10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2021

Its Executive Director and co-founder is David Crawford and the majority of its work is performed by a talented and dedicated group of volunteers. California Towhee attacking its reflection in glass. Delivered to Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, California, also a registered non-profit.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Animal Raccoons 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2021

I have seen most of these hummers feeding on salvias, which represents a lot of possible symbiotic combinations between the two groups. While not a common garden plant up north, I did find it for sale with Annie’s Annuals, a wonderful California nursery. And I have personally observed 16 species of hummingbirds in the state.

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Mexico California Morals Species 217

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2013

The North American Tundra Swan ( Cygnus columbianus columbianus ) migrates in flocks of family groups… leaving their Arctic breeding grounds in late September and arriving in their wintering grounds in November and December 1 (click on photos for full sized images). Range map courtesy of Terri Sohl of South Dakota Birds and Birding.

California 106

California South Dakota Sacramento North America 106

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2022

American White Pelicans spend their winter months along the Gulf states, California, parts of Arizona, and Mexico down into Central America. Active feeders, they move across the surface in tightly-packed groups, heads dipping beneath the water over and over and over in search of fish.

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Pelicans United States Canada Arizona 221

Critter News

JANUARY 19, 2009

There is definitely a new tide in California, post Proposition 2. In a move that elevated the anxiety level among grower-shippers, Darrell Steinberg, the new president pro-tem of the California state Senate, overhauled the body’s agriculture committee. Tags: california bile farming farm animal welfare agribusiness food.

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Emotional California Industry Proposition 2 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2021

At more than 15 million acres, California is the only other state with more than 5 million acres of wilderness. It is the only federal research group dedicated to studies needed to manage the National Wilderness Preservation System. The photos are from Desolation Wilderness in the El Dorado National Forest in California.

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Puerto Rico Alaska Protection Research 245

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2019

For me, there was the Limpkin in Loxahatchee NWR in Florida, the Atlantic Puffin at Petit Manan NWR in Maine, the Falcated Duck at Colusa NWR in California. In just a few clicks I can determine that my 442nd Mallard sighting was a group of 50 at Steigerwald Lake NWR on October 25, 2019, that the checklist was started at 9:46 a.m

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Puerto Rico Virgin Islands Michigan Washington 144

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2022

Extra points to these American Avocets for adopting a different pose for each numbered group. But they are extremely common up in Baja California and, to judge from this bird in Ensenada, exceedingly trusting — it barely fit in the camera’s frame. Brewer’s Blackbirds are rare treats down here in Michoacán.

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Blackbirds Germany Sparrows Adoptable 178

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Guiding aside, Howell is a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and the author of many books, including Petrels, Albatrosses, and Storm-Petrels of North America (Princeton). And that is what recommends Steve N. Howell and Fabrice Schmitt: both of them are international bird tour leaders with WINGS.

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Chile Birds South America North America 195

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2023

Oh yes, straight from California and very much twitchable, a first year Heerman’s was found in early March hanging out at the cruise ship dock. Our tropical shores just don’t get the numbers of gulls seen in other, more northerly places. Choice gulls have come to town and local birders have responded in kind.

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Costa Rica Factory Transported Fish 220

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Los bebés (the babys), Gustavo and Alberto, are the youngest members of the group, and only recently got their degrees. Early on in my experience with the group, my church work took me to Veracruz, a tropical city on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and I got to visit a mangrove forest near that city with Luis.

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Birds Mexico California Spain 163

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2013

All photos by Keiller Kyle, courtesy of Audubon California. After all, there are only a few hundred thousand left of these birds to gaze at, in a range that’s based mainly in California. federal level, and a Species of Special Concern in California. (For For a birder, a sighting of a Tricolored Blackbird is a treat.

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Blackbirds California Cattle Farming 183

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2019

Somehow, we managed to flip the script on that by spotting all kinds of birds that the whole group could enjoy. They all oohed and aahed over Indigo Buntings (rightfully so), but the highlight for me was a Barred Owl hollering just out of sight.

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2019 Birds California Raised 119

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

I am in communication with birders all over Mexico, and almost everywhere, they have been reporting groups of Cedar Waxwings. Although they were a yearly sight during my youth in California, I had only seen them once in all my years birding in Mexico. And a small group of Pied-billed Grebes were surprisingly trusting.

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Woodpeckers Nashville Mexico ALA 184

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2016

Of the four species of gnatcatchers found in North America, two are regularly seen here on the Baja California Sur, and the other two make the rare occasional visit. The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is with out doubt the most widely found of the species, but the California Gnatcatcher is the most recognized. The male California Gnatcatcher.

California 100

California North America Species Research 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2016

It turns out that smaller, scattered “satellite” groups of the bird are a source of needed genetic diversity when individuals leave the satellites and join the main populations. New research in Current Biology suggests that concentrating efforts on saving the remaining four large populations of the Florida Scrub-Jay isn’t all that’s needed.

Florida 176

Florida Research California Hunting 176

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2013

Way back in mid-June when I started my southern California sojourn I mentioned that I was inundated with Western Bluebirds. One afternoon I spent quite a bit of time watching and digiscoping a family group of Sialia mexicana , a great way to get to know the species better. I hope you liked these shots of Western Bluebirds.

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California Groups Family Birds 150

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

California is big. I only had a few days in California while visiting my brother at Berkeley, but we couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to visit one of the most famous birding sites in the country: Point Reyes National Seashore. Trips Birding California lighthouse point reyes' Migrating Gray Whales.

