In the California county in which we live, Santa Clara County, there are well known migration paths used by passerine birds. These paths are usually creeks and small rivers that provide food and water to birds as they fly from as far as Alaska heading south to their boreal winter grounds ranging from Mexico to South America. The Yellow Warbler is one such species and every fall they appear reminding us that another northern hemisphere breeding season is ending.
Black Phoebe
The Black Phoebe is a common flycatcher on the West Coast. It is easily found in and around the San Francisco-San Jose area all year. Most of the time when we are doing local birding we will see one or two them. They tend to use low spots from which to do their fly catching, rocks, fence posts and the like, flying off a perch, grabbing an insect and then usually returning to the same perch. It’s my observation that they like green grassy areas, perhaps because of the type of insects that lawns draw. Since the drought in California and home owners have converted to xerophytic gardens I am seeing less of this species where in the past they were common.
American Dipper
American Dipper seen near Alyeska, Alaska
I love these birds. Seeing your first one ejecting from a heavy white-water rapid on a roaring mountain river is like viewing magic. This bird finds its food by flying down to the bottom of swiftly moving streams and walks upstream on the bottom hunting for insects. Many times I have seen them leave the water with a large insect larva in their beaks. Note the huge toenails that assist this bird in holding onto the bottom of creeks and rivers. One tough little bird.
Canyon Wren
The plaintive song of the Canyon Wren reverberates in canyons of the Western United States. They are not too shy so they make reasonable photo subjects. They are uncommon in Santa Clara County, California. Last I heard there are two known Canyon Wrens in the county. A beautiful wren with a white throat and rusty-red uppers.
Snowy Egret
I don’t have any exotic birds to follow Dave’s post but here is a painting of a common bird I recently completed. Snowy Egrets are a great subject to work with and I had fun placing this one amid tangled splashy branches.
Snowy Egret 16” x 20” acrylic on wood panel
The Green Turaco
The Green Turaco - Tauraco persa
Well, so far, all my photos were taken in the wild. I will try to adhere to this concept, but I had to post this one because it is such an unusual looking bird. It is found in Central-Western Africa. Technically it is the species Tauraco persa buffoni, the only subspecies that does not have a thin white line below the eye.
This photo was taken at the Bloedel Conservatory, Vancouver, BC.
The Carolina Wren
This small wren of the eastern parts of the United States and eastern parts of Mexico is very noisy for its size. Its loud “tea-kettle tea-kettle” song lights up forests during the breeding season. They are hard to see because they favor brush thickets, but hearing them is not a problem when they are singing.
Photographed at El Franco Lee Park, Houston, Texas.
Whiskered Screech Owl
The Whiskered Screech Owl is found over a small area of the Southwest United States. Its distribution extends down the western mountains of Mexico and into part of Central America. We heard several “tooting” during the night where we were staying in Portal, Arizona. Sometimes their toots sound like Morse code.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
A truly beautiful flycatcher. The salmon-colored flanks are characteristic of this species. When it flies, the long tail reminds me of a train on a bridal dress. The area around the “armpit” or “wing pit” as it is sometimes called is a more intense redder salmon color.
This species breeds in the south-central U.S. and winters from South Mexico down into Panama.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - A subtle beauty
Blue-gray Gnatchater
The Blue-gray Gnatcher is a common bird in Central-Coastal California in the summer. It flits around in the brush wagging and lifting its tail which startles insects causing them to fly to become a tasty morsel for this bird. This photo is of a male because of the blue “V” on its forehead.
If lucky, you will encounter these birds nest building. They gather caterpillar and spider silk and use it to fasten fragments of lichens into a small thimble which becomes the nest. The nest looks like a bump on a tree’s branch and it’s impossible to know if it’s a nest unless you see an adult fly onto it.
