Folks, The distribution of the two subspecies groups has long been a subject of discussion with many interesting comments in Audubon Field Notes and American Birds in the late 1960s and the 1970s. In

Rusty et al. I don't know as much about Scaly-breasted Munias as I should. We have had birds nesting in Santa Clara County for many years, see the account in our atlas. There are multiple problems wit

Jim and others, The Palo Alto CBC circle is on the border of Santa Clara and San Mateo County. Data from this circle are continuous since about 1960. A hundred years ago, Anna's withdrew from the Bay

Google "bibbed mallard images." Bibbed mallards are a fairly common mallard variant in the South Bay. Bill Bousman Menlo Park

Jim and others, I don't know if some of the numbers from the South Bay help, we do have a lot of scaup that winter there. Please excuse me for my wonkish analyses (or just delete). I've attached a .pn

Female scaup in their "non-breeding" plumage have a white earmark of sorts and the white around the bill is diminished (see Sibley). This, of course, is the plumage they show on their breeding grounds

Dear Isabelle, Flowering eucalyptus are a source of nectar for birds (and insects), but our small-billed wintering birds do not appear to do well because they get a gummy deposit on their faces from t

Folks: A quick look at South Bay numbers shows 20,000 to 30,000 in Pond A3N (closed) in Alviso on 8/25/20. The observers were Mike Rogers, Mike Mammoser, and Lea Crisp. A3N is mostly dry in some years

Dear Lee and others, I wrote a paper in Western Birds in 2007 that compared recent atlas and other sources in the nine San Francisco Bay area counties with Grinnell and Wythe's summary through the lat

Jim and others, In Menlo Park, I live in an area with live and valley oaks that have been here for thousands of years I suppose. When Captain George Vancouver visited San Francisco in the 1790s, he ro

Dear Steve and Carol, I think the shriek sound is similar to a begging call given by a juvenile bird, but at this time of year might not be expected (although I have heard typical Great Horned begging

Sorry, this was meant for the entire group. Bill -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [EBB-Sightings] Pileated Woodpecker, Redwood Regional Park Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2019 15:18:30 -0800 From:

Folks: Note also on Teale's photo of the right side of the face that the red throat encroaches the black malar and there is red below the black bib. Derek's photo showing more of the rear of the crown

It looks to me like a nice photo of a juvenile Eared Grebe (could be from either a nearby or distant nesting). Bill Bousman Menlo Park

Market gunning was common in the San Francisco Bay area until the passage of the Lacey Act in 1918. Hunting as a sport continues to this day, but commercial sale of wild birds is now prohibited. Anyon

Folks: This morning, 8/4/17, I drove south on Mines Road from Livermore to Santa Clara County. I saw a GREATER ROADRUNNER, just short of the 8.70 mile marker, near the call box. Bill Bousman Menlo Par

Folks: This morning, 4/14/17, en route to San Antonio Valley, a GREATER ROADRUNNER accompanied me for a short distance just before Mile Marker 6. Bill Bousman Menlo Park

Dear Sylvia and EBB, Just to add my two cents. The "Birds of Northern California" is an amazing resource and has more than stood the tests of time since its publication. Just to emphasize what Joe sai

Folks: About sunrise this morning, 6/5/14, I saw a PHAINOPEPLA between mile 5 and 6 on Mines Road. I couldn't sex it in the light conditions. Bill Bousman Menlo Park

Folks: Sorry for this belated post. Marc Smits of the Netherlands, contacted me through "birdingpal" and we planned two days of birding following a conference that he had attended in San Jose. So we w