SF Bird Club December Newsletter

November Recap

In case you missed it you can find last month's newsletter here: november newsletter

November bird walk

In November we walked around the Crissy Field Marsh area.
I've got a drafted, uncompleted ebird checklist.. but to recap we saw some double-crested cormorants, a long-billed curlew, say's phoebe, red-breasted merganser, snowy egrets, nuttall's woodpecker, northern flicker, golden-crowned sparrow, buffleheads, ruddy ducks, and some others I'm forgetting now.

curlew and egret — a very san francisco photo of a long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus) and a snowy egret (Egretta thula)

another very san francisco photo; this one of a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) and another snowy ducking down in the reeds

nuttalls woodpecker — nuttall's woodpecker (Dryobates nuttallii)

great blue heron and dc cormorant — double-crested cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) and great blue heron (Ardea herodias)

snowy egret and long-billed curlew — snowy egret (Egretta thula) and long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus)

female bufflehead — the buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are back

anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) *without* the light reflected off its gorget

the golden-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla) is a winter visitor but it gets here pretty early

Thank you to everyone who came out:)

December Bird Walk

We're going to run it back and hit the crissy field marsh one more time.

The birding walk will be on the saturday morning of december 6th. Head to the partiful link to rsvp.

Spotlight Bird: Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)

This month's bird of the month is the long-billed curlew. We saw one on this month's walk.

long-billed curlew range map — range map from cornell's all about birds site

Fun Long-billed Curlew Facts:

they are the largest shorebirds in north america!
they are in the same genus, Numenius, as the slender-billed curlew which was officially declared extinct a couple months ago:(
as you can see from the range map they breed in the summers in grasslands in places like the Great Plains and migrate southward, but also coastward to places like San Francisco
the females are larger and have longer bills
the female leaves the nest and heads out for winter grounds while the male stays back a bit longer to look after the chicks
they stick those long bills deep in the mud and feed on invertebrates like crabs or worms
their beaks look like they'd snap but they're actually very sturdy. I don't know enough to regurgitate it here, but I did some light research on the anatomy and learned some big words like trabeculae and Rhynchokinesis. It's actually pretty neat so give it a google if you're interested
they are nicknamed the candlestick bird because of their shape and there is a legend that candlestick point, and subsequently candlestick park, were named after these birds! Apparently they used to be super abundant out in the mudflats out there but they were basically exterminated for their meat:( Some sources say this isn't the true origin of the name but this is an sf bird club so I say let's run with it

Member Submissions

Thank you to everyone who sent me photos of the birds they saw!

Gus and Anjali spotted a steller's jay up in in the Wenatchee forest.

Erin took her talents to Alabama and saw the sandhill cranes and some green-winged teals too

sandhill creane — sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) and green-winged teals (Anas crecca)

James and Emily did their share of birding around ocean beach and hawaii

red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) in the san francisco fog

some of my favorites the sanderlings (Calidris alba) at ocean beach

red-crested cardinal (Paroaria coronata) in kauai

Aarsh saw a hawk at his house in sj

Theresa saw some dabbling ducks!

Katlyn did Italian birding

Lokesh saw so many cool birds on his Africa trip. He sent me more photos than I can share here, this site already barely loads :), so here are some of my faves

african penguins (Spheniscus demersus) i love penguins so much

the notorious secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

yellow weaver (Ploceus subaureus) with an impressive nest

lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus)

southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas)

I did some birding myself this month

the cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) are back for their berry feasts

killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) are shorebirds but you often see them in places like golf courses like this one here

while hiking with adam and ani we were pretty sure we spotted a merlin (Falco columbarius)

Closeout

That's all; happy birding