Green Jay
Green Jay
Want to talk Gaudy? Talk about the Green Jay. This bird has a bizarre mix of colors: green, black, blue and yellow. I have encountered this species twice, once in Mexico and once in Southern Texas. I was unable to get what I consider great photos because the bird was either glued to a suet feeder or in the case of this photo, it stayed in the protective shade of vegetation. They have a well-developed family structure that cooperate to improved reproductive success. More information on this species can be found at: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/grnjay/introduction
Orange-breasted Bunting
There is nothing like coming up on this little bird. We were walking down a road with dry grass and barbed wire fence. Out of nowhere, a blue gem catches the eye - even with its flashy colors, it just barely catches the eye.
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
A warbler with a lemon-yellow face that is common in the Northeast United States and Southeast Canada in the northern summer. In the summer it feeds mostly on caterpillars in coniferous and deciduous forests. This species spends the northern winter in tropical America where it eats the buds of the cecropia tree.
We have seen this species in Northern Ohio as it makes its way across the lakes to northern forests in Canada.
Photo taken at Magee Marsh, 2018.
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
The sweet song of the Yellow Warbler always puts a smile on my face as it sings “sweet, sweet, I am so sweet”. The rich buttery yellow with the reddish streaks indicate a male Yellow Warbler in the photos. Females and immatures are not as bright and lack the rich reddish streaking on the breast. The plain face with a piercing black eye is a characteristic of this species.
These photos were taken at Magee Marsh, Ohio in 2018
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler at Magee Marsh, Ohio
Palm Warbler
The Palm Warbler occurs mostly east of the Rocky Mountains and breeds almost exclusively in Northern Canada. Some members of this species will spend winters along the west coast of the United States, however, most overwinter in the Southeastern United States and down into the Caribbean and Yucatan. The winter Palm Warbler, like most other warblers is drab brown, but the yellow under-tail area gives them away along with their habit of wagging their tail up and down as they forage on the ground. They are brave for warblers. In Florida a winter bird came up and pecked on my shoe.
The photo shows an adult heading for the breeding grounds. Photo taken in May 2018 at Magee Marsh, Ohio.
Southern Lapwing
A common shorebird of South America but it is slowly spreading north into Central America. This is one of two that my daughter spotted close to the Arenal Volcano near La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
This cute warbler usually inhabits marshy areas, often in and around reeds or other vegetative tangles. This is a photo of a male. The female’s colors are subdued. They skulk around in dense vegetation making them hard to see, but every once in awhile one will appear for a photo. In the spring they can more easily be found by their song which sounds like whichety-whichety-whichety and is quite a racket for a tiny bird. In the northern summer, this species can be found across the entire United States and the southern half of Canada.
Bay-breasted Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Yes, there are many beautiful birds in the Neotropics, but it’s not to say there isn’t beauty among the birds in North America. Indeed, we share many of our birds with countries in the south when they migrate to warmer climes in the winter. Floy and I have seen many northern species in the south, but they are often drab and do not show their breeding colors until the northern spring. The male Bay-breasted warbler is a member of this category, drab and plain in the Neotropics becoming a stunning showman in the northern summer.
This photo was taken in May, 2018 at Magee Marsh, Ohio
Western Tanager
Western Tanager. Photo taken near Truckee, California
Floy pretty much described this bird in her post below. We see it show up in the spring in the San Francisco Bay Area, usually, but not always in riparian areas. It is a common summer bird in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Ferruginous Hawk
I guess it’s time for an interlude from things tropical, well, at least for a few posts. Floy and I did our annual trip to the migratory birding areas of San Louis and Merced National Wildlife Refuges and the Panoche Valley, all of which are in Central California. Panoche Valley is semi-desolate, with some cattle farming. This area attracts birds that are not often seen in the San Jose, California area such as Horned Larks, Mountain Plovers, Mountain Bluebirds, etc. It’s not unusual to see this species there in the winter. After rain, the Panoche area can be emerald green. Beware of the mid-summer because it can become very hot and dry.
This is the same hawk Floy presented in her sketch below. Unlike other hawks of the area, this one spends a great deal of time standing in open fields. Scanning the vast fields of the valley, it’s not uncommon to see them standing as a white pillar in the distance.