The Hummingbirds of Southern California

Although not really a hummingbird haven like southeast Arizona, southern California still hosts six species of the Trochilidae family. 

The most common is the Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), which can be seen even in urban gardens. As in all of the these species, the male is the one that has the more colorful gorget, especially given the proper light and angle. Male Anna's have an iridescent magenta or reddish pink crown and gorget. By the way, it's name was derived from Anna Massena, duchess of Rivoli, by Rene Lesson, an 18th century French Ornithologist and Herpetologist.

Arguably just as common as the Anna's is the Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) which can also be easily seen in parks. It is generally rufous in color, the male having an orange-red gorget. It's forehead and back has a green color. The name commemorates Charles Andrew Allen, a collector and taxidermist of the early 19th century. 

Similar looking and often confused with the Allen's is the Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus). The male Rufous can be best distinguished from the Allens, by having a lesser amount of green on the crown and back. Rufous Hummingbirds are also migratory and can be more commonly seen in Southern California in spring.

Another migrant, seen only during the summer months is the less colorful Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri). It's dark chin becomes iridescent deep purple at the right amount and angle of light.

The following two species are less common than the previous four. It was just sheer luck that I was able to photograph both at the Eaton Canyon Park in Pasadena not far from where I used to live. 

The Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae) is a resident of arid and semi-arid regions of California and Arizona. However, in summer, it seeks shelter from the heat and inhabits chaparral and woodlands. It is similar to Anna's in terms of the color of the male's throat. However, the Costa's gorget extends out to the sides.

The smallest bird in North America is the Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope). It is also a migrant and can be seen in southern California during its spring and autumn passage.The male has wine-red streaks on its throat instead of the usual gorget.

Information derived from wikipedia and allaboutbirds.org

Once Was Lost.....

Imagine my horror when not a single photo showed up when I was uploading my CF card to the laptop! And to think that the photos I took were of the birds of two of our favorite spots in Orange County - San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary and Bolsa Chica - and also those from our first day in Arizona! My mind raced to what caused such mishap. Perhaps it was when I reset the date in the camera settings. It was still in Philippine time so I changed it to U.S. Pacific Coast time. Or I might have pushed a wrong button. In a state of panic I asked for help via Facebook. Friends responded quickly. Two of them, Jun Osano and Micky Lim, even offered the codes needed to access the data using a specific software. I tried those but somehow it didn't work. Possibly it was because the software was designed for the Sandisk brand whereas my CF card's was Lexar.

Days passed and my heart still couldn't bear the fact that I might have lost my shots for good. Not that there were any photo lifers there, or that Cynthia also took pictures of practically the same birds using her own camera. Still......

I took the CF card to Samy's Camera who quoted me $35 for the recovery process. That afternoon I got a call from them saying they were not able to recover even a single shot from the card. So we went to the store and picked up my damaged CF. Since Cynthia and I are planning to go to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks, I bought a 64GB Lexar CF card which was on sale. At home when I opened the package, voila! there was a code provided should I need to recover a damaged card! After downloading the recovery software we (with my son, Kurt's, help) tried to work it out. Yes, we managed to get some raw files but they were from an earlier session and not those from the Orange County foray.

It was after our trip to Costa Rica and with a lot of time in our hands that I tried to run the software again. This time it was a complete success! What were once lost, now are found!

Here are some of those recovered shots:

American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

Allen's Hummingbird

Savannah Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

A Walk in the Park

We are still getting adjusted to California weather and time having just arrived from the Philippines a couple of days ago. To shake off the remaining bits of jet lag, Cynthia and I decided to visit nearby Palmer Park and check out the local avian denizens.

Palmer Park is a small patch of greenery in the city of Glendale. It being a work day, there weren't that many people that morning. A few individuals were enjoying the sun to counteract the early morning chill. The birds we saw were typical of any city park in Southern California. The most common, of course, were the House Sparrows.

and the American Crow

Mourning Doves were quite plentiful

There are two species of hummingbirds one would most likely encounter here (interestingly both with "human" names: 

Anna's

and Allens

Now here is a challenge I set forth to my bird photographer friends: I dare you to try and get a photo of the American Bushtit. I say that because taking a picture of this species is a test of patience and skills. Why is that? Here are a few reasons: 1) Bushtits are small. As in teeny weeny small. They are only 11 cm long and that includes the tail. 2) Very drab in color. Plain (no streaks or spots) gray-brown that blends perfectly to their habitat and 3) They are hyperactive! They are continuously foraging for insects and almost never stops to take a breather. To top it all the female is oh so slightly different from the male. How? the color of the eyes: male-dark brown, female-yellow!

male

The female I was able to photograph the day before at Eaton Canyon (please see my previous blog post)

Local parks here in California, even small ones like Palmer Park, hosts a variety of birds. We were glad that we took a walk and enjoyed photographing them.

