Chestnut-backed Chickadee

https://flic.kr/p/ioh2Cy

Chestnut-backed Chickadees reside along the West Coast all year long from south of Monterey, California north to Sitka, Alaska. There are interior populations in Montana and Idaho as well as inland in California, Washington and Oregon. They are associated with coniferous forests. Their unique facial pattern with white triangular cheek stripes beginning in the lore area at either side of the short beak and widening along the cheeks, a black cap stretching down the nape, and blotchy little dark bib setting off the neat white diamond (if one is looking nose to beak) along the face as well as their sociability make them familiar to birders as well as non birders. They popularly appear on seasonal greeting cards, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, calendars and other personal and home decor. Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Black-capped Chickadees and other species of chickadee are so well loved that in some regions chickadee is a term of endearment. A bright-eyed chickadee posed against red berries on a snow-laden twig is a sight we never seem to get enough of. A chickadee in snow, with a red ribbon, or perched with holly berries or other red drupes of the cold months conjures wintertime and Christmas. Chestnut-backed Chickadees exude friendliness in their way of flying in mixed flocks with bushtits, titmice, or other small songbirds engaging in day-to-day bird business without notable shyness (for a bird) in the presence of human habitation and activity. The chestnut tones are along the back and flanks. They are small (almost as small as bushtits), vociferous, and active as they scale and hop about plucking insects and spiders in dense tangles of limbs and leaves overhead. These birds sing a buzzy Dee-dee-dee! as though trying to become acquainted with us. Reports of tsidi-tsidi cheer cheer are noted on many online bird references. However, the birds by my house sound like "chip chip" followed by a lower raspy "dee-dee-dee." Happy pine cone picking and cater pillaring, my little chickadee.

Nuttall's Woodpecker, for fellow blogger and naturalist Greg Fuller

On Friday as a Santa Clara County Open Space Authority docent,  I led a stroll along the Guadalupe River Trail levee in Santa Clara. Specifically, we met at Ulistac Natural Area, a birding hotspot due to the volunteer efforts in the California native plant garden, the reintroduction of oak woodlands on former cattle grazing land, and the river as a nearby water source. I had a good group of ten, including youth--who, by the way, ask really good questions on guided walks. Their questions usually send me googling and back to my nature reference manuals. June here is a time of dragon and damsel flies, busy finches, butterflies and skippers, and the joy and noise of many species of fledgling birds learning the ropes of birdlife. After our levee walk and native garden tour, I took a rest and then re-entered the old Eucalyptus grove. Active scratching in a nearby low tree caught my attention and soon I made out the "zebra back" design of Nuttall's Woodpeckers pushing their bodies up the tree branches with their strong and stiff tail feathers to steady them. They are endemic to California (specially adapted to the state and found nowhere else). I noticed the red patch on the male's head was just above his beak on the forehead and other woodpeckers I have seen had red crowns or their bright reds pushed back a little lower. He was a juvenile and I predict as he grows and molts his "red cap"will move up along his forehead and come to blaze atop his head. Go to major birding websites to hear their call and song, which is memorable and will help you to locate them in the branches above you. They are solitary unlike Acorn Woodpeckers whose flocks dominate in the oaks.

                                          http://www.pbase.com/tgrey/image/51230374
                                          (young Nuttall's Woodpecker)

American Robin

http://wildfidalgo.blogspot.com/2011/05/american-robin.html
[some fantastic robin shots and notes]

Thanks to Mother Goose Folktales, robins, sparrows, and geese introduce children to their first birds. We also see these birds early in life when our family takes us down the street to the park. American robins are often seen plucking berries from trees or sprinting across lawns then standing still and alert poised to tug an earthworm from its element or snap up beetles crawling in the grass. Robins yank worms from the ground, sometimes throwing their whole bodies into action for stubborn ones, and they swallow them down in a few short gulps. American robins are abundant and fairly adapted to life in our neighborhoods all across North America. Look in your yard for a bird with an orange rusty breast and belly and dark grey head, face, upperparts and tail. There is a little white along the outer tail and low belly and their black eye is surrounded by a broken white ring. Robins' beaks are yellow. These songbirds of the thrush family have a friendly and robust aura. Their song is a hearty, ringing rather uneven trill repeated numerous times. They are fun to watch in the wild or on your campus or lawn and do not startle and fly off easily. Their boldness and their nearness to humans make them appeal to us as a personable bird.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Phoebe singing, fi-bee

Phoebe is my constant strolling companion, a bird who joins me on every walk. She drops in with a startling little high pitched whistle which sounds like an air kiss. She shows a simple white under her belly and charcoal black feathers worn like a "hoodie" atop crown, upper breast and over her back and tail. Her keen little dark eye shines out handsomely, and, it seems to me, curiously, from her (or his) khol-tinted face. Phoebes are uniform-looking ;one resembles the next nearly exactly in plumage, but each is also beautiful and somehow unique in the moment. Their uniqueness could be in their bold presence and precision as bug catchers that hunt on the wing. It could also be their penchant for choosing open and prominent perches on which to alight. They favor trail posts, benches, metal signs, drinking fountains and lower outer tree branches--also stream boulders or upjutting logs and vegetation which overhangs water. They are fine little potters fashioning their nests from creek mud and grasses, stucco architecture of the birdworld. 

