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Because Audubon’s conservation vision follows birds up and down their migratory pathways, it’s important that we encourage the public to view birds this way as well. For the children who participate in our various programs throughout the Pacific Flyway, we not only seek to instill a love of birds, but also an appreciation for how [...]

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Two hundred years ago, there were three bird species native to North America that were known for nesting in huge colonies: the Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet and the Tricolored Blackbird. In some areas, millions of these birds blanketed the sky. Now, all but the Tricolored Blackbird is extinct — and it’s hanging on by a [...]

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A study by researchers from Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada that appears in a paper published in Animal Behavior found that bird colonies provide a rich source of social information. This could help birds reduce uncertainty about nest locations, mates, or food sources. What is interesting is that birds don’t use this information. The [...]

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Our colleagues down at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary have been conducting bird banding sessions all spring, and this week they briefly caught a rarity, a White-eyed Vireo. A quick look at the records by Sanctuary Ornithologist Jennifer Wilcox indicated that this might have been just the second or third sighting of White-eyed Vireo in [...]

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Interest in the declining number of Tricolored Blackbirds isn’t new; in fact in the 1930′s Johnson A. Neff conducted the first complete population study. Neff was a Sacramento based scientist who organized his study in response to controversy over the government’s failure to respond to the public’s outcry over “widespread reductions in abundance.” Over five years, [...]

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KCET has posted a marvelous meditation on the irrepressible Scrub Jay, which apparently is responsible for helping replant vast areas of California desert wiped clean by wildlfires over the past few years. (photo by Peter LaTourrette) Share on Facebook

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A letter from Harvard University to Nature reports that birds have paedomorphic dinosaur skulls. What this means is that birds could be dinosaurs that never matured. Share on Facebook

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We’re talking a lot about Tricolored Blackbirds lately. And because of that we’re getting a lot of calls and emails from people claiming to have seen Tricolored Blackbirds in all kinds of places around the country. In most cases, we’re pretty sure these folks are looking at the more common — but also entirely great [...]

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According to the Los Angeles Times, wind energy developers in the Tehachapi Mountains are looking to science to avoid what would be a catastrophic collision between an endangered California Condor and a wind turbine. The issue is more critical than ever as the California Condor continues to expand further into its historical range, which includes [...]

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The Santa Lucia Conservancy (SLC), with technical assistance from Audubon California and UC Davis, is conducting a research project tracking how California’s blackbird, the Tricolored Blackbird, uses one of California’s most prominent and expansive ecosystems, the oak-savanna grasslands. The strategy that the SLC is using to keep track of the birds is a newly developing technology [...]

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With about a month/five weeks left in the Tricolored Blackbird nesting season, it’s probably about time for an update on how our efforts to save these birds are coming along. Thus far, we have identified four massive breeding colonies and struck agreements farmers to protect them. This amounts to the breeding production of about 70,000 [...]

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Audubon California and our partners on the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership are out in the field surveying nesting success in rice fields and natural wetlands in the Central Valley. The goal is to compare nesting success in rice fields versus natural wetlands, and also rice fields where owners are managing to help birds versus those [...]

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A study published in American Naturalist found that song sparrows who have flings outside their monogamous relationships conceived young with low fertility success. This opposes the idea that the reason animals stray is to increase reproductive success. Researchers followed Song Sparrows for twenty years. In Science Daily the lead scientist said, These results are remarkable because they [...]

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Least Tern chicks are hatching on Huntington State Beach. Least Terns are colonial nesters and their colony on Huntington Beach is famous for being one of California’s largest. Least Tern clutches contain anywhere from two to four eggs. If you live in the area be sure to go take a walk and see if you [...]

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