Vol. 57 No. 3 (2026): Western Birds

From its last report through 2024, the California Bird Records Committee reached decisions on 208 records involving 179 individuals of 70 species and one species pair, endorsing 178 records of 167 individuals. The first accepted records for California of the Stejneger’s Scoter (Melanitta stejnegeri), White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), Blue Rock-thrush (Monticola solitarius), Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos), Siberian Pipit (Anthus japonicus), and Slate-throated Redstart (Myioborus miniatus) are outlined in this report. These additions bring the California list to 691 species. Other especially notable records detailed in this report include those of California’s second Xantus’s Hummingbird (Basilinna xantusii), second Jouanin’s Petrel (Bulweria fallax), second Oriental Greenfinch (Chloris sinica), second Tropical Parula (Setophaga pitiayumi), second and third Band-rumped Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates castro), third American Woodcock (Scolopax minor), and third and fourth Swallow-tailed Kites (Elanoides forficatus).

The San Gorgonio Pass is an important zone of interchange between desert and coastal flora and fauna in southern California. We report multiple recent observations of California Gnatcatchers (Polioptila californica) within the pass, apparently persisting since their first documentation in 1908. While the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (P. caerulea) has been documented here for more than a century, the occurrence of the California Gnatcatcher in this area is not widely known and not included in recent distribution maps for this threatened species. We also report the expansion of the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (P. melanura) into the pass in recent decades, forming one of the few zones of overlap between these two species. With its elevational gradients, vegetation mosaics, and shifting species ranges the San Gorgonio Pass serves as a potential refugium from various anthropogenic stressors including climate change. The pass is currently subject to piecemeal development and lacks any significant conservation areas. It deserves more comprehensive conservation planning attention.

Natural history observations of rare events can provide invaluable data about the range of variation in a trait or behavior. In birds, these fortuitous observations can help supplement scientific understanding of the timing and location of nesting behavior, events which are often difficult to observe. Reuse of cup nests is thought to be rare, but incidental reports document nest reuse both within and across breeding seasons. A chance instance of a female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) initiating a nest on our balcony in California was an opportunity to make detailed observations of nesting phenology with photos and videos. After successful fledging of this first nest, the same female immediately initiated a second nesting attempt in the same nest. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a female Anna’s Hummingbird reusing a nest in the same season, and only the second case confirmed through direct observations in any hummingbird species.

Birds’ responses to wildfire have been well studied in southern California and the Sierra Nevada, but less attention has been paid to central and northern coastal California, a region with frequent high-intensity fires. Using a combination of data from a structured point-count survey and incidental community-science data (eBird.org), we compare bird species’ abundance three years before and after the Kincade Fire, which burned 314.6 km2, including along Pine Flat Road in Sonoma County, California, in October 2019. The point-count protocol consisted of a 5-minute count at 16 points repeated three times per season in April and May for three years both before and after the fire (except for just a single survey in 2016). Of 42 species modeled, 10 decreased in abundance following the fire, most notably the Band-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata; 99% by both methods). The Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) colonized, and two, the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), increased according to both methods. As found in many studies of birds’ response to fire, the Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) increased sharply, though this was attested by the point counts only. For two species, the Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) and California Thrasher (Toxostoma redivivum), the trend per eBird data was a decline whereas the trend per point-count data was an increase. Trends in the abundances of the remaining 27 species were only weakly related (21 species) or unrelated (5 species) to the fire.

Surveys for the Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) during 18 field trips to four localities near the west base of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir in Baja California, Mexico, yielded detection of 42 individual vireos and 41 nests, 15 in various stages of use and 26 old. Arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis) was the plant most frequently found supporting these nests, and the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) was second, even though it has not been reported previously as a site of Least Bell’s Vireo nests. Other plants newly identified as supporting nests of this vireo were the single-whorl burrobrush (Ambrosia monogyra), hoary coffeeberry (Frangula californica tomentella), and holly-leaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia). Rancho Meling, where we found the most vireos, has long been known as a site for the species, but ranchos El Potrero and La Costilla represent newly identified sites. Only one of the 15 active nests had been parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater).

We report multiple sightings of Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) migrating through the Yaqui Valley of Sonora, Mexico, in fall from 2021 to 2023. The hawks occurred in flocks of up to 800, associating with Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura), Crested Caracaras (Caracara cheriway), and other birds foraging in farmland being plowed and tilled before the sowing of wheat for the fall–winter cropping season. On the basis of seven nests from 2023 to 2025, we also report the first evidence of Swainson’s Hawk nesting in the region, representing a southward expansion of the known breeding range by >250 km into the coastal plain of northwestern Mexico.