. There are plenty of Acorn Woodpeckers to create new nesting sites. Maybe this is what is going on. Additionally, the numbers may be influenced by the arrival of migrating birds from the north during the fall.
The overall population of the Western Bluebird has held steady during recent years and the species is of “low concern” from a conservation perspective. The expansion of grazing land, the removal of dead trees, predation from cats and rodents, and the effect of non-native plants are the primary risks to their numbers.
During my early days of bird-watching in Europe, Bluebirds were not a species I saw. The closest to these species was listening to Vera Lynn sing There’ll Be Blue Birds over the White Cliffs of Dover. Written by two Americans in 1941, it appears that neither the composer nor the writer were aware that bluebirds did not live in Britain. However, the song became, and still is, a British favorite.
Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover
Black-Headed Grosbeak Photo Credit – Author The fall migration is underway. There are birds appearing in my Northern California backyard which I have not identified before. First there was the Black-Headed Grosbeak, a member of the Cardinal family, inspecting my bird feeder, probably looking …
Barn Owls Photo Credit – Birds and Blooms Someone from San Anselmo recently asked me about Owls in Marin, and expressed interest in installing an Owl Box. I believe Owl Boxes are available as part of the Hungry Owls Project sponsored by the WildCare …
Male Black-throated Gray Warbler
During May this year, the Black-throated Gray Warbler made its way onto my birding “life list” as a result of a visit to Yosemite Valley. Not that these birds are rare in California ,but I had never seen one since resuming birding to escape the lock-ups imposed by the COVID pandemic. The species usually occupies coniferous and mixed forests, especially stands of pinyon pine, juniper, and oak. These warblers are short to medium-distance migrants. They breed west of the Rockies, from British Columbia to New Mexico, and winter in lowland dry forests, dense scrubland, and pine oak woods in Mexico, and the southwestern United States. Nesting occurs from late May to July, and the fall migration begins in mid-August. A few sightings of Black-throated Gray Warblers have been recorded in eastern North America but these are very rare. Migrants follow the western mountain ranges and the Pacific coastline, and a few occasionally pass through the Bay Area, close to my home. The ones in Yosemite seemed to be foraging for insects, and were seen close to Mirror Lake.
A “not-so-good” image from Yosemite
Black-throated Gray Warblers have a bold and distinctive pattern of black-and-white on their crowns, around their eyes and on their throat, and a gray back that gives them their name. Also, there is a splash of yellow between the eyes and the bill. The female has a more dingy facial plumage, and adults are about five inches (13 cm) in length. The species is not considered threatened by human activities, and seems to have extended its breeding range due to a warming climate. It is classed as “Least Concern” from a conservation perspective.
Orange: breeding; yellow: migration; Blue: nonbreeding
Black-throated Gray Warbler Range Map
It was satisfying for me to be able to distinguish these birds from the more ubiquitous avian species that occupy Yosemite Valley, such as Steller’s Jays, American Robins, and Dark-eyed Juncos.
Steller’s Jay
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
I should mention that the family of warblers is one of the more difficult groups from which to distinguish individual species. There are so many varieties, they are small birds, they often are obscured by trees and scrub, you usually need to look upwards to spot them, their coloring can act as camouflage in their surroundings, they forage silently, and many display similarly colored plumage. 53 species of warbler are found in North America, and a total of 111 species are identified in the New World. Some do not look “warbler-like” such as the Water Thrush and Yellow-breasted Chat. Virtually all are in the family of Parulidae, and are found only in the New World. Curiously, warbler species in the eastern half of the United States were generally named after places, whereas in the West, they are named in recognition of their plumage or using the name of a person, typically an ornithologist. Identification methods include considering plumage, voice, habitat preference, and behavior when foraging.
Birds known as warblers elsewhere in the world are unrelated to New World warblers, and have been given the “warbler” name because of their “warbling” sound. Thus, birds such as the Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Wood Warbler, and Reed Warbler that I recorded during my youth in England, have no relationship to the Black-throated Gray Warblers that I saw in the Yosemite Valley. Even the Olivaceous Warbler that I recently encountered in Israel has no relationship with the Yellow-rumped, Townsend’s, and Wilson’s Warblers that occasionally visit my California backyard.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Eurasian Hoopoe (Photo Credit eBird) I have just returned from a trip to Israel, a country that adopted the Hoopoe as its national bird in May 2008. I was fortunate enough to see one hunting for food on the lawns of HaPisga Gardens in …
Ridgway’s Rail (Photo Credit eBird) Some people hold the opinion that the saying “As Thin as a Rail” derives from a comparison with the skinny and slender shape of birds known as Rails, including the Ridgway’s Rail. Many of these species have laterally compressed …
Mute Swan
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
I was surprised recently to see two pairs of Mute Swans feeding on grass and submerged vegetation at Schollenberger Park, Petaluma, CA. They appeared to be partners and presumably were preparing to breed in March or April. As we passed them with two small dogs one of them, I assume the male, hissed loudly, straightened its neck, and moved in the direction of our pets. The next step, if we had not moved our dogs to one side, was that the bird would flap its wings and physically attack. These birds maybe graceful and beautiful, but their aggressive behavior is out of line with their appearance. As well as chasing pets and children, they physically injure and will sometimes kill other birds, such as waterfowl, and when nesting they are known to attack canoeists, kayakers, and boaters on jet skis.
