Woodpeckers are a delightful family of birds (Picidae) most often found clinging to tree trunks and branches while using their stiff tails to aid in hitching up and around the tree. They forage with long, stout bills by probing tree bark in search of wood-boring beetles, ants, caterpillars, spiders, and larvae. As omnivores, you’ll also see woodpeckers eating fruits, seeds, nuts, acorns, and catkins. Woodpeckers use their powerful bills to communicate by drumming on resonate surfaces and to excavate their nest cavities. Continue reading “Woodpeckers of the Bay Area”
Category: Bird Vocalizations
More Dawn Birding
After experiencing such a magnificent dawn chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail, we craved more dawn birding! The following day, we arrived at Sweetwater Springs Road at 5:13 AM just before first light.
The special “dawn song” of a Western Wood-Pewee greeted us – a reward for waking before the sun. As with many other flycatchers, the dawn song is typically reserved for a short period before sunrise and sometimes at twilight. Continue reading “More Dawn Birding”
Dawn Chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail
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! Continue reading “Dawn Chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail”
Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020
Recording bird sounds has a been a source of great joy for us, as well as a boon to our birding-by-ear skills. First, making a recording forces us to listen intentionally for much longer than we may have otherwise, which helps commit vocalizations to memory. Then, uploading audio to The Macaulay Library allows us to revisit a recording with the helpful visual addition of its corresponding spectrogram.
In 2020, we uploaded 270 audio recordings to our eBird checklists. We picked our favorites to compile this Top 10 list, presented in chronological order. We hope you enjoy them! Continue reading “Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020”
A Sparrow Sort of Day
Last week, we birded along Sweetwater Springs Road – a dry, rocky hillside habitat dotted with oaks. Immediately upon stepping out of the car, we heard a funny jumble of vocalizations we didn’t recognize. We discovered the source to be one of two juvenile Bewick’s Wrens chasing each other around a coast live oak – listen below. Continue reading “A Sparrow Sort of Day”
Guerneville’s Dawn Chorus
Undoubtedly, taking in a dawn chorus is one of the more magical birding experiences. In the tranquil period before and during sunrise, while most of the world is fast asleep, springtime birds greet the new day with a bout of singing unmatched during the daylight hours – their voices coalescing into one large, living and breathing, euphonious symphony.
One easily accessible salve for the anxious and painful emotions we’re experiencing right now is a regular dose of the dawn chorus. With that in mind, turn up the volume (or better yet, put headphones on), close your eyes, and enjoy a few dawn chorus recordings as performed by the birds of Guerneville, California.
Continue reading “Guerneville’s Dawn Chorus”