Owls! We have always been fascinated by these beautiful creatures of the night. Learn what makes owls special, meet our local owls, and find out how you can help them. Enjoy owl stories and images too!
Birds nest and roost in trees - keep them safe when you prune and trim! Learn how to protect birds and other wildlife while caring for your trees.
Arborists and bird lovers are working to change the tree care industry with wildlife-friendly practices. What does it take to change a culture, and how can birders help?
It’s spring, and the birds are nesting now! Migratory birds are coming and going too. Enjoy stories, images, and sounds of the birds that live among us, submitted by our members and friends.
New to the Bay Area, SCVAS Member Francesca Ricci-Tam set out to meet and document the birds near her home. Enjoy Francesca’s sketches and stories of her avian neighbors in our nature art gallery. How many of these birds live near you too?
Someone pointed out that more Santa Clara County eBird lists have Anna’s Hummingbird than any other species. I guess, but it would not surprise me if the Black Phoebe is as high on the list of frequently observed species. Examining my data, it occurs on about a third of my county eBird lists.
Black Phoebes are in the genus Sayornis with two other species: Say’s Phoebe and the Eastern Phoebe. The French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, coined the genus name, Sayornis, which translates to Say+bird in honor of Thomas Say, an American entomologist, conchologist, and herpetologist.
Black Phoebe by Dave Zittin.
Phoebes are tyrant flycatchers (family Tyrannidae) of which there are more than 400 species.
Black Phoebes are territorial, monogamous and pairing may last for up to five years.
You cannot do much to attract the Black Phoebe to your backyard, although sometimes they are attracted to mealworms. They are wait-and-sally flycatchers, usually waiting on low perches for an insect to come into view and then flying out, grabbing it and returning to the same perch.
A few times a year, one perches in our backyard to forage for insects. Our neighbor used to have a green lawn with a lot of crane flies, and a resident Black Phoebe would swoop down from perches on posts and trees to capture insects on his lawn throughout the summer.
Black Phoebes require a source of mud for nest building and a nearby source may attract them to nest on your property.
No other bird in Santa Clara County looks like a Black Phoebe. This dapper flycatcher has mostly dark sooty-gray upperparts and a white belly ending at the upper breast with an inverted ‘V’ surrounded by a sooty-colored throat area. The under-tail coverts are also white. Black Phoebes have a large, squarish head that frequently shows a peak.
Adult Black Phoebe by Dave Zittin
Adult Black Phoebe feeding juvenile. Note the reddish-brown feather tips on the back of the young bird. Photo by Brooke Miller.
Juveniles have reddish-brown edges on various feathers on their backs, but the red-brown color is conspicuous on the edges of the wing coverts.
Black Phoebes pump their tails while roosting. This is characteristic of the genus Sayornis.
Black Phoebes have an extensive range. Their northern breeding limit is Southern Oregon, and their range extends south for thousands of miles into Argentina. They occur along the entire length of California, from the coast and east to the western slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains and south into Baja California along with the coast range.
Black Phoebes in our area more or less stay in the same place throughout the year.
Local distribution is determined by the availability of suitable nesting conditions. As mentioned earlier, they require mud for nest building, and are therefore associated with wet or damp areas. They build their mud-plant fiber nests on vertical walls within a few inches of a protective ceiling to shield the young from sun and inclement weather, to reduce access by predators, and possibly reduce brood parasitism by other species. Nest areas include rock faces, bridges, and the eaves of buildings. Black Phoebes have a strong tendency to reuse old nests
Except for rare sightings of the Eastern Phoebe, there is nothing in Santa Clara County that looks like a Black Phoebe. The sooty-black upper parts, the peaked head, the white undertail coverts, and the white belly make this an easy-to-identify bird in our county throughout the year. Its congenator, the Say’s Phoebe, a winter bird in our county, has an orangish-cinnamon-colored breast and a brownish-colored back.
The song of the Black Phoebe sounds like repeated tee-hee, tee-hee. With a little imagination, you may hear fee-bee, fee-bee. The Black Phoebe frequently pumps its tail and calls while roosting as it awaits a bug to come into view. Listen to and the typical song and call.