One Morning in Spring

The doldrums of the past week have to be shaken off. Once again the price of gasoline soared to ridiculous heights thereby making trips to my favorite birding haunts economically unfeasible.

But I have to go birding. What's more I need the exercise. So off to Whitter Narrows I went Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day with just a touch of nippiness to make long hikes pleasant.

I started off at the Whitter Narrows Nature Center where I immediately saw an Allen's Hummingbird enjoying the morning sun. 

The Lesser Goldfinches were also busy having breakfast. 

Other than the usual House Finches and Butterbutts, I didn't see much of anything else.


At the Legg Lake area, there were more birds variety-wise but still nothing unusual. What got my attention was the Great Blue Herons building nests high on the treetops. The male would bring in some broken off branches from somewhere, give it to the female who then sticks it in to the nest platform. 

The Cormorants likewise were building their nest - sometimes on the same tree as the Herons.

The duck population were now down to the native Mallards, a few Northern Shovelers and one or two Cinnamon Teals.
Herons and Cormorants nesting and wintering ducks almost gone, it must be spring.

Hansen and Good-looking

Gas prices continued to soar, limiting our sorties into places closer to home. Hansen Dam was such a place - about 15 minutes away (driving at 80 mph ). Our target species was the Calliope Hummingbird - the smallest hummingbird to occur in the United States. Perhaps it was the dry spring season that we were having because the yellow flowers that these birds adore were not yet in bloom. No yellow flowers, ergo no Calliopes. Nevertheless, it was still quite birdy at the dam even if the avian population were the usual suspects. The Scrub Jays and California Towhees were darting back and forth right next to the parking area. There were hummingbirds,too - Anna's and Allen's were well represented as well as a few Black-chinneds.

Red-winged Blackbirds were competing with Great-tailed Grackles for prime real estate to serenade the opposite sex. We even saw a silky black Phainopepla.

After doing our rounds of the place, and it being close to 10 am, we decided to pack up and get ready for our next destination, Placerita Canyon. On the way to the Jeep, Cynthia suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my, God!" Concerned that something happened to my wife, I turned and found her shooting eargerly at the Red-tailed Hawk elegantly perched at the top the tree in front of her. Needless to say I joined in the fray, ocassionally shifting my camera at the Kingbirds frolicking on the grass below. Eventually the hawk flew off and before we reached our vehicle, we were granted good views by an uncommon Ash-throated Flycatcher.

Placerita Canyon was quieter than when we last visited the place. No Rock Wrens this time, but we did get a glimpse (but not a photo) of our first Black-headed Grosbeak of the season. One of the highlights of the day was that we got some good shots of the furtive Pacific Slope Flycatcher.

It was, once again, on the way back and passing through the picnic area that we were treated to a bird buffet, as it were. Feeding on the ground were Juncos, Towhees, Oak Titmice and Sparrows. As Cynthia was crouched trying to get an up close and personal view of a Golden-crown, I gently called her attention and directed her to her left at the base of the tree a few feet away, There, a Nuttall's Woodpecker was patiently trying to crack an acorn, oblivious of the people around. (There were picnickers with young children not too far from it.)

Who says you have to drive far to get good-looking birds?

Greys Are not to me -Episode 2 (I feel pine)

For the third weekend in a row, the skies were grey. Last Saturday, March 31st, we purposedly stayed at home. The weather was bad, I was dead tired from Friday's work and Cynthia was suffering from allergies. But Saturday, April, 7th, gloomy skies or not, I needed a "fix". I have to go birding! For the past week, I have been having pain on my neck and shoulders and my eyes were burning like heck. But communion on the night of Good Friday miraculously took all that away! Saturday morning, I was rarin' to go.

So we went. There were some recent postings of sightings of a Pine Warbler in Orange County. Sibley's Guide to Western Birds says that Pine Warblers are: "Very rare visitors from eastern North America." If that was not incentive enough, I don't know what is.

Estancia Park in Costa Mesa is a very well maintained public area with tall pine, eucalyptus and sycamore trees. Perhaps it was due to the inclement weather that there weren't many people there when we arrived. We decided to just bring Cynthia's camera first while we check out photographic possibilities. It wasn't long before we met a couple of birders. Tom Wurster and Liga Auzins from Monrovia helpfully pointed out our quarry. This was one of the easiest rare birds that we have encountered. Time to get the heavy artillery, I told Cynthia.

