Each day throughout the year, observant visitors to the Urban Forest and its surrounding gardens are treated to the fascinating spectacle of tiny dynamic aerialists that suddenly appear as hovering iridescent jewels as they dart from blossom to blossom, urgently seeking and sipping life-sustaining nectar. Two species of hummingbirds make this park their year-round home. [...]

This fierce, locally common raptor is known by many different names throughout North America, including the chicken hawk, striker, and flying cross. It is a crow-sized hawk. It is often identified by its proportionally large flat head, long and banded tail feathers, and fierce hunting habits under the canopy of wooded forests where they use [...]

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 [...]