Armando

In my yard, there are currently bird feeders with seeds, a hanging water dish, slugs, snails, woodlice, and some plants that provide nectar or even tasty flower buds. I didn't know that problematic snails were mainly invasive ones, and that the Americas had so many native snails that are so small! I am surprised to know that some birds eat these critters. It had never crossed my mind. I will probably look into how I can help out the native snails and thus the birds too.

For activity 2 I will briefly describe 3 birds that are residents in my area, and then find 3 likely birds I would see in my area 6 months from now.

• Residents: House finch, American Crow, and Mourning Dove.

I regularly see these birds in my neighborhood year round. The house finches are very timid of my presence, much less so than the larger mourning doves. The american crows enjoy perching on bare branches around the neighborhood or the street lights. Sometimes I see groups of three foraging or calling, too.

• Migrants: White crowned sparrow, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, American Pipit.

The white-crowned sparrows are my favorite migrant here. I first noticed them during my time in college, and noted their disappearance in the spring and summer before I started birdwatching. They are present in some U.S. areas year round, but here they are non-breeding during the winter and fall. The Ruby Crowned Kinglet is a bird I only recently learned was migratory. I no longer hear its short grating calls in the bushes or trees this season, but look forward to seeing them again, months from now. I've seen large flocks of American pipits in a local community park in the grass. After looking at their distribution on the ebird app, I do notice that I haven't seen any recently. They arrive here in the fall and stay up until late spring.

The Phainopepla is my favorite local bird, so I'll use this as my example. For it's shape, it's crest sticks out quite tall to me, and you can see most of the individual feathers in the crest. It sits on a perch somewhat straight up or with a slight forward lean. It also has a long tail. It's color pattern is all glossy black on males with red eyes. Females are more dark gray with white edging on wing feathers. I've noted a flycatching feeding behavior with some of the specimens I saw in the field. They wait on a perch, and quickly fly out at some prey and return.

Wow that is very peculiar! Definitely looks like a California Quail to me. I see them every few weeks in, well, California! I wonder what's this one's story?