Photo of juvenile Black Phoebe with rusty-red-tipped feathers
For a bonus, listen to the “fee-bee” song of the Eastern Phoebe. The sound of this song eventually became Phoebe, a woman’s name. Listen to the song of the Eastern Phoebe.
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
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Banner Photo: Black Phoebe by Tom Grey
One reason to love Anna’s Hummingbirds is that they are attracted to bright colors, which they often investigate as potential food sources. I have had hummingbirds hover near my shirt pockets that contained bright-colored pens. And, when I was a university student living in Northern California, I kept a red-colored hummingbird feeder outside our living room window. As an experiment, I kept the window open and moved it into the living room short distances every day or two. After several days, our resident Anna’s Hummingbird flew through the window opening, across the living room, and into the dining area, where the feeder was hanging. I guess you can say we all ate together.
Male Anna's Hummingbird with some of its gorget feathers showing iridescence. Photo by John Richardson.
Hummingbirds allow people to get close. If you stand still next to a feeder, Anna’s will feed inches from you. Hummingbirds feed on nectar and insects. Insects provide protein, and nectar gives them the sugar energy they need for their high metabolic rate. Insects are an essential source of protein for their growing young.
Anna’s and other hummingbird species take advantage of sap wells made by sapsuckers. In addition to sap, these wells attract insects that both the sapsucker and hummingbirds consume. Interestingly, some hummingbird species follow sapsuckers during migration in order to use sap wells as a food source. Studies show that some hummingbirds are able to migrate into northern areas earlier than they would otherwise be able to because sap wells provide energy before their preferred plants bloom. Anna’s Hummingbirds are significant pollinators of many wild plants, including sticky monkey flower, gooseberry, currant, and the California fuchsia.
Hummingbirds occur only in the New World. They fascinated early European explorers, who thought they were insects or the result of a bird-insect hybridization. Later, hummingbird feathers and their desiccated bodies became fashionable in Europe until the early 1900s when the Migratory Bird Act ended the taking of wild birds for such purposes.
Female Anna's Hummingbird showing red spots on the neck. Photo by Brooke Miller.
Anna’s Hummingbird belongs to the large family Trochilidae (trochil=a small bird), which contains well over 300 species. Hummingbirds and swifts are members of the order Apodiformes, or “footless.” They have very small, skin-covered feet that are used for perching only; they move from place to place by flight. Anna’s Hummingbird is a member of the genus Calypte, which translates to approximately “veil” or “head-dress.” There are two species in the genus, Anna’s and Costa’s Hummingbirds.
In 1829, natural historian and surgeon René Lesson named Rivoli’s Hummingbird in honor of the second Duke of Rivoli (Italy), an avid amateur ornithologist. Dr. Lesson named Anna’s Hummingbird after the duke’s wife, Duchess Anna.
Attracting Anna’s Hummingbirds to Backyards
Attracting Anna’s Hummingbirds to a backyard is easy; purchase a hummingbird feeder. Mix a sugar-water solution according to the directions given in the “using feeders” link below. Be sure to clean the feeder regularly as the sugar solution promotes mold. I have a circular feeder with a red top and five holes. I use a stiff bottle brush and soapy water to clean the sugar trough and the holes in the top of the feeder prior to each refill. If you want to start a feeder, be sure to first read the feeding reference.
Female Anna's Hummingbird. Note the red spots on her throat. Also, note that there are no reddish-rust colors on her flanks. Photo by Brooke Miller.
Description
The color patterns of the two sexes are different (called sexual dimorphism). Anna’s female is relatively drab, which gives her a camouflage advantage when incubating eggs. The male is bright green with a brilliant pink-reddish gorget, the colorful patch found on the throats of hummingbirds. The gorget of the male Anna’s is unusual because it extends up and across the forehead. The brilliant iridescence of hummingbirds is due to refracted light coming from minute bubble structures located in their feathers, not from pigments. The gorget appears dark-colored until the angle of sunlight on the feathers and the angle of your eye to the feather surface interact to produce a visual gem.
Male Anna’s Hummingbird not showing iridescence, the light-source and view angles are important. Photo by David Zittin.
Male Anna’s Hummingbird showing iridescence. Photo by Dave Zittin.