Grey skies nothwithstanding, we were able to get some pretty decent shots of Dendroica pinus. It was only after we had our fill of shooting the yellow-green warbler, that we turned our attention to the other avian denizens of the park. Western Bluebirds were there. Throngs of Western Kingbirds and a few of their more colorful cousins, Cassin's Kingbirds (that was an unintentional pun), were playing on the pine tops. The common Starlings and House Sparrows were of course everywhere. Then Cynthia called my attention. "What bird is that?" pointing to a black and white bird foraging in the inner section of a leafy oak tree. "Black-throated Grey Warbler", I told her seeing the tell-tale black throat while looking through my binoculars. Another uncommon bird, but one we unfortunately did not have good shots of.

With Estancia Park having nothing more to offer photography-wise, we moved on to San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. Even though the birds we saw were the same birds one would expect to see here, most of them are donning their much more colorful breeding plumages. The dowitchers, once brownish grey were now buffy-orangey. Ruddy ducks were now sporting blue beaks and their feathers were now, well, more ruddy. A nice bonus was a Bonaparte's Gull with its whole head now all black unlike a month ago when there were just small black patches there.
While Cynthia was doggedly trying to get a picture of a Marsh Wren which was singing its heart out, I moved over to the adjoining pond where I was able to at last capture an Osprey in flight. Something only my dear wife has accomplished well before.

It was way past noon and the grumblings of my stomach now matched the grumblings of my frustrated wife - she was unable to get a good picture of the elusive wren despite patiently stalking the tiny bird for close to an hour. I very tactfully requested that we should now leave and have a much-needed meal.

When I emerged from a short trip to the restroom prior to our departure, I found my wife grinning ear-to-ear and doing a quaint little jig. "I got an Allen's Hummingbird in flight!," she exclaimed. And there I was, ready to announce that I just had a nice picture of a raptor in flight that would be at par with her own endeavors. But it was through common sense and good judgment, not to mention a great love for my better half, that I withheld making known my accomplishment in favor of a new, albeit better, feat that Cynthia has done.

She felt so good that she said lunch was on her. Silence has its rewards.

Greys are not to me

Grey. That was how it was on Saturday, March 24th. All throughout the day. Except for brief bursts of sunlight, it was grey. So I had my flash and better beamer mounted on my camera as we headed out to Sepulveda Wildlife Area in Van Nuys.

As soon as we entered the place, Cynthia pointed to a tiny clump of feathers perched at the tip of a bare branch. "Allen's Hummingbird!" Her picture of the hummer best demonstrated the kind of day we were going to have: it was, indeed, crappy.

The lake was not its usual bustling with bird-activity except for the usual coots and grebes. The lakeside and the surrounding area however, were bursting with song! Brewer's Blackbirds were filling the air with the cacophony of their spring serenades. Red-winged Blackbirds were showing off their brilliant epaulets while Great-tailed Grackles whistled, gurgled and croaked unceasingly. Not to be outdone, Song Sparrows were doing what they were named for, while White-crowneds were chip-chipping away.

As we were perambulating along, I saw something big and brown fly through the grove and landed on a sycamore branch ahead of us. Grabbing my binos and focusing on the mysterious bird, I was a bit startled as I was staring face to face with a Sharp-shinned Hawk. The hawk, perhaps oblivious of our presence continued in its quest for breakfast. It would fly with great agility among the tree branches and would land on a branch and then would look around, sometimes in a most awkward way.

"Are you sure it's a Sharpie and not a Coopers?" Cynthia asked with a tinge of doubt in her tone, knowing how difficult it was to distinguish between the two raptors especially in their juvenile phase such was the case here.

"I'm sure." I replied confidently, explaning in tedious detail the head and feet size and the squareness of the tail edge.

Further up the trail, we encountered another raptor that needed a proper identification. Again, another juvenile, this time a Red-shouldered Hawk and not the similarly plumaged Red-tailed Hawk. Cynthia had some flight shots of this magnificent creature. When it comes to flight shots, I bow to my darling wife. (Only because my gear is heavier and my darn flash wasn't working properly. )

Anyway, the weather still not cooperating, we decided to give Lake Balboa a try, but then there were more people there than birds. Except blackbirds. Blackbirds of various sorts seem to flock in that area, Red-wings, Great-tailed Grackles, Tri-colored and Brewer's were all abundantly represented.

Having had enough of blacks and greys, we headed home.