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Seals Elephants Whales Whaling 181

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Based on his own experiences teaching ornithology to high school students in California, he believes that high school student often just need the spark of an interesting elective class that fills a graduation requirement. In other words, a “spark class” rather than a “spark bird.” Think about it for a minute.

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2018 Agenda Science Eggs 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2014

Three companies refused to comply: Reckitt Benckiser, Liphatech, and Spectrum Group. EPA began cancellation proceedings, and at the eleventh hour Liphatech and Spectrum Group pulled the most dangerous of their products from the shelves. as well as a rare mammal, the California fisher. What to do?

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Rats Barn Owls Rodents San Francisco 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

They were a fairly common species from my childhood in California, but I had not expected them to turn up in central Mexico. And they almost always occur in groups, so it is really something when they all start calling at the same time. Plus, they look a bit different here, with an oddly-shaped crest and bright white eyebrows.

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Mexico California Species Groups 160

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

And, that sparrow I heard in California that sounded so different really is a Song Sparrow?” The six chapters that follow explore bird communication in mating; defending territory; rearing children; responding to predators; interacting with neighbors and functioning in large groups; and communicating successfully in a noisy human world.

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North America Research Birds Groups 278

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2012

Birders in Northern California have been treated to rare sightings of several species, sending avid twitchers from all over the west in our direction. Personally, I’m waiting for the irruption of Snowy Owls to reach northern California! We do hear them call though, especially this time of year.

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Owls California Jordan Sparrows 176

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Soaring on the warm desert updrafts, or sitting on a group of cactus tops, always in groups of two, three or more. Their proclivity for living in small social groups was fact that I learned much later. For as long as I have been living here in Mexico, I have truly enjoyed watching the Harris’s Hawks antics.

Mexico 100

Mexico Game South America Rabbits 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2014

So it was almost out of a sense of duty that the group of birders parked the bus at urban Telocote Park and unloaded to walk along the concrete viaduct in search of these unwanted, but still desired, birds. And why not make a trip, even if it’s undeniably less exciting than a California Thrasher or a Heerman’s Gull.

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San Diego California Unwanted Texas 175

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2017

Although some of the most popular Pacific pelagic trips depart from Monterey Bay in California, there are also regular trips out of Half Moon Bay, California; Newport, Oregon; and Westport, Washington. Channel Islands NP , also in California, supports most of the other 50%. The target birds tend to be similar.

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Albatross Hawaii Alaska Puerto Rico 137

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2019

I also spent a week in northwestern Costa Rica on a family vacation, a long weekend in Barbados, a week in Georgia, and two week-plus-long trips to visit relatives in southern California. For fifteen years, ever since I started visiting California as a birder, I’ve been hoping to see a Mountain Plover.

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2019 Barbados Uganda Costa Rica 137

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2016

Above is a photo of the only Burrowing Owl ( Athene cunicularia ) seen at Tuscan Preserve back in February of 2010 when a group of concerned birders installed eight artificial burrows on this property, to be preserved in perpetuity. In the summer of 2015 our investment paid off. Nesting habitat use by Burrowing Owls in Colorado.

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Owls California 2010 Colorado 101

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Additional helpful design features include the names of family groups against a yellow-and-white striped background on every page corner and having every bird image facing right (except for that Common Loon chick!), I found the latter, printed on one page and easily accessed on the inside back cover, particularly useful.

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Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2019

The Yellowthroat group is an odd collection of bird species. The Belding’s Yellowthroat is easier to see, but only if you visit the southern tip of Baja California. The one migratory species, aptly named the Common Yellowthroat , can be seen almost anywhere in North America. Both are marsh-dwelling species.

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Mexico Bahamas South America Panama 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2013

“Out West” to most Floridians might mean California or Arizona or might even refer to the Gulf Coast of Florida. I’m out guiding a lovely couple from California. For years now, the feeders in winter at Green Cay have been home to a reliable group of these fantastic little seedeaters.

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North America Factory Alligators Trafficking 217

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2019

I am originally from California, so it is easy for me to deal with a geography defined by a low coastal mountain range, a central valley, and a much higher inland range (in California, the Sierra Nevada). But for the past 25 years, I have lived in Mexico’s state of Michoacán.

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Mexico Birds Nevada Sparrows 114

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2013

Clapper Rails , as currently defined by the AOU, occur along the coasts of North and South America and Caribbean islands, and inland in southern California and Arizona. In California and Arizona, however, Clapper Rails are brightly colored and occur in both salt and freshwater environments.

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Species North America Cuba Louisiana 213

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2013

These Pygmy Nuthatches were seen in June nesting in a pine tree at Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. They sure are cute when you see a group of them fluttering around. The Pygmy Nuthatch ( Sitta pygmaea ) is a non-migratory bird that lives primarily in Ponderosa and Jeffrey Pine forests in western North America.

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North America America California Collecting 165

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Waxwings and their relatives are a small, interesting group of songbirds that have seen some interesting taxonomic changes in the last few years. The Palmchat has long been grouped with waxwings and silky-flycatchers based on morphological similarities, and genetic work has confirmed the relationship. Meet the bombycillids: Palmchat.

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Saudi Arabia 2008 Indonesia Groups 209

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2014

Activists and environmental groups went into overdrive, and in March 2014 the State of California approved a ban on the sale of the worst types of anti-coagulants. But at the last minute Reckitt-Benckiser pulled a fast one and contested the decision, leaving the company holding the gold ring – a monopoly on the most-toxic market.

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Rats Rodents 2014 Pets 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2016

For the most of the visitors to Baja California Sur, the name Los Frailes means little or nothing. Each year several hundred boats leave the cold, dreary weather of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, and sail their way down the west coast.

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2000 Oregon California Woodpeckers 106