Anna’s breeding season starts in November when rain promotes currant and gooseberries to flower and insects become abundant. The breeding display of the male is unique to this species. His courtship dive starts higher than any other hummingbird species, at about 115 feet above the ground. From there, he does a near-vertical dive, reaching descent rates of 90 feet/sec. He then turns up near his potential mate, yielding a “J”-shaped dive profile. He experiences about 8.5 Gs as he turns up at the bottom of the “J”. Most people subjected to 6 Gs for more than a few seconds will pass out. At the bottom of the “J”, air movements over his tail create a loud chirp or squeak sound. There is no pairing, the male courts and copulates, nothing more. The female does the nest building and rearing of the young.
Distribution
In the early part of the 19th century, Anna’s Hummingbird occurred across southwestern California and south into northwestern Baja California. Since the middle of the 20th century, human plantings have encouraged this species to spread northward. Eucalyptus, various ornamental flowers, and some fruit trees contributed to the spread of Anna’s. Of course, hummingbird feeders also contributed to their northward spread. Today Anna’s is found in Northern Baja California, west into Southern Arizona, and north along the coast into Southern British Columbia.
Anna’s Hummingbird can greatly slow its metabolism during cold periods to conserve energy. This metabolic slow-down is called torpor. Its average normal body temperature is 107 ℉ and its resting heartbeat rate is 400 beats/minute, but in torpor, its temperature falls to around 48 ℉ and its heartbeat rate drops to around 40 beats/minute. Being able to shift metabolic gears also aided in its northward range expansion. Anna’s Hummingbird is present in Santa Clara County throughout the year.
Similar Species
Three other hummingbird species occur in Santa Clara County, but not for the entire year. These species are the Rufous, the Allen's, and the Black-chinned Hummingbirds. The Calliope Hummingbird appears in the county infrequently. Male Anna’s are easy to identify. It’s the only hummingbird in the United States with a reddish-pink gorget that extends over its forehead, giving it an iridescent reddish-pink crown. Identifying the female is more problematic. Female Anna’s can be identified if you see red spotting on the throat. However, the red spotting is not always obvious. Female Anna’s Hummingbirds never have rufous or cinnamon coloring on their flanks, as do Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbird females. Without red spotting on the neck, the female Anna’s is similar to the female Black-Chinned Hummingbird and can be difficult to tell apart for the beginning birder.
Explore
General Information on Hummingbirds
Trochilidae by Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan
Hummingbirds and Sapsuckers
Why a Sapsucker may be a Hummingbird’s Best Friend from The Bird Guide
Color in Birds
Iridescence Revealed in the Feathers of an Anna’s Hummingbird from All About Birds
How Birds Make Colorful Feathers from All About Birds
The Basics of Iridescence in Hummingbirds from Sibley Guides
Using Feeders
Feeding Hummingbirds by All About Birds
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
Read our Notes and Tips from a Backyard Birder series
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Banner Photo: Anna’s Hummingbird by Tom Grey
The Latin binomial of the Spotted Towhee is Pipilo maculatus. Pipilo means chirp or twitter, and maculatus means stained or spotted. The spotted twitter-er, perhaps? I will leave that for you to determine after you listen to its song.
Male Spotted Towhee singing. Note the conspicuous red eye. Photo by Curt Bianchi.
This well camouflaged bird is hard to spot, but it often gives away its location by sound. The common song of our local Spotted Towhees is a buzzy, rapid trill that starts with a very short chirp. Both sexes have a cat-like meow call. Their distinctive sounds alert us to their nearby presence. I hear them most mornings in our neighborhood.
Like the California Towhee, the Spotted Towhee hops forward, then kicks both feet backward at the same time as they land, turning over leaves in search of food.
Attracting Spotted Towhees to Backyards
Spotted Towhees do not like being in open areas for more than a few seconds. In nature, they forage near or under brush. They eat off the ground. I have never seen one on my hanging feeders.
Male in typical feeding habitat. Photo by Dave Zittin.
Spotted Towhees are omnivores, but in breeding season, they tend to eat arthropods. In the winter, they increase their intake of plant material and consume more seeds and small fruits. I use a patio mix on the ground, which attracts a pair throughout the year. They seem to be intimidated by almost any other bird species, and often wait until the other ground feeding species have left before exploring for food. I have been placing some seed closer to shrubs in hopes that our Spotted Towhees feel more comfortable feeding there. We shall see.
