Like its near-relative Rock Pigeon, the Band-tailed Pigeon is a hardy, adaptable creature. It’s able to live in towns around people, but also quite able to survive in the forests for which it is naturally built. Unlike the Rock Pigeon, the Band-tailed Pigeon is a native species that naturally occurs throughout the Pacific Flyway in [...]

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The Grasshopper Sparrow is a small, inconspicuous bird, known for its buzzy, grasshopper-like song. It spends most of its winter in Mexico, and come up in late April and May to breed. We’re starting to see a great deal more of them right about now. The bird is most noticeable when males perch on top [...]

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In case you haven’t noticed, the migration of seabirds is often wildly different from other kinds of birds. But, like their land-based counterparts, seabird do move around quite a bit this time of year – sometimes for breeding, sometimes in search of food. A case in point is the Tufted Puffin. While a lot of [...]

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The Wilson’s Phalarope is a true transequatorial migrant, wintering way down in southern South American and breeding up here in the Pacific Flyway. It can be found on our shorelines, as well as our salty interior lakes (for instance, Mono Lake). Check out the eBird map below the fold to see sightings in May (photo [...]

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The Vermillion Flycatcher is really something to see. Bright in color, it stands out among all the flycatcher, for sure. It spends it winters from Mexico down to South America, and many come up in the spring to southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Up here, it tends to like the warm, dry habitats [...]

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The Willow Flycatcher is a commonly sighted migratory bird throughout North America, enjoying wet shrubby habitat from Maine to Southern California. They winter from southern Mexico to northern South America, and tend to come north in early May. We’re starting to get reports now in California. If you want to see how they enter the [...]

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The Purple Martin is yet another great sign of spring. These have been turning up on the West Coast since March, but are just about peaking right now. They come from as far away as Brazil– more than 5,000 miles. The Purple Martin, the largest of the swallows on our continent, is one of America’s [...]

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The Spotted Towhee is one of our favorite birds, all the more so because we see it here in California year-round. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t migrate in the spring. There’s actually a great deal of local movement with this species (moving from valley to valley, changing altitudes, etc.) Although some stay right [...]

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So, a lot of people will tell you that the Hermit Thrush, one of North America’s leading forest-nesting songbirds, is not much to look at. But actually it’s quite something up close, with its spotted breast and reddish tail. Of course, once you hear one of these little guys sing, you’re sold. Described as flute-like [...]

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Right about this time of the year is when the Sooty Shearwaters begin to arrive off the coast of California — many off Santa Cruz and Monterey. They’re here to enjoy the abundant food resources of our California Current. Their arrival is really something of a miracle, representing the conclusion of another amazing round trip. [...]

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With a name that sounds like something out of the original Batman TV series, the Wandering Tattler might be something of a disappointment for those that happen upon this unspectacular looking shorebird. But, alas, this bird has intrigued researchers for decades. Wintering along the west coasts of Northern America, Central America, and South America — [...]

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The Caspian Tern is the tern’s tern. Sure, in California we talk about the California Least Tern, a compelling story for sure – but if one tern stands above the others, it is probably the Caspian. The Caspian is bigger, more aggressive, and has that fire red bill that you can see from a mile [...]

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The White-throated Sparrow isn’t as well-known in California as the White-crowned Sparrow, the Golden-crowned, or the non-native-sparrow-that-will-not-be-named, but it is nonetheless very popular. It’s way more common in the East. This is yet another sparrow that winters in California — mostly in the western half — and migrates north to breed in Canada’s dense forests. [...]

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One of the more fascinating birds of spring is the Lesser Nighthawk, coming out of Mexico and Central America in March to fly over our Southwest deserts in the low light of the evening and early morning. Anyway who has ever seen one of these will speak to its incredible speed in the air. Check [...]

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OK, we can’t be certain that this is the first nest that any American Avocets have built in Central Valley rice fields this season, but we can say it’s the first that we’ve found. And it’s always an amazing sight to see these nests built in these fields. The birds themselves travel all the way [...]

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