Ornithology 2B Summary (Spring 2011)

If you miss a class, please check this page and study the listed topics in your field guide. Click here for last year's calendar.

Class notes by Elisabeth Koster are here. (Plumage and molt terminology here. )

Please register at eBird and email me your eBird ID. I can then offer to share field trip lists with you.


May 18
We completed and reviewed the Old World Flycatchers and Thrushes on pages 350 & 352. Bluethroat photos from San Clemente Island. Click here for photos of the Taiga Flycatcher at Putah Creek. Click here for a photo and link to my detailed notes on a Northern Wheatear in Sonoma County. Stonechat photo from San Clemente Island.

Playback in birding - David Sibley's take.

This was be the last class for the semester. Please preregister, after July 1st if you plan to enroll in the Fall. Click here for details.


May 11
We completed and reviewed the Old World Warblers on page 348.


May 4
We completed and reviewed the gnatcatchers on page 346. Male Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on nest at Mt. Diablo.. Click here for a photo of a Black-capped Gnatcatcher in Arizona. Male California Gnatcatcher in Ventura County.

April 27
We completed and reviewed the dippers and kinglets on pages 344-346.

April 20
We completed and reviewed the wrens on page 344.


April 13
We completed and reviewed the wrens on page 342. Click here for a photo and discussion of a House Wren. My House Wren photo and discussion from Ohio. House Wren photo and discussion from Tobago. Pacific Wren photo and discussion; additionl photo here. Bewick's Wren photo; additional photo here.

Sibley articles:

Click here for photos and discussion of Sinaloa Wren in Arizona.


April 6
We completed and reviewed the creeper and nuthatches on page 340. My Brown Creeper photos are here and here (nest with fledglings).

Sibley ID articles:

My White-breasted Nuthatch photos are here, here and here. Red-breasted Nuthatch photos are here (scroll down). Pygmy Nuthatch pictures are here and here.


March 23
We completed and reviewed the verdin and bushtit on page 338. Click here and here for my photos of fledgling bushtits.

This was the last class for Part A. Please register for Part B as soon as possible if you have not already done so.


March 16
We completed and reviewed the chickadees on pages 336-338. Click here for additional information on distinguishing Black-capped and Carolina chickadees. An outline of a proposed split of Mountain chickadee is here. Actual AOU pending proposal here.

Sibley ID articles:


March 9
We completed and reviewed the titmice on page 334. Oak Titmouse photo from our recent trip to Lake Merritt is here. Click here for photos and discussion of possible hybrid Oak X Juniper titmice at Lava Beds N. M. Click here for my photo of a Black-crested Titmouse in Texas including my thoughts (rant?) about the AOU split. .

March 2
We completed and reviewed the swallows on page 332. David Sibley has illustrated articles on Mexican Cliff Swallows and Cave Swallow subspecies. Click here for my photos of Barn Swallows in Ohio. A photo and discussion of California's first Cave Swallow is included in the 15th report of the CBRC here. Click here for a Cave Swallow at the Salton Sea, and click here and maybe here to answer the late Roger Higson's question, "why I do not have a picture of a Cave Swallow ?"

The Slater Museum wing collection has a picture of the Rough-winged Swallow's rough wing.


February 23
We completed and reviewed the swallows on page 330. My photo of an adult male Tree Swallow at a nest box is here. Click here for my photo of nestling Tree Swallows and a discussion of the strategy used to keep swallows from using boxes intended for bluebirds. Click here for photo and discussion of a female Violet-green Swallow. Click for my photos of a male and female Purple Martins in Ohio. My photo of a Gray-breasted Martin in Belize is here.

Article on Tree Swallow pre-migration roost sites in the Central Valley here.

An online version of Ridway's Color Standards and nomenclature is available here.


February 16
We completed and reviewed the larks on page 328 and began the swallows on page 330.
February 9

We began the larks on page 328. Click here for a photo (with Smith's Longspur comparison) of the Point Reyes Sky Lark. Click here for a pdf of my detailed article with Dick Erickson on that bird. Photos of a Sky Lark in Washington State are here.