Wingbeat Blog

​It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that birding changed my life. I moved to San Francisco and ended up getting a job at Alcatraz Island, a National Park Site but also a bird sanctuary and colonial nesting site for hundreds of waterbirds.

I was working in visitor services and had never felt that parks and the outdoors were necessarily places that I belonged. I was born in Houston, Texas, to very poor teenage parents and I am Mexican-American. Growing up, I didn’t see myself in the people who were in these spaces.

​Working on Alcatraz changed that, when my first winter there a co-worker and I discovered a Peregrine Falcon on the water tower – though we didn’t know that’s what she was at the …

When I was eight years old, I became interested in songbirds. I enjoyed watching them fly and look for food. I began using field guides and Merlin Bird ID to identify birds. I felt proud when I found and identified a new bird that I had not seen before because I grew my knowledge of birds.

My third-grade science teacher, Ms. Luby, at Woodland School liked birds too and she helped me start a brochure on birds. My parents noticed my curiosity about birds too and began taking me to local birding events. I’ve attended festivals, guided hikes, birding classes, and bird banding events. Currently, I am … 

My absolute favorite thing about birding is the ability to step into the private lives of birds. I’ve watched Acorn Woodpeckers squabble en masse and have spent long enough staring at a California Towhee to discover that it picks through the leaf litter with a sudden jump instead of a polite scratch. Meanwhile, on trails and city streets I watch so many people rush past without ever knowing that was going on a few feet from them. 
 
But, observant as I am, there is so much I still don’t know about birds–one of those being how to identify waterfowl. Despite lots of experience with shorebirds, I never gave much thought to waterfowl. That’s why when I saw SFBBO’s Waterfowl Workshop with …

​My love of birds started from an early age. Birding allowed me to explore the diversity of birds and ponder their interesting behaviors and adaptations. It became a way to connect with and observe nature. When I discovered science, birds were not just a hobby anymore, but a passion and a career path. To me, science is a portal into understanding and advancing our knowledge of birds. 

​The Bird Sound Workshop was a nice blend of science and bird sound ID. I especially enjoyed learning about how birds sing and call (including how they produce two sounds at the same time), how and why sounds are learned or innate (and how this creates dialects of song), and the reasons for why a bird would call. This helped me better understand bird biology. When it came time to learn about individual species, understanding 

​In 2020, SFBBO conducted our first year of a new comprehensive phalarope survey program. Phalaropes are medium-sized shorebirds that pass through San Francisco Bay during spring and fall migration. Unlike other shorebirds that find food in the ground at the water’s edge, phalaropes eat small items at the surface of open water and often swim. Due to their use of open water, it is difficult to find and count phalaropes to understand population trends. This means …

​I often feel like a late bloomer when it comes to my love for birds. Throughout my undergraduate career, birds would pop up in my classes every so often and I always thought they were interesting.

​But it wasn’t until my last spring quarter at Stanford when I took the introductory Ornithology course that I realized how much I loved learning about birds. In every lesson, I felt engaged and enthusiastic to soak in as much knowledge …

​When I walk around local city and state parks, I take in a plethora of information: amazing sceneries, new terrain patterns, and rest spots up ahead. When I decide to stop and remain stationary, I realize that bird calls and songs are the most prominent signals I receive. Bird calls and songs truly do tower many of our environments. I can even hear some right now …

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a birdwatcher.  But what got you started? Do you remember wondering what made a certain sound or where a feather came from, or noticing a bird behaving in a particular way?

​With the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up, there’s no better time for youngsters to begin thinking about where and how to find birds and make a list for Presidents’ Weekend. In How to Find a Bird, Jennifer Ward offers a great starting point with her suggestions for how to begin (“…you’ll want to blend in. ​​And move slowly. Quiet is good too.”) and where to look (“Don’t just look up to find a bird.  Look down, low to the ground…”).

Diana Sudyka’s illustrations are stylized, energetic, and simple enough to spark recognition or give a child something to remember, with plenty of humor thrown in. Together, they draw young readers along, introducing differences in feeding, camouflage, and sounds. Each bird illustrated is … 

​In August, disastrous wildfires in the Ventana Wilderness destroyed thousands of acres, including the Big Sur Sanctuary for condors, and resulted in the disappearance and presumed death of eleven California Condors.  Iniko, a chick still in the nest, was feared dead but ultimately survived, as did some other adults. In late November and early December, some survivors were released back into the wild (click here to view video of Iniko’s fledging and the release of adult condors).

In Condor Comeback, a new book in the “Scientists in the Field” series, author Sy Montgomery accompanies …

I found my love for the environment after taking an introduction course back when I was attending Ohlone College in Fremont. What I love about this field of study is that it brings together people of similar interests to help stand up for the earth. I also love being outdoors.

Luckily, I was fortunate to stumble upon the opportunity to take SFBBO’s Diurnal Raptor ID Workshop with Alvaro Jaramillo, when it was shared with students in the Environmental Studies Department San Jose State University where I currently study. I was interested in this workshop because identifying raptors has never been my strength. In fact, whenever I saw a bird in the sky …