Description
The Spotted Towhee is a large, long-tailed sparrow. The beautiful jet-black head of the male and the black upper parts spotted with white are distinct. These features plus chestnut flanks, the red eye and pure white belly make for an easy identification. The female tends to be a little paler than the male and has a dark gray-brown head and back colors.
Female. Note the brownish head. Also note the white under tail wedges and the white edge to outer tail feathers. Photo by Dave Zittin.
There are distinct white areas on the under surface of the tail near the distal end. These spots often show as white tail corners when viewed from above. Sometimes when I get a partial view of one flying away from me in thick brush, the black head and white tail flash reminds me of a Dark-eyed Junco.
Male showing white spotting on wings. Photo by Dave Zittin.
Juveniles show a lot of streaking and spotting and have reddish-brown color overall.
Distribution
Breeding populations occur over Western North America from Southern British Columbia and south into Mexico, but they avoid the driest areas in this range. Some breed as far east as Montana and the Western parts of North and South Dakota and migrate out of these areas in the winter. Spotted Towhees in our area are present throughout the year. If you are interested in knowing more about their complicated distribution, see the general information link below.
Similar Species
In Santa Clara County, no other bird species looks like the Spotted Towhee. We recently encountered a beginning birder explaining that she had seen both the adult and juvenile Spotted Towhee feeding in her yard. Juveniles are not often in the open, so with further questioning, one of us determined that she was calling Dark-eyed Juncos juvenile Spotted Towhees. To her credit, she recognized the similarities between these two local sparrow species, especially the black heads and some white on the tail feathers.
Juvenile Spotted Towhee by Deanne Tucker.
Explore
General information on the Spotted Towhee by All About Birds
The following recording is the typical song of our local Spotted Towhee subspecies. Listen carefully for a leading chirp sound followed by a rapid trill: Recorded by William R. Fish | Macaulay Library
This recording is a typical cat-like meow call: Recorded by Randolph Little | Macaulay Library
Spotted Towhee sounds from All About Birds
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
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Banner Photo Credit: Spotted Towhee by Deanne Tucker
Do you like early morning serenades? If so, you will love the Northern Mockingbird, the avian Pavarotti of the neighborhood. An unmated male will sing throughout the night. Paired males start their serenading just before sunrise. Northern Mockingbirds are members of the family Mimidae, the mimics. Thrashers are also in this family.
Eating Toyon berries. Note two wing bars and a slightly decurved bill. Photo by DeAnne Tucker.
The Northern Mockingbird learns new songs throughout its life. The adult male sings about three quarters of the year, starting in February, finishing in August, then starts up again in late September, finishing in November. They learn songs from other members of their species, non-related species and non-biological sources, for example, car alarms and rusty gate hinges. A few months ago, I was thrilled to hear an Ash-throated Flycatcher in the neighborhood. I tracked it down, but found a Northern Mockingbird, doing a near perfect mimic of the flycatcher!
Northern Mockingbirds have a few unique calls that can be used for identification. One in particular is the alarm or “churr” call that is used when predators or competitors are nearby. I hear this call daily in our backyard, especially when our local, pugnacious mockingbird attacks a crow that shows up to eat bird seed.
Two wing bars, black eye line and slightly decurved bill. Gray to blackish upper parts and buff under parts. Photo by Gena Zolotar.
The Northern Mockingbird’s persistent singing made them sought after as cage birds from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Captured adults were the best because of their naturally acquired song repertoire. Indeed, the Northern Mockingbird may have been one of the first White House pets. “Dick the Mockingbird”, as it was named, was adored by Thomas Jefferson.
Grassy yards attract Northern Mockingbirds. Also, fruiting bushes are attractive. They normally avoid feeders, but this year (2021) was an exception for our backyard. A very territorial mockingbird decided that it likes grape jelly, which I use to attract Hooded Orioles. If an oriole lands on the jelly feeder it is immediately dive-bombed by the mockingbird, and we have not seen orioles for many weeks. It also eats from our suet feeder. These feeding activities are unusual, and I suspect are the result of a very dry year and perhaps a lack of preferred foods. Normally, Northern Mockingbirds are omnivorous, feeding on insects and worms during the spring and summer and then fruiting bodies later in the summer and autumn.
