San Diego Year Bird #217: Bell's Vireo

Least Bell's Vireo. April 20, 2014. Mission Trails Park, San Diego, California. Greg Gillson.

Thirty-three years ago. That is the last (and only) time I saw the endangered Bell's Vireo. This was another of my 5 target birds for spring. So I set off for Kumeyaay Lake in Mission Trails Park. It actually didn't take long to find a pair of birds--right in the campground!

They usually are harder to actually see, singing their quick buzzy song while hidden in dense willow tangles in a few stream bottoms in southern California. Their stronghold is Camp Pendleton, the marine corps base north of Oceanside, California.

It's rather a plain bird, grayish-green with a slight hint of an eyering and a single wingbar. The heavy hook-tipped bill helps visually separate vireos from warblers.

Rare Birds of California now online!

Saw this on the May 2014 Birding Community E-Bulletin monthly newsletter.

The 2007 book Rare Birds of California, though now out of print, is reproduced in full online here.

Bookmark it and explore!

Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow. April 20, 2014. Mission Trails Park, San Diego, California. Greg Gillson.

I discussed Lark Sparrow a couple of months ago. But here are two more photos from a recent excursion!

San Diego Year Bird #212: Townsend's Solitaire

Townsend's Solitaire. Hot Springs Mountain, California. April 13, 2014. Greg Gillson.

Here's a rather uncommon species in San Diego County. It is found primarily fall through spring, but perhaps does not breed. There were 3 breeding season records, one of a pair, for the San Diego County Breeding Bird Atlas (1997-2002).

I found a pair of birds in suitable breeding habitat during the breeding season, 3 weeks ago. One was singing and skylarking and another calling about 3 hours after taking the photo above. So this is a possible breeding record. It should be noted, however, that migrant or wandering birds are still appearing along the coast. So even the birds I saw singing in proper habitat could be migrants and not breeders.

Oak Titmouse

Oak Titmouse. Hot Springs Mountain, California. April 13, 2014. Greg Gillson.

There aren't any Black-capped Chickadees this far south. There are, however, Mountain Chickadees in the hills and sometimes, inexplicably to me, in residential areas of San Diego throughout the year. Instead, the Oak Titmouse is the local chickadee representative found in oak canyons, but not residential backyard bird feeders away from oaks--they are very reliant on their preferred habitat.

The larger oaks are inland. The smaller live oaks nearer the coast are not as desirable. Thus, these birds are more common farther inland in the county.