Rockridge Birds

by James K. Sayre

Some of the more common birds found in the Rockridge district of Oakland, California, with a few notes.

Common year-round residents:

English Sparrows (typically live small flocks, probably extended families that live near a good food source, as a well-stocked bird feeder).

House Finches (typically travel singly or in pairs)("sing for their supper" very much like the Canary)

Mourning Doves (typically forage in pairs)

Pigeons (tend to stay in small flocks, and roost around the tops of buildings and other stuctures)

Brown Towhees (typically the last bird to roost at dusk) (a ground forager, that tends to avoid my feeding stations)

Anna Hummingbirds (very small fast moving birds, often hard to watch, hard to see and especially hard to identify)

Crows (may be seen singly, in pairs or in small flocks; very noisy birds) (the Raven, a close relative, is much larger and quieter, speaking with a low "croak")

Mockingbirds (males sing loud songs in the spring to define their territory and attract a female)(note: they also make completely different types of calls in the fall and winter).

Scrub Jays (typically travel singly, in pairs or in small groups)(groups of adolescent birds are typically quite active and quite noisy in the spring and fall)

Bushtits (typically travel in small family flocks, with an almost constant calling and chattering to keep in touch; typically eat insects found in mature shrubs and trees)

Chestnut-sided Chickadees (at my backyard feeding stations, they will only eat small black sunflower seeds; turning up their noses at any other kinds of seed)(they will often forage for small insects, such as those found in mature (overgrown) Fuchsia shrubs)

Starlings (typically forage and roost in small flocks).

Some less common year-round residents:

Black Phoebe (typically attracted to water: streams, lakes and even small pond; although I have observed them in places that do not have any obvious surface water)

Flicker (a large insect-eating woodpecker; sometimes seen, but more often heard).

Ravens (as I said above, Ravens are much larger than Crows; a few weeks ago, I watched two Crows chase and harass one Raven out of the neighborhood).

Sea Gulls (several different species live in the central Bay Area) (typically seen flying far overhead; probably commuting from Bay beaches to some of the inland lakes and rivers).

Red-tailed Hawks (sometimes seen locally, then have a reddish tail and they flap occasionally, which differentiates them from soaring Turkey Vultures).

Turkey Vulture (sometimes observed soaring high overhead, although I mostly see them out in central Contra Costa County)

Cooper's Hawk (or Sharp-shinned Hawk) (definitely a good-sized bird, especially when you see it perching on a fence post in your backyard!) (to date, I have not been able to definitively identify this rare visitor to backyard).

Western Bluebirds (a small bird, colored variously blue, gray and brown)

Lesser Goldfinches (less colorful relative of the brilliantly-colored gold, black and white American Goldfinch) (Goldfinches can be identified by calls and their looping-up-and-down flight pattern)(tend to travel in small flocks).

Some mostly-wintertime visitors:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (a small very active greenish insect-eating bird)

White-crowned Sparrows (seem to visit a little in the winter; won't come to the feeding station, but prefers to forage on the ground below the station for fallen seed)

Slate-colored Junco (seem to visit a little in the winter; won't come to the feeding station, but prefers to forage on the ground below the station for fallen seed)

Plain Titmice (each winter I have had one lone Titmouse show up on the feeding station).

Note: bird lists for Alameda County, California will encompass most all birds seen in the Rockridge district of Oakland.

End.

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This web page was recently created by James Sayre.

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Web page last updated on 7 March 2005.