The Northern Mockingbird has a narrow black eyeline, two white wing bars, gray upper parts and white lower parts. It flashes a conspicuous white wing patches in flight.
The outer tail feathers are white and the central tail feathers are dark-colored. The black bill is fairly long and slightly decurved. When confronting an intruder, the Northern Mockingbird will raise its wings part way or raise them high, showing off the white patches. This likely makes the bird look larger and more threatening. This wing flashing might also be used to flush prey from hiding places.
Note bold white wing spots and white outer tail feathers. Photo by Sonny Mencher.
Northern Mockingbirds are a New World species in the genus Mimus and can be found in all the states, Southern Canada, most of the Caribbean Islands and throughout most of Mexico including the Baja California Peninsula. There are fourteen Mimus species, all of which are New World species, found mostly in Latin America.
In Santa Clara County, the Loggerhead Shrike probably looks most similar to the Northern Mockingbird, The mockingbird lacks the conspicuous black mask, the jet-black wings, the clean gray back and the heavy hooked bill of the Loggerhead Shrike. The California Thrasher sounds somewhat like a mockingbird. Be careful using sound to make an identification. When singing, the mockingbird tends to repeat phrases several times. The thrasher rarely repeats a song phrase more than 2 times before moving onto the next phrase.
General Information on the Northern Mockingbird
Listen to Songs #1 and #3 for phrases that are repeated 3 or more times. The “churr” alarm call of the Northern Mocking bird can also be heard here.
More on “Dick the Mockingbird”
More Backyard Bird Information
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Banner Photo: Northern Mockingbirds by Aaron Wippold
The Oak Titmouse’s perky personality combined with a fairy-tale crest on its head make it one of our cuter birds. They favor dry oak forests, but also occur in mixed conifer-oak forests and are frequently seen in backyards. Oak Titmice pair for life starting in their first year. They seek natural cavities and abandoned woodpecker cavities as well as backyard nest boxes in which to construct their nests.
Oak Titmouse with a fairy-tale crest by Dave Zittin
I call them “seed bandits” because they fly to my feeder, immediately grab a seed and fly off to hide on a branch where the seed is pinned to the branch with their feet. At this point the beak is used to hammer off hulls if present, and break the seed into smaller pieces. Once a seed is consumed, it returns to the feeder for another. Like the White-breasted Nuthatch, the Oak Titmouse may cache seeds for later consumption. The short, stout beak makes them proficient at obtaining food on bark and in bark crevices. They also glean insects on foliage in a manner similar to Chestnut-backed Chickadees.
The Oak Titmouse “Seed-Bandit” at work by John Richardson
What they lack in color, they make up for in sound. The songs and the calls of the Oak Titmouse are very much a part of the soundscape of our oak forests.
The Oak Titmouse is in the family Paridae which includes the chickadees, tits and titmice. The family is widespread, but the titmouse genus, of which there are five species, occur only in North America.
The Oak Titmouse is an omnivore. It readily consumes seeds from feeders. Nearby trees are an asset, providing a place where they can safely process food. They will feed from the ground, but prefer elevated feeders.
Oak Titmouse pair at bird bath by Hita Bambhania-Modha
The upper parts of Oak Titmice are a dull olive-brownish, the under surface is gray-white. It is a small bird with a short, broad crest. The crest is usually elevated and is an identification giveaway, but sometimes it is lowered, presenting a rounded head to observers. This can sometimes lead to misidentification. In our area, the small size and uniform gray color over the lower body make it easy to identify. The short, stout gray-black beak and the prominent black eye in a field of gray are also helpful.
Oak Titmouse with its crest down. This can sometimes lead to mis-identification. Photo by Dave Zittin
Oak Titmice make a variety of different sounds. The most common call is “tsicka dee dee” used by mated pairs to keep in contact with each other. Songs vary and my favorite sounds like a frantic “Peter, Peter, Peter!”.
Oak Titmice range from southernmost coastal Oregon to Northwestern Baja California. In California, they occur west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A disjunct population occurs at the southern tip of Baja California. The Oak Titmouse is common in Santa Clara County.
