Skip to main content

Anna's Hummingbird and other San Francisco Birds

Image
By
I only birded for a couple of hours in Presidio Park while in San Francisco, but I was excited to see some birds I had never seen before.

Female Anna's Hummingbird:



Male Anna's Hummingbird:
I especially like this profile one:

The hummingbirds at Presidio Park were so fun to watch. I first noticed them as I was walking down the Park Presidio Blvd. corridor of sequoia redwoods. I kept hearing this weird wheezing noise and would stop to look for the bird but couldn't find it. It wasn't until I got into the main park, near Mountain Lake, that I realized that wheezing noise was coming from the hummingbirds!

I'm no expert at hummingbirds (and especially not West Coast ones) but Anna's Hummingbird was the closest match to my photos and is also very common in the Presidio Park.
I also saw my first Wilson's Warbler:

This was another tricky ID for me because I had trouble finding pictures where the black cap comes down the nape of its neck as you can see in the first picture.

I also saw my first Chestnut-backed Chickadee:



American Coot:

White-crowned Sparrow:

Labels:

Comments

meg said…
your picture taking skills are coming along great catie! those hummingbird pics are awesome! i put a hummingbird feeder out this year but have yet to see any birds. keep meaning to tell you we went canoeing mem day weekend and we saw a bluebird! now i know why you got so excited-they're beautiful! saw a pretty oriole too!
June 1, 2009 at 9:25:00 AM PDT
Unknown said…
I don't know if you are out there for good or just staying briefly but keep an eye out for Stellers Jays, the west version of a blue jay with a funny 'shak shak shak' call.

Anna's can be aggressive near a nesting area and will buzz you relentlessly until you get beyond their comfort zone. Another characteristic creature out there is the Acorn Woodpecker.

If you are going to be out there for a while, you'll want to do a road trip up near the Oregon Border as that is a species intensive region due to the incredible collisions of several biomes.
June 1, 2009 at 2:40:00 PM PDT
Cathleen Voss said…
@Meg- thanks! That's awesome you saw a bluebird- I saw some over Memorial Day weekend too while on the Cape with my parents. Hope to see you guys soon!

@Chris- thanks for the insight about the Anna's hummingbirds. I didn't see any Steller's Jays, but then again I wasn't looking for them. Thanks for the tips! It was just a business trip- not permanent, but I'll take your advice for next time.
June 2, 2009 at 7:00:00 AM PDT
dguzman said…
Cool! Can't wait to get out there for all these new birds!

And Meg's right--you're getting really good with the camera. I liked that profile shot too. It's funny how such a tiny bird can cut such a nice profile, one that's just unmistakable.
June 3, 2009 at 6:23:00 AM PDT
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Difference Between Grackles and Starlings

By
I saw a sad sight today during my lunchtime jog—a dead grackle. Or was it a starling? I'll get to that in a minute. I was making my way down to the trail along the Charles River when I saw what I thought was an injured bird in the middle of the road. It was just sitting there and I figured it was just stunned or maybe had an injured wing. The bird probably didn't have much of a chance, but the least I could move it out of the road. As I got closer to the bird I saw it had its mouth open and then I realized the gruesome truth—it was dead and was frozen in that position. I just got shivers thinking about it. The poor thing. Anyway, so it got me to thinking 'What is the difference between grackles and starlings?' I use the two interchangeably and haven't really made an effort to sort it out. Until now. I like to use All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as an online resource. The site is comprehensive and easy to use. (I also really like the 'Cool ...
26 comments
Read more

Using Birds to Control Tomato Hornworms

By
Here's a lovely macro shot of a tomato hornworm caterpillar taking a little break from gorging himself on my tomatoes. Ever seen one before? They're huge and pretty startling to come across when you're pruning your tomato plants. They blend right in, until you accidentally touch one- hopefully not with the horned end! This picture was taken near the end of the season so I wasn't SO upset, but I definitely want to prevent hornworms for next season. I started doing some research on how to get rid of tomato hornworms and the good news is you don't need to use insecticides or crazy home remedies- birds will do the work for you! This great website I found- the Yardener has a whole section about insect pests in the vegetable garden. According to the site, feeding birds year-round will help you control the tomato hornworm problem in your garden. For bird lovers, this shouldn't be a chore at all. Just keep your feeders full with desirable seed like black-oil sunflower s...
1 comment
Read more

Large-billed Crow pictures from Japan

By
These large-billed crow pictures come courtesy of my work colleague Phil who lives in Japan. He told me he had some great Japanese crow pictures, and the first thing I noticed about the bird was the large bill. I started doing some research to come up with the correct crow name. First I thought it was a carrion crow since those are a common type of Japanese crow, but the bill wasn't big enough. Then I found pictures of the large-billed crow and those were a match! Duh- "large bill"- it couldn't have been any simpler. These crows are also called jungle crows, but most of the birding sites call them large-billed crows. Phil said they can get really big, which I believe since American crows are huge sometimes. I have vivid memories of standing my in my parents Cape Cod kitchen doing dishes and getting spooked by something huge in my periphery on the deck. All it ever was was a giant crow, but really they can be scary when they get so big! Here are some interesting thing...
Post a Comment
Read more