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
February
I missed 1 bird in January, a Common Poorwill, in the Santa Cruz Mountains found by Dani Christensen, on 2026-01-23. That increased our January total from 206 to 207.
We had 10 ABA countable birds found in February, bring the total countable birds for the year so far to 217. The average number of birds found in February is 9, and the average at the end of February is 211. Thank you to everyone that birded, and took the time to report birds either on SBB, eBird, or send emails directly to me.
The 10 new birds found in February were:
American Bittern (4), 2026-02-01, found at 3 separate locations (Coast Casey Forebay, Grant Lake, and Sunnyvale WPCP East Pond, by multiple observers
Lesser Black-backed Gull (5), found by Marty Freeland at Salt Pond A13, on 2026-02-04
Sanderling (4), 2026-02-04, found by Marty Freeland at Salt Pond A13
Cassin’s Kingbird (4), seen by Garrett Lau on 2026-02-09, along San Felipe Rd
Ring-necked Pheasant (4), seen by Garrett Lau on 2026-02-13, at Harvey Marsh
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (2), seen by Dave Weber on 2026-02-17, at Ed Levin County Park-Spring Valley area
Common Murre (5), found by Aaron Srugis on Salt Pond A3W on 2026-02-19
Red-necked Grebe (5), found by Eve Meier on Chesbro Reservoir on 2026-02-20
Glaucous Gull (4), found by Garrett Lau on Salt Pond A13, on 2026-02-24
Rufous Hummingbird (3), found on 2026-02-27, by Abhinav Saha, at his residence near N De Anza Blvd and Highway 280