They are declining in number, especially in California, as oak woodlands are removed for housing, agricultural uses and fuel-wood harvesting.
Juniper Titmouse by Brooke Miller
The Juniper Titmouse and the Oak Titmouse are similar and were once thought to be the same species. Fortunately, their distributions are different over much of their ranges. The two species overlap in only one area, near Lava Beds National Monument in North-central California, just south of the Oregon border. Otherwise, the Juniper Titmouse distribution occurs considerably east of that of the Oak Titmouse.
Explore
All About Birds Oak Titmouse Overview
Listen to the two common songs and a call in the Audubon Field Guide: Oak Titmouse
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
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Banner Photo: Oak Titmouse by Steve Zamek
If I had to rank local birds based on cuteness, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee would be near the top of the list. Not only is it a beautiful bird, it is an amazing arboreal acrobat, moving with great agility through the canopy as it forages. It is often seen hanging upside down as it gleans insects from the bottom of twigs and leaves. When perched, they constantly look to their left and right.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee by Hita Bambhania-Modha
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee belongs to a genus (Poecile) of which there are 15 member species spread across the Northern Hemisphere. Six of these occur in North America. Chickadees are a member of the family Paridae which also includes tits and titmice.
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a nuclear species. This means other species are drawn to the sound and sight of its foraging which can lead to the formation of mixed flocks. I’ve referenced an article on why mixed flocks might be advantageous below.
Chestnut-backed Chickadees are cavity nesters and will readily use nest boxes. They are capable of doing some excavation if the wood is rotten, but usually use abandoned cavities of other species. They use fur in their nest construction and also make a fur blanket which is used to cover the eggs to keep them warm when left unattended.
Attracting Chestnut-backed Chickadees to Backyards
Drawing the Chestnut-backed Chickadee to your yard is easy; use suet or seed. They cannot crack seed with their beaks like finches do, so you will see them come and take a seed from the feeder, fly to a branch, hold the seed with their feet and peck at it to break it into smaller pieces or perhaps to remove a seed shell.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee carrying seed from feeder. Dave Zittin
Description
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a tiny bird with a big head and a round belly. Its back is colored with a rich chestnut-red and the black of its head and throat is separated by a white triangular patch. The flanks (the area just below the wings) are gray on Santa Clara County members of this species (subspecies barlowi). A different Chestnut-backed Chickadee subspecies (rufescens), is found in Marin County and north. It has distinct chestnut-colored flanks.
Santa Clara County local subspecies (barlowi). Note the lack of chestnut coloring on its flanks. Dave Zittin
Chestnut-backed Chickadee subspecies (rufescens) with chestnut-colored flanks found in Marin County and further north. Brooke Miller
Distribution
This species generally prefers damp coastal conifer forests, but not exclusively. They range from the end of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska down to Point Conception, California. There are inland populations that span the southern border of British Columbia and Alberta and south into Northern Idaho.
In the past 6-7 decades this species has been moving to the East Bay where it is generally less forested and it's hotter and dryer.
Similar Species
There are no similar species in Santa Clara County. The chestnut-colored back, the black cap and black throat make this species an easy one to identify. In fact, there are no other chickadee species in the U.S. with a chestnut-colored back. You might think you have a different species if you encounter the chestnut-flanked subspecies north of San Francisco, but they are the same species.
The wide spread Black-capped Chickadee. Note the lack of chestnut coloring. Dave Zittin
Explore
To learn more about Chestnut-backed Chickadees, read
All About Birds: Chestnut-backed Chickadee. As you cycle through the photos, note the chestnut sides of the northern subspecies.
To learn more about mixed species flocking, read
Birds of Stanford: Mixed Species Flocking
Birds and Blooms: Decoding Mixed Winter Flock Behavior by Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
Read our Notes and Tips from a Backyard Birder series
Tell us what you’re seeing in your yard! Send your notes, photos, and sound clips to backyardbirds@scvas.org. We’ll feature your submittals on our website.
Banner Photo: Chestnut-backed Chickadee by Brooke Miller
Have you found a baby bird on the ground, and are you wondering if it needs help? Sometimes baby birds need our help, but often, they don’t. Please read our new page on baby birds to find out when you can - or shouldn’t - intervene. Can you identify a hatchling, nestling, and fledgling? Learn how to in our post!
