Last week, we rose extra early and headed out to enjoy the incredibly rich dawn chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail. We arrived at first-light and captured this dawn chorus recording at 5:40 AM – about 10 minutes before sunrise. Feast your ears on this magnificent avian symphony!
One thing that makes the dawn chorus so special is the variety of birds simultaneously vocalizing. Songs and calls are layered on top of each other so intricately, it can be difficult to parse out the individual songsters. We’re surely missing some birds in this list, but we’ve identified at least these 16 species – wow!
Yellow Warbler
Swainson’s Thrush
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Warbling Vireo
Song Sparrow
California Towhee
American Robin
Violet-green Swallow
Tree Swallow
American Crow
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Brown Creeper
Common Yellowthroat
Bullock’s Oriole
Black-headed Grosbeak
As the sky brightened with each passing minute, we delighted in slowly being able to make out some birds who were previously just voices in the dark.
This Western Wood-Pewee repeatedly sallied out for bugs and returned to its preferred perch.
Listen below to the typical song of the Western Wood-Pewee – a descending, burry note.
Emanating from a large patch of Queen Anne’s Lace was a Common Yellowthroat’s chip note. We grew extra excited when we also heard what sounded like the incessant call of a begging fledgling. Finally, we spotted a male feeding at least one youngster. Listen below at 0:16, 0:52 and 1:46 seconds for the fun sound of the young Common Yellowthroat getting fed.
We managed to get one photo of the male Common Yellowthroat – even mostly obscured, what a stunning warbler!
Another beautiful warbler also spotted in the Queen Anne’s Lace was this male Yellow Warbler.
Here are two bars of the Yellow Warbler’s sweet song for your auditory pleasure.
‘Tis the season for young birds – this male Downy Woodpecker was hard at work feeding nearby young.
The sky continued to lighten, and this Green Heron flew up from the creek to perch above us in an oak.
As we headed back to the car, Miles’ favorite songster, the Black-headed Grosbeak, serenaded our departure with its sweet and operatic song.
The reward of spring’s dawn chorus awaits those who rise before the sun – we encourage you to get out and enjoy it now while you can!
For last year’s dawn chorus recordings, check out:
Guerneville’s Dawn Chorus
Thank you so much !!! This is a great encounter with California’s spring dawn chorus. Love it. Cheers from Québec’s Eastern Townships.
Wonderful music!!! Can you say where on the SR Creek Trail you were, please?
Thanks, Kathy! Please see our comment below on the specific trail location 🙂
There’s nothing like a beautiful dawn chorus. Thank you so much for sharing the list of birds you identified and the photos. Just wonderful!
Thank you for sharing the uplifting dawn chorus with the great individual bird songs identified. I appreciate the post!!
The visualization of the Yellow Warbler’s song looks like the Sydney Opera House.
The trill throughout, best at 1:39.
Is that junco or something else?
Hi Greg! For that repetitive, short, dry trill at 1:39 and throughout, our best guess is a Chipping Sparrow (which are regular along this stretch of trail). We are used to hearing their typical long song. But, in reviewing Birds of the World, we learned of this: “D. Kroodsma (pers. comm.) describes a dawn display in which male produces rapid, staccato, and brief version of characteristic long Song, with very short intersong intervals.” And we discovered a handful of Chipping Sparrow recordings labeled “Dawn Song” in Macaulay Library that are very similar in song-length. Fun to learn new things! 🙂
Thank you for the beautiful bird song recordings.
Thanks, what a joyful sound. I live close-by (Novato) and want to visit that area now early in the am to hear this “bird concert”. I hope this is not a dumb question but aprox where along that long trail did you go to as a suggestion for me to park and hike in with as I am not familiar with the trail?
Hi Melanie,
Here is a Google map of the walking trail: https://goo.gl/maps/MQxX6e8Zj8izSYg79
Parking is off the side of Willowside Road. Many people utilize this trail daily, but in the past have been some unfortunate break-ins, so please don’t leave anything of value visible in your car. There are trails on either side of the creek, and either west or east of Willowside Road – but the trail marked on this map (south-side trail heading west) is the trail we took when we made these recordings. They’re all very nice, though!
Thanks for the info, I will be going!
Wonderous and wonderful!
Thank you so much for this post. I’m trying to learn local bird songs, and this will be a huge help. Love your photos, recordings, and commentary.
Thanks again for sharing, Miles and Teresa. So lovely to read.