After a few months of consistency, there were several new visitors to the park. * male western tanager * pacific-slope flycatcher (calling and also seen) * immature nuttall's woodpecker raising a ruck

Much thanks to all for your responses. The people have spoken: It's a Bullock's Oriole! And now I know what a singing Bullock's Oriole sounds like. It was up in the trees and escaped all my attempts a

Singing incessantly in LP top circle this morning. I don't recall hearing this rollicking call before. He was competing with tanagers, woodpeckers, sparrows, and orioles for a lot of sound this mornin

A woman today in Lafayette park told me she saw a pair brilliantly purple bodied birds with red heads earlier in the week. Said they were the size of a jay. The closest thing I can come up with is a p

Late this morning a colony of feral honey bees was a-buzz and so were the resident acorn woodpeckers of Lafayette Park. All five resident adults were occupied with catching, eating, caching, and feedi

At Crissy Field Lagoon Sat, Sept 23, 2017 about 5:30 pm. Dark-backed gull (similar in color to a neighboring western), a little smaller than a western, black tip to heavy yellow bill, pink legs, and w

Thank you all for your feedback. Going by human response, it's a house finch. An unusually colored one for me, which is all the reason to stick to one principles and look at shape and bill first. Moto

This morning in Lafayette Park I chased around this bird that was hanging out with house finches. Its white belly and general lack of striping is what stood out to me. After reviewing pictures I concl

My partner works there and was on her usual Starbuck's run when she got pictures. Today, Tuesday April 25, 1:29 pm. If anyone works there it might be time to take a coffee break! I do not believe this

While counting a lovely flock of golden-crowned sparrows today in Lafayette Park, a man approached me from behind and made threatening chopping gestures and statements. It crossed the line and I repor

Based on Richard Braedus's report of the location's bird-worthiness and Jeff Fairclough's intriguing note about a possible phainopepla, I checked it out today and was pleasantly surprised. 1) I putter

I've seen the female Bullock's oriole in Lafayette Park for the past two days: always in the afternoon. I might have heard it earlier in the week, too. Thursday it was in the leafy trees on the wester

I found a high evening perch today overlooking Russian Hill and counted crows flying to the east from 6 to 7 pm. The action kicked in from 6:20 to 6:50. Because a lot of the birds flew in a line I mos

The general alarm was sounded this morning in Lafayette Park. I looked up to see a cooper's hawk being mobbed repeatedly by 6 or 7 red-masked parakeets flying at it in formation: they were flying abre

Wending my way through the mass of humanity sunning itself on the top circle of Lafayette Park at 6pm yesterday, I found trees dripping with CEDAR WAXWINGS. While enjoying the morphing, chittering flo

A short video. The pair is still active and entering into week 2 are now making what appears to be a cavity in the tree. This is a video of the female at work taken from quite a distance away and behi

Birded from around 9:30 to 11am today. I was fortunate to see a birder, Sarah, who had the male, Hooded Oriole in her sights as it was feeding in the abutilon by the restrooms. I hadn't been able to f

Birded from 10:45 to 1:25 primarily around the tennis court area in the northeast quadrant. Highlights: Baltimore Oriole ( high up in eucalyptus and conifers around the lawn circle.) At one point a ru

From 10:15 to 11:30 I did a circuit from Ft. Mason to Aquatic Park. Unfortunately, no Palm Warbler in any of the terribly lethal looking monkeypod trees. But there was an extremely vocal Northern Mock

Wondering if anyone could shed light on this bird. It foraged on the NE side (in trees and brush and ground behind the benches). It was slightly longer and slimmer than the dark-eyed juncos with which