San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory - Notes from the Station

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Northern Flicker (red-shafted)

11/14/2021

Species: Northern Flicker (red-shafted)
Most recent capture date: 10/13/21
Sex: Male
Age: more than one year old

Notes: We capture these odd ant-loving woodpeckers once or twice a year. In flight, their most striking feature is the flash of orange-red in the underwing and tail; in the hand, I am struck by their abstract-art-like collection of black stripes and spots.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

11/11/2021

Species: Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Most recent capture date: 10/10/21
Sex: Male

Notes: Males of this species usually keep their brilliant crown hidden under the olive-gray head feathers surrounding it, but they can display the crown when they want to impress a mate, a rival, or a bird bander.

Yellow Warbler

11/9/2021

Species: Yellow Warbler
Most recent capture date: 9/26/21
Sex: Male
Age: less than six months old

Notes: Another Yellow Warbler to compare with the bird posted recently. This fellow has a more yellow head and fewer chest streaks.

Hutton's Vireo

11/6/2021

Species: Hutton's Vireo
Most recent capture date: 9/25/21
Age: at least one year old

Notes: Hutton's Vireos look superficially similar to two more common (for us) birds, Western Flycatchers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. This makes them a fun quiz bird for our early trainees. Also, those big eyes are adorable.

Yellow Warbler

11/3/2021

Species: Yellow Warbler
Most recent capture date: 9/19/21
Sex: Male
Age: at least one year old

Notes: We love to see our yellow migrant warblers in the fall! It's especially fun to notice the variation among individuals in plumage markings like the dark wash on the head of this bird and the red streaks on his flanks.

Nuttall's Woodpecker

10/31/2021

Species: Nuttall's Woodpecker
Most recent capture date: 10/2/21
Earliest capture date: 8/11/21
Sex: Female
Age: less than six months old

Notes: A special bird for Halloween! This young woodpecker was in the process of molting out her juvenile (red) head feathers and growing in her adult (black, because she is female) head feathers. It just so happens that this process, at the moment we caught her, had resulted in two remaining juvenile feathers that gave her the appearance of having two tiny devil horns.

House Wren

10/28/2021

Species: House Wren
Most recent capture date: 9/22/21
Age: less than five months old

Notes: You can distinguish the House Wren from our more common capture, the Bewick's Wren, by the House Wren's lack of white "eyebrow". House Wrens can be found throughout the Americas, and have been the focus of a lot of bird behavior research on topics like territoriality, mate fidelity, and parental care. The scientific consensus is that their lives are full of drama.

Hammond's Flycatcher

10/25/2021

Species: Hammond's Flycatcher
Most recent capture date: 9/19/21
Age: less than five months old

Notes: In among the similar-looking Western Flycatchers that are our usual visitors this time of year, this little guy showed up! The last Hammond's Flycatcher we caught was way back in 2010.

Western Flycatcher

10/22/2021

Species: Western Flycatcher
Most recent capture date: 10/6/21
Age: less than five months old

Notes: Western Flycatchers are the characteristic bird of fall for us: they show up in large numbers on their migration in September and October and then are gone. We only seem to get young birds; the older birds presumably take a different migration route.

Hairy Woodpecker

10/20/2021

Species: Hairy Woodpecker
Most recent capture date: 9/19/21
Earliest capture date: 5/15/16
Sex: Female
Age: Six years old

About

You never know who you'll catch when you're bird banding! We wanted to share that sense of surprise, so we'll be posting here some of the birds we catch in the course of our research. Some birds will be here because they are unusual in some way; others just because they took a nice photo.

Authors

We are biologists who study landbirds in the south San Francisco Bay Area through bird banding at Coyote Creek Field Station. We have extensive training (and official permits) for our bird handling, and we prioritize bird safety over all else.

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