The Mourning Dove is one of the most abundant bird species in the United States. The U.S. population of this species is estimated at about 350 million. It is the leading game bird of North America and over 20 million Mourning Doves are taken each year by hunters. It’s no wonder they are so shy around humans.
The Mourning Dove. Note dark smudge on the face and dark spots on the wings.
Mourning Doves are members of the family Columbidae which includes pigeons and doves. As an aside, there is no biological distinction between pigeons and doves. Usually, large columbids are called pigeons and small ones are often called doves.
In May, Mourning Doves are busy reproducing which means a lot of nest building activity. The nest is usually a platform of loosely woven twigs and conifer needles. Last year we had a Mourning Dove enter our garage and I had to shoo it out more than once. It did not occur to me that it was trying to establish a nest there until weeks later when I was looking for something on a high shelf and much to my surprise there was a dove’s nest. Fortunately there was no evidence of eggs, I am sure that the nest builder I disturbed resumed building elsewhere. Some of us are fortunate to have nests we can watch as young are raised. Mourning Doves have two nestlings at a time and like other columbids, produce “crop milk”, a nutritious fluid that is fed to the young. Watching this feeding is quite a sight (see the Explore section).
Mourning Doves by Julie McKinnon
This dove gets its name from the mournful song or cooing of unmated males. I have had people think they are hearing an owl when in fact it was a Mourning Dove. When Mourning Doves take off, a distinct whistling sound is produced by their wings. The adaptive reason for this sound isn’t clear, but it is thought to be either a warning of danger to others in the flock or a means of startling nearby predators.
Attracting Mourning Doves to Backyards
Mourning Doves are easy to attract by throwing seeds on the bare ground. They are granivourous and will eat almost any type of grain. They rarely consume insects. They have a well-developed crop, an enlargement of the esophagus, in which a large amount of food material is stored before moving on to the stomach.
Mourning Dove by Steve Patt
Description
A bird with a full body, a small head and a long tail that tapers to a point. They are gray-brown or bluish-brown on top and buff-colored below. Large black spots occur on the upper wings. The beak is black and the legs and feet are a dull red.
Mourning Dove by Tom Grey.
Distribution
Mourning Doves occur in every state in the United States, as well as in southern Canada, northern Mexico, and the Carribean. They are partially migratory. Most of the Mourning Doves in our area do not migrate at all or may migrate relatively short distances.
Similar Species
There are four columbid species commonly seen in Santa Clara County: the Mourning Dove, the Eurasian Collared-Dove, the Rock Pigeon and the Band-tailed Pigeon. The introduced Eurasian Collared-Dove looks somewhat similar to a Mourning Dove, although it is easy to tell the two apart. The Mourning Dove has black dots on its back and a black smudge on its cheek. The Eurasian Collared-Dove lacks both but has a conspicuous black crescent on the back of its neck. The end of the tail of the Mourning Dove is pointed whereas the end of the tail of the Eurasian Collared-Dove is squared. They are also easy to tell apart by their sounds.
The Eurasian-collared Dove is larger than the Mourning Dove. Note the lack of dark smudging on the face, a black crescent collar at the back of the neck and the squared end of the tail. Photo by Edward Rooks.
The other two species, the Rock Pigeon (aka city pigeon) and the Band-tailed Pigeon have different colors, sizes and shapes and are easy to distinguish from the gray-brown Mourning Dove.
Band-tailed Pigeon by Tom Grey
Rock Pigeons by Curt Bianchi
Explore
All About Birds: Mourning Dove
Sounds
Listen to the California song and the wing sound recordings of the Mourning Dove
Listen to the song and calls of the Eurasian Collared-Dove
Video: Female Mourning Dove feeding crop milk to young birds
More Backyard Bird Information
View more common Santa Clara County Backyard Birds
Visit our Backyard Birding page
Read our Notes and Tips from a Backyard Birder series
Tell us what you’re seeing in your yard! Send your notes, photos, and sound clips to backyardbirds@scvas.org. We’ll feature your submittals on our website.
Banner Photo: Mourning Dove by Suresh Thirumalai
