Autumn Rolls In with the Birds

Yellow-rumpled Warblers bring their brightness to our winter landscape (image: Wikimedia)

A week ago, I heard the first herald of winter. I awoke to Golden-crowned Sparrows slurring their sweet song in my backyard. That’s the first I’ve heard from them since they left for their spring nesting grounds in May. Fresh from Alaska and northwestern Washington, they have winged their way back to spend the winter with us in the Bay Area. Their song is often described as “oh-dear-me” or “I’m so weary” which led Alaska gold miners (in the 1800s) to call them the “Weary Willie” bird. Our mild weather encourages their favorite foods of seeds, berries, and insects which they eat on the ground. They’re even known to help control noxious weed species with their voracious appetites for weed seeds.

Golden-crowned sparrows spend the winter here and further south then migrate to their northern nesting grounds. (Image: Wikimedia)

While walking the dog a few days later, I spied flashes of yellow as a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers descended on my neighbor’s lawn from the Coast Live Oak street tree to scour for insects. They’re returning from their pine forest nesting grounds in the foothills and mountains of the Sierra east of us. They’ll spend the winter eating berries, seeds and insects. They’re one of the few birds that can digest the waxy berries of myrtle and bayberries allowing them to winter farther north than other warblers.

Hermit Thrushes are another special winter migrant. (Image: Wikimedia)

To top all of that off, a sweet little Hermit Thrush is back for the winter, kicking up the duff under my Camellia tree alongside our resident California Towhees, searching for insects. I’ve enjoyed seeing this bird or its offspring for at least ten years! I’d love to hear it’s flutelike song of “oh, holy holy, ah, purity purity ehh, sweetly sweetly” in my yard! It must be saving it for the nesting grounds. 

Though the days are definitely shorter and the time change this weekend will bring darkness at dinner time, my backyard birds bring a brightness to this time of year. Keep your eyes open for which birds might be visiting your neighborhood for the fall and winter, too!

Images from Wikimedia