SF Bird Club February Newsletter

January Recap

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

January bird walk

In January we walked around the El Polin Spring area in the Presidio.

group shot
the crew
Some of the birders brought cameras and snagged some cool photos. I'm including some of those photos below

Taylor took the following photos:

northern flicker
northern flicker (Colaptes auratus)
california scrub jay
california scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica)
scrub jay
another scrub jay; early bird getting the worm and all that

May and Chad took the following photos:
red-tailed hawk
red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
anna's hummingbird
anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna)
northern flicker
northern flicker (Colaptes auratus)

I also took some photos:
red-tailed hawk
red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
spotted towhee
spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
scrub jay
this scrub jay found an acorn
cooper's hawk
we thought it was a cooper's hawk
mockingbird
northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Thank you to everyone who came out and thank you to May, Chad, and Taylor for the photos :)



February Bird Walk

bird walk
another picture from the January birding walk



This time we'll return to Golden Gate Park and the chain of lakes, middle and north specifically

The birding walk will be on the saturday morning of february 7th. Head to the partiful link to rsvp.



Spotlight Bird: Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)

northern flicker
a flicker i previously spotted at el polin springs showing off its red tail feathers

This month's bird of the month is the northern flicker. We saw a bunch at el polin springs. The area is a pretty reliable host to these guys so if you're ever in the need for flicker check it out

northern flicker range map
range map from cornell's all about birds site


Fun Northern Flicker Facts:

  • there are red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers which used to be considered separate species but now are not. you can see in the picture above it is clearly a red one and that's pretty much all I see around here, but apparently there is a yellow-shafted, or maybe a hybrid, that sometimes hangs around el polin springs! they're known to hybridize
  • they like to eat ants and you can sometimes spot them on the ground foraging which is uncommon among other woodpeckers species
  • they have tons of common names including "yellowhammer" in areas where the yellow-shafted variety is more common and other names like "harry-wicket"..
  • they're pretty noisy
  • they have a cool flying style where they coast then flap and they're also very pretty when they fly and you can see the colorful feathers under their wings and tails
  • there is an unpleasant bug called the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) which earned the nickname "the billion dollar bug" because of the costly havoc it wreaks on the agriculture industry. our northern flickers are a natural predator to these bugs and their larvae
  • they do something called "anting". check out the anting wikipedia page; it's pretty cool


Member Submissions

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


Courtney observed a quartet of wild turkeys going at it on a rooftop in the east bay

wild turkeys
wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) entanglement. this is a screenshot from a video


Erin and her friend Claire saw some super cool birds down in san mateo including the rare and fashionable tufted duck and one of my personal favorites the hooded merganser. Claire snapped these photos:

tufted duck
tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) so stylish
hooded merganser
hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) are so goofy and so cool
common goldeneye
common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)
lesser scaup
lesser scaup (Aythya affinis)


Rick and Sandy witnessed a bit of a gnarly event with this red-tailed hawk and a gull. I haven't seen that before..

red-tailed hawk and gull
red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) with a gull


Katlyn saw a snowfinch while skiing in the snow in france; pretty cool

snowfinch
the aptly named white-winged snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis)
mute swans
also mute swans (Cygnus olor) in geneva


Kelly and baby John continued with their birding escapades at their little pond in the east bay

black-crowned night heron
black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) being active in the daytime
greater white-fronted geese
greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons)
cinnamon teal and coot
cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) and american coot (Fulica americana)
merganser
i think it's a female common merganser but maybe female red-breasted merganser


James and Emily hung with the gulls in the city

heermann's gull
heermann's gull (Larus heermanni)
heermann's gull
i like these guys and the laughing gulls because i can identify them. western gulls vs california gulls on the other hand..
mourning doves
mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in pasadena


Adam brought back some of his signature blurry birds but got some cool sightings

hooded merganser
pretty sure this is a hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus)
northern shoveler
pretty sure this is a northern shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
white tailed kites
pretty sure these are white-tailed kites (Elanus leucurus)
birds
american avocet (Recurvirostra americana), black-necked stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), and mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
green heron
green heron (Butorides virescens)
a snowy and a duck
snowy egret (Egretta thula) vs duck


Erin W was on egret and heron watch over in sea world and the east bay

snowy egret
snowy egret (Egretta thula)
great egret
great egret (Ardea alba)
black-crowned night heron
i think this is a dusky colored variation of a black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)


Aarsh did some backyard birding in the south bay again

birds
aarsh's water feature is a major hit with the birds splish splash
birds
bird nest


Gus and Anjali did some more India birdwatching

peacocks
peacocks in gujurat
i really don't know but maybe an oriental honey buzzard
the hawk and the nest


I did some birding around the bay and also up in bodega bay. bodega bay is killer for birding. here are some of the birds i saw:

surf scoter
one of my all-time faves the surf scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) in bodega
ruddy turnstone
big fan of the ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) also in bodega
common loon
common loon (Gavia immer) in bodega; i wish we could see the breeding/summer coat
cedar waxwing
the always pretty cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) these were in the east bay
cinnamon teal
cinnamon teals (Spatula cyanoptera) in the east bay
pied-billed grebe
pied billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) snackin on a fish in the east bay
pied-billed grebe
down the hatch
pied-billed grebe
all the herons at the palace of fine arts


Closeout

That's all; happy birding