Swans are a non-native species to the United States and were introduced in the mid-1800s and early 1900s to adorn ornamental lakes, ponds, and city parks. Some went native and escaped to the wild, such as the ancestors of the four we discovered in Petaluma. Their preferred habitat is shallow coastal and fresh water such as estuaries, bays, waterways, streams, ponds, and lakes. Mute Swans are now distributed across North America, and their most significant populations are on the North Atlantic coast, across the Midwestern states, and into parts of the Northwest. There are smaller, localized populations in Canada and throughout the United States. These birds will migrate small distances, but generally do not wander far.
Mute Swan Range Map
Red – breeding habitat/resident; Blue – migration/winter area
Photo Credit: Wildfowl Photography
They are large birds, weighing up to 30 pounds (14 km), and are around five feet (150 cm) in length. The body of the adult is solid white. The distinguishing feature from other swan species is their orange bill, with its fleshy, black knob at the base of the upper bill. As described in my novel She Wore a Yellow Dress, my first experience with these birds was in England in the 1950s, when a pair would breed annually in a pond near my farm, and I would frequently visit their nest. I would dare myself to get as close as possible to the birds before the flapping and hissing of the male swan frightened me away. Today there are an estimated 7,000 to 16,000 breeding pairs in the UK. The species is native to much of Euro-Siberia where there are an approximate 500,000 birds, of which 350,000 are in Russia. They winter as far south as North Africa, the Near East, and northwest India and Korea. Mute Swans are not endangered and efforts to control their numbers are underway in some parts of their non-native territories.
They are not the only swan species I can see here in California.
The most common species in North America is the Tundra Swan that usually makes its appearance in California from November to mid-March. They are North America’s most numerous swans, with a global population of around 280,000. They breed in the Canadian Arctic and coastal Alaska, on lakes, ponds, and pools that are near river deltas, and migrate to the Pacific Northwest, inland across to the Great Lakes, and as far as the coastal mid-Atlantic. The species is identified by its yellow patch at the base of its black bill. Sometimes it is referred to as the “Whistling Swan” because of the sound it makes with its wings in flight.
Tundra Swan
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Tundra swans are also found in the UK and across northern Siberia to Japan. The British call it the Bewick’s Swan, the name that it was given in 1830 to recognize the work of the engraver Thomas Bewick, who specialized in illustrations of birds and animals. My sightings of this species have all been in California.
Tundra Swan Range Map
Orange – breeding; Yellow – migration; Blue – nonbreeding
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Next there is the Trumpeter Swan, the one species that is native to North America, but rarely seen in California. Trumpeter Swans breed in northwestern Canada and Alaska and migrate to the Pacific Northwest. They can also be seen around the Great Lakes, and some migrate to the central interior of the United States. They are the only swans you are likely to see foraging in open fields. The bird is entirely white except for its black bill, legs, and feet. It has been spotted a couple of times in the UK, but I am still waiting to see my first one on either continent.
Trumpeter Swan
Photo Credit: All about Birds, The Cornell Lab
Trumpeter Swan Range Map
Purple- all seasons; pink – breeding; blue – winter (all regarded as uncommon)
Photo Credit: National Audubon Society
Finally there is the Whooper Swan, a species that is native to Eurasia, and a very rare vagrant to North America. A few birds from Siberia winter in small numbers in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, but otherwise it is extremely rare. It can be identified by its fairly long, straight neck, black bill with a large triangular yellow patch, and a short tail. It is a species I have seen in the past. Back in the 1960s I saw the occasional Whooper Swan pass through Spurn Point in Yorkshire. It remains a winter migrant from Iceland to Britain, and about 16,000 birds appear annually.
Whooper Swan
Photo Credit: e-Bird
Whooper Swan Range Map
Orange – breeding; Blue – non-breeding
Photo Credit: Birds of the World
And as a postscript, who could prepare an article on swans and overlook the Australian Black Swan? This species is native to the south-east and south-west regions of Australia and is the official emblem of Western Australia. For Europeans, it is a bird that in history could never exist. It fell into the same category as “flying pigs”. Now, most fortunately, Black Swans have become a highly popular ornamental water bird in countries such as Japan, China, the UK, the United States, and New Zealand. The last time I saw this species was on an ornamental pond outside a hotel on the island of Kauai. Enjoy your swan watching.
Photo Credit: e-Bird