Snowy Egret

I watched from the cliff edge as two Snowy Egrets stalked prey in the tide pools off of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. It was a bright but cold December Day, so there was a whitish glare reflecting off the ocean into my eyes and the Egrets slipped in and out of view as their forms blended into the swabs of light, becoming visible again against the dark wavelets. Snowy Egrets feed on mudflats, in rivers, on pond banks and tidal flats as well as irrigated fields. Their profile whether standing erect or stretched out in flight is distinctive. They are long- legged with long necks and a long and sharp, pointed beak. I suppose they appear thin, even for a bird. Though their legs are fragile looking, the Egrets seemed comfortable contending with the waves washing swiftly over the rocks. Snowy Egrets are more active fishers and do more scrambling and sprinting than White Egrets who use a stealthy stillness. The Snowy does more chasing of shrimp, aquatic insects, small fish, frogs, etc. They have a habit of stirring up shallow waters with their bright yellow feet ("golden slippers") as they wade and forage for prey, much as we might stir our soup with a spoon to lift the carrots or the beans. In flight they stick their long black legs rigidly straight out behind them and tuck their 's'-shaped necks in. They have a very wide wing span and slow graceful wing beats. Their breeding plumage is lace-like and becoming almost like a bridal veil or lightweight intricate shawl. The herons were my first favorite birds, and so they remain.

Northern Flicker

 The Northern Flicker is suited up with a black crescent at the throat and spots disbursed all along the breast, flanks and undertail coverts. Their black-barred backs seen against crisply spotted chests are an uncommon but successful fashion pairing of spots with stripes.
This species is very noticeable in the field with their red moustache (male), underwing and tail undersides. Out west we have Red-shafted Flickers; the other, eastern, subspecies is Yellow-shafted. They have been recorded as interbreeding, so they are not counted as separate species anymore. They nest in tree cavities which they chip out themselves. I've always spotted these members of the woodpecker clan alone or in small groups. About two weeks ago there were three who cruised through my backyard together. This group paused in the black walnut tree.They have the soft grey toned feathers which feather also the mourning doves on their heads. Flickers are a type of woodpecker and their flap-flap-flap-glide-flap-flap-glide flight movements (undulating) reveal this kinship as well as their stature (about 12" long), their stout and strong beak with potrusible tongue and their zygodactyl feet. Their toes are arranged differently from other birds, two facing forward and two backwards for scaling trees. This is how they shimmy up and down, plus side to side so smoothly. Woodpeckers' potrusible tongues wrap up around the eye socket when they are pulled in, so as to refit the whole tongue's length within the bill. They can stick out their tongues past the tips of their beaks by a couple of beak-lengths using special muscles as a part of their unique skull and tongue anatomical adaptation. Flickers eat a lot of ants, so they feed often on the ground using their pointed, extensive and sticky tongues. Most other woodpeckers feed up in and under the barks of trees and not the ground, though I've seen Pileated Woodpeckers, also eaters of ants, on fallen tree limbs (in Montana). The Flicker call is a clear and far-carrying Kyeer.With its patterning and flashes of red in flight, the Red-shafted Flicker is eye-catching in the wintertime when many other birds display toned down plumage. Look for the white rump patch as Flickers fly off.

Red-winged Blackbirds

Wild Birds Unlimited

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c0Lw23yQFwQ

 Conk-a-ree they sing out from the reedy edges of ponds and lakes where they feed and nest, V-rrrrreee! Their voices provide the sound track of lazy summer days. Males are polygynous, with five or more nesting females in their territory. Their song may be uncomplex but they put their whole bodies and voices into singing it-- wings rounded, tail fanned out and heads in the air. Their singing style has its own name, "song spread." The males show those lovely "epaulets" of the upper wings to advantage. The shoulder badges on the wings stand out strikingly against jet black feathers. He's got this one flashy attribute to boast of with his robust singing and he makes the most of it. "If you've got it, flaunt it." Redwings form immense flocks, in the hundreds and tens of thousands, during the winter. Within this family group are other blackbirds as well as Screaming Cowbirds (I kid you not) and Boat-tailed Grackles, among others.