Category: Conservation

Sayornis nigricans

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting the 100 most common Valley bird species.

Post #15 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 20/100.)

INTRODUCTION

The Black Phoebe is a dapper flycatcher of the Central Valley with a sooty black body and crisp white belly. They sit in the open on low perches to scan for insects, often keeping up a running series of shrill chirps. Black Phoebes are Common Year-round Residents and conspicuous near sources of water and around human development.

FEEDING BEHAVIOR

Forages by watching from a perch and darting out to catch insects, often just above water. Catches insects in mid-air, or may hover while picking them from foliage or sometimes from water’s surface. May also take insects from the ground, especially in cool weather.

NESTING

Image by Alan Vernon

Black Phoebes use mud to build cup-shaped nests against walls, overhangs, culverts, and bridges. Look for them near any water source from small streams, to suburbs.

COOL FACT

The male Black Phoebe gives the female a tour of potential nest sites, hovering in front of each likely spot for 5 to 10 seconds. But it’s the female who makes the final decision and does all the nest construction.

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,

• Common Valley Phalaropes
• Pigeons and Doves
• Tree-creeping Birds
• LBBs – Little Brown Birds
• Coots and Gallinules
• Swainson’s Hawk
• Two Warblers and a Vireo
• Burrowing Owl
• Fanciful Flycatchers
• Colorful Valley Spring Migrants
• Common Valley Swallows
• Black Phoebe
• Wild Turkey
• Western Meadowlark
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part II
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part I
• Wood Duck
• Killdeer
• Northern Flicker
• Valley Goldfinches
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Western Kingbird
• Common Valley Owls
• Common Valley Hummingbirds
• California Scrub-Jay

Meleagris gallopavo

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting the 100 most common Valley bird species.

Post #14 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 19/100.)

INTRODUCTION

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is the heaviest upland ground bird native to North America. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey. With the population steadily increasing over the past decade, Wild Turkey is an Uncommon to Fairly Common Resident with higher numbers found in the foothills than on the valley floor.

THANKSGIVING DINNER?

There’s a good chance the Pilgrims and Wampanoag did in fact eat turkey as part of that very first Thanksgiving. Wild turkey was a common food source for people who settled Plymouth. In the days prior to the celebration, the colony’s governor sent four men to go “fowling”—that is, to hunt for birds. Did they come back with any turkey? We don’t know for sure, but probably. At the very least, we know there was a lot of meat, since the native Wampanoag people who celebrated with the Pilgrims added five deer to the menu. (First Thanksgiving Meal)

WILD TURKEY IMMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA

The Wild Turkey is not native to the Central Valley of California. It was introduced from the 1950s through the end of the twentieth century by the California Fish and Game Commission (now the California Department of Fish and Wildlife  Fish & Wildlife imported thousands of non-native Rio Grande wild turkeys to California, releasing them in over 200 locations throughout the state. The turkeys quickly adapted and can now be found living everywhere from oak savannas to the suburbs.

A couple of local spots to find Wild Turkeys would be Henderson Park in Merced County, in the upper foothills of Del Puerto Canyon in Stanislaus County and the Mokelumne River Day Use Area in San Joaquin County.

TWO TURKEYS

In addition to the Wild Turkey, the only other member of the Meleagris genus in the world is the Ocellated Turkey of the Yucatan Peninsula.

COOL FACT:

When they need to, Turkeys can swim by tucking their wings in close, spreading their tails, and kicking.

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,

• Common Valley Phalaropes
• Pigeons and Doves
• Tree-creeping Birds
• LBBs – Little Brown Birds
• Coots and Gallinules
• Swainson’s Hawk
• Two Warblers and a Vireo
• Burrowing Owl
• Fanciful Flycatchers
• Colorful Valley Spring Migrants
• Common Valley Swallows
• Black Phoebe
• Wild Turkey
• Western Meadowlark
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part II
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part I
• Wood Duck
• Killdeer
• Northern Flicker
• Valley Goldfinches
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Western Kingbird
• Common Valley Owls
• Common Valley Hummingbirds
• California Scrub-Jay

Sturnella neglecta

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting the 100 most common Valley bird species.

Post #13 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 18/100.)

INTRODUCTION

The buoyant, flutelike melody of the Western Meadowlark ringing out across a field can brighten anyone’s day. The Western Meadowlark is a Common Year-round Resident throughout the open country of the San Joaquin Valley. The Western Meadowlark is not a lark (Family Alaudidae) but is related instead to New World blackbirds and troupials (Family Icteridae).

APPEARANCE

This colorful member of the blackbird family flashes a vibrant yellow breast crossed by a distinctive, black, V-shaped band.

DISTRIBUTION

The Western Meadowlark is one of our most abundant and widely distributed grassland birds. It inhabits most open country of both natural and planted grasslands of the valley floor.

COOL FACT:

John James Audubon gave the Western Meadowlark its scientific name, Sturnella (starling-like) neglecta, claiming that most explorers and settlers who ventured west of the Mississippi after Lewis and Clark had overlooked this common bird.

CONSERVATION STATUS:

Although Western Meadowlarks are numerous, their breeding populations declined approximately 0.9% per year between 1966 and 2019, resulting in a cumulative decline of about 37%, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

The graph below shows the Central Valley population trends between 2007 and 2021. The larger the red circle, the greater the decline in numbers.

Declines may be due, in part, to conversion of grassland breeding and wintering habitat for housing and agricultural uses. Other factors affecting Western Meadowlark populations may include pesticides, habitat degradation due to invasive plant species, and fire suppression that alters native grasslands. (From All About Birds.com)

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,

• Common Valley Phalaropes
• Pigeons and Doves
• Tree-creeping Birds
• LBBs – Little Brown Birds
• Coots and Gallinules
• Swainson’s Hawk
• Two Warblers and a Vireo
• Burrowing Owl
• Fanciful Flycatchers
• Colorful Valley Spring Migrants
• Common Valley Swallows
• Black Phoebe
• Wild Turkey
• Western Meadowlark
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part II
• Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part I
• Wood Duck
• Killdeer
• Northern Flicker
• Valley Goldfinches
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Western Kingbird
• Common Valley Owls
• Common Valley Hummingbirds
• California Scrub-Jay