SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIRD LIST DISCUSSION ARCHIVE 2026
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September| October | November | December |
Compiled by: Brooke Miller. Please email additions, corrections, or comments to Brooke at idbirds@me.com. Monthly reports are made up of eBird sightings, postings on South Bay Birds, and direct email reports.
Please post all your sightings at southbaybirds@groups.io and/or eBird. You can use eBird to follow first-of-the-year sightings. Due to the fact that not everyone uses eBird, not all sightings will be included, however. To see first-of-the-year sightings in eBird do the following:
Click on "Explore Data" at the top of any eBird page
Select "Explore a Region"
Type in "Santa Clara" and wait for the page to fill it in
Select "Current Year" and click "set"
Click on "First Seen"
Go back to the Santa Clara County Bird List 2026 or view all the cumulative year lists.
January
We started off 2026 with 169 countable birds seen on January 1, and a total of 206 countable birds for the month of January. The average for January 1st is 158, and the average for the month of January is 202. There were 2 birds that were not ABA-countable in January (see below). Thank you to everyone that birded, and took the time to report birds either on SBB, eBird, or send emails directly to me.
Of the countable 206 birds that were recorded for January, there were 2 birds rated as rarity (6), and 8 birds rated as rarity (5). As a reminder, here is what each rarity code means:
**Rarity Codes:
1 = common, always seen in habitat in season.
2 = fairly common, usually in habitat in season, but missed sometimes.
3 = uncommon, always around, but sometimes you can't find.
4 = rare, occurs yearly in the county, but not always in same places.
5 = very rare, does not occur every year.
6 = casual or vagrant, generally fewer than 10 records.
Rarity Code 6’s for January 2026:
Black Oystercatcher (6), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, at Shoreline Lake, seen by multiple observers
Pelagic Cormorant (6), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, in Salt Pond A8 but seen from Alviso Slough Trail, seen by multiple observers
Rarity Code 5’s for January 2026:
Black Rail (5), hidden date, location, and observer – ‘sensitive species’
Pacific Golden-Plover (5), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, along the entrance road to Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge in Alviso, seen by multiple observers
Red-naped Sapsucker (5), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, at Joseph D Grant County Park, seen by Brooke Miller
Brewer’s Sparrow (5), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, in Ann Verdi’s backyard
Vesper Sparrow (5), 2026-01-01, continuing from 2025, at the Calera Creek Trail gate at Ed Levin County Park, seen by Garrett Lau and Dave Weber
Clay-colored Sparrow (5), 2026-01-07, at TJ Martin Park, found by Garrett Lau
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (5), 2026-01-20, at Vasona Lake County Park, found by Dave Weber
Townsend’s Solitaire (5), 2026-01-28, at Mt Umunhum, found by Dani Christensen.
The 2 ABA non-countable bird for January were:
Mute Swan, 2026-01-02, continuing from 2025, in Salt Pond A18, by Garrett Lau
Scaly-breasted Munia, 2026-01-04, seen by Heba A, at Almaden Lake Park
My monthly reports are made up of eBird sightings, postings on south-bay-birds, and direct emails. The monthly cumulative lists are archived on the SCVBA website at https://scvbirdalliance.org/sc-county-cumulative-year-lists. Please post all your sightings to: south-bay-birds@groups.io or to www.ebird.org .
Please contact me if you find errors or omissions, or have questions or comments.
Brooke Miller