County Checklist
The Santa Clara County Bird Checklist (PDF) is a comprehensive listing of the birds of Santa Clara County with frequency through the seasons, compiled by Bill Bousman.
What to Look For Now
Timely guides to potential bird sightings throughout the year, with helpful identification tips and insights by our Executive Director Matthew Dodder.
Birding Life
Chuq von Rospach, local bird photographer, SCVAS volunteer and creator of Silicon Valley Birding has written an ebook about his birding experiences and why he birds. The book features essays along with many gorgeous photos from Merced National Wildlife Refuge and other California birding locations. The book is free to download. Check out And the Geese Exploded: A Life with Birds!
County Challenges
Once you’ve visited many of the county parks, studied the breeding bird atlas, and done a few Audubon Christmas Bird Counts, you may be thinking “what else is there to learn about the county avifauna?” Here are a few fun projects to think about, organized by season.
Birding Coyote Valley
Stretching between south San Jose and north Morgan Hill, Coyote Valley provides important habitat for many resident and migratory birds. In order to demonstrate the ecological importance of Coyote Valley, biologist Merav Vonshak, Ph.D. collaborated with Ryan Phillips of De Anza College and our environmental advocate Shani Kleinhaus, Ph.D. to compile a list of birds that reside in and migrate through the valley. Natural history information, such as habitat and diet, conservation status, nesting status, and migration status are also included in the study. We hope the results of this project serve as a valuable resource to birders and policy makers in Santa Clara County. Results of the study are below:
Birding San Jose
SCVAS volunteer, Christine Zack, utilized bird sightings recorded with eBird, the Breeding Bird Atlas of Santa Clara Valley, and South Bay Birders Unlimited in order to compile a list of the bird species that frequent the Downtown San Jose area. The list includes species status in the Downtown Creek Area, U.S Fish and Wildlife Status, and California Status, and also indicates species on the Audubon watch list and State of the Birds watch list. We hope Christine’s project will demonstrate the ecological importance of the Downtown San Jose area, and serve as a useful resource for birders and policy makers.
Peregrine Falcons nest on the roof of San Jose City Hall, which has set up two nestcams where you can watch their behavior live.
Birding Santa Clara Valley
Our Guide: Birding at the Bottom of the Bay
Santa Clara Valley is known for its wide diversity of natural habitat including acres of redwoods, creeks, mixed oak woodlands and grasslands as well as tidal salt and fresh water marshes. It's the perfect place to look for and enjoy our large variety of bird species.
The map below is from Birding at the Bottom of the Bay, our guide to the best publicly-accessible birding sites in Santa Clara Valley. The numbers indicate birding areas discussed in the book.
Click the red numbers in the image for excerpts from Birding at the Bottom of the Bay
ABA Code of Ethics — the authoritative word on ethical birding
Bird Google — a self-guided birding map and tour of Google’s Mountain View campus
Silicon Valley Birding — Visit this detailed website with lots of great additional resources for birders in the county.
South Bay Birders Unlimited — A collection of information about birding the South Bay, including some great maps of the salt ponds and historical data. Includes links to other interesting birding resources. Managed by Kendric Smith.
Adventure Travel — We periodically offer multi-day domestic or international trips featuring knowledgeable leaders to destinations that are popular for birding and wildlife watching.