Fall birding means the welcome return of the secretive Hermit Thrush that revels in its own company diligently rummaging through the leaf litter and forest under-story in search of spiders, ants, earthworms, and insects of all varieties. A favorite winter food includes the red berries fallen from our abundant native Toyon bushes and other fruit [...]

Peer down into the leaf-litter and you’ll see this largish, 9”, dusty-brown, long-tailed bird eagerly shuffling through the ground cover looking for grubs, or briefly perched in nearby bushes. Its drab gray/brown appearance is nicely offset by a rusty/orange patch under-tail and surrounding a thick darkish bill. This successful breeder in our local tree-filled parks [...]

Bottom left is the light-eyed female, and bottom right is the dark-eyed male. At top right, notice the unusual hanging nest that these inconspicuous yet common birds weave. Bushtits are tiny, long-tailed gray birds that travel in large busy flocks, relentlessly rocketing from one leafy bush or tree to the next, all while keeping up [...]

The Western Bluebird was selected because it’s a perfect representative for the Urban Forest. Both entities manifest hope, resilience and renewal in the face of myriad challenges to our natural environment. The Western Bluebird came close to entirely disappearing in Orange County in the last century due to destruction of its needed forested environment that [...]

Look-up and be astounded by the beauty of these dynamic songsters as they rapidly flit among the trees, often in the upper canopy and quite often in mixed groups. Active and gregarious they flourish in the company of red-tinged, brown striped House Finches with which they share the characteristic, cone-shaped FINCH bill, so perfectly adapted [...]