As anticipated a sudden departure of white-crowned sparrows occurred last night. Evidence is from my limited feeding station and from Sycamore Grove Park. None were there whereas the day before there

Thank you Alex for correcting one of my impressions. My GISS (general impression of size and shape -- also including behaviors) was incorrect, even with a photo. I thought I could tell the difference

Thank you for your expert help. I have changed the ID on my checklist to reflect the truth. Dave Yeamans ********************* That is best for us which is best for our souls. [Matthew Henry] ********

In this checklist https://ebird.org/checklist/S82749997 I included two photos of a sparrow I have called Lincoln's sparrow. It could be mistaken for a swamp sparrow given that Sibley says the two as i

I saw the reported snow goose and brant today (Friday, 2021-JAN-22) at 9 am on the east end of the parking lot for the Botanic Gardens. The brant was being hectored by a crow but the other geese were

Thanks to input from Noah A. I changed my mind on the second glaucous-winged gull. I now am calling the second gull in the photo a herring gull based on the smaller size, flatter head, and possibility

I and everyone I met on the No Name trail this morning at Coyote Hills had no luck finding the Lapland longspur but many saw the rare glaucous gull. Not seeing it on the ponds, I rode my bike around t

The educated opinions are that the odd duck is a plain old northern pintail albeit outside the norm of behavior and maturity of its nearby companions. I have changed my checklist accordingly. Thank yo

On this checklist https://ebird.org/checklist/S77400590 there are photos of a pintail hybrid. I initially called it NOPI x AMWI, but I think a better match might be shoveller. I'm looking for advice a

Ebird's ebirder of the month challenge (to qualify you in a lottery drawing for a pair of $3k binoculars) is to post checklists with at at least 50 rated photographs summed over all checklists in Dece

Some people here report an irruption of pine siskins in our area. Hoorah!. What a blessing for us. In my long time ad hoc bird sanctuary home in New Mexico I experienced a PISI irruption lasting all w

Standing on the shoulders of giants Rosie and I went to look for the YBSA on Mines Road south of Livermore this morning. Found it. Every ten minutes or so I heard light tree trunk tapping that lasted

The red crossbill and the OSFL have a very similar two-note call. The crossbills have been dispossessed of much habitat and might settle for any pine tree in a storm.

I. Reddy posted a checklist with a house finch, the photo of which tells a story for our time of smoke. I regret that I rated it as a 2, but that's what the ebird and MacCaulay Library want. If I coul

First I thank Alex Henry and Mark Rauzon for definitively identifying the confusing cormorant in the East Bay. It is a double-crested. Refer to this checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S72732078 Se

I concur with the tentative ID of neotropic cormorant based on the photos from your ebird list. The size relative to double-crested is just right; there is no cormorant smaller than double-crested in

Alex, here is a link to a comparison photo of double-crested and neotropic cormorants. Maybe it will help, especially regarding size. https://ravenson.smugmug.com/BirdsofKauai/Southern-Arizona-2016/i-

I once had a (Woodhouse's) scrub jay check inside my ear canals for insects.

Scrub Jays are renowned for raiding caches of other scrub jays. Often they will relocate chaches of their own and other birds. If they are like Clark's nutcrackers, they can remember up to 15,000 cach

Full report here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S65054391