There are often orange-crowned warblers picking bugs off one of our rose bushes. Below is a photo of one of them.
Orange-crowned Warbler
I've been seeing quite a few Swainson's thrushes, but they are very shy and hard to photograph. I was able to take a couple of photos of one of them. Below are the photos.
Swainson's Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
I've been seeing more black-headed grosbeaks around; mostly females. Below is a photo of one of them.
Black-headed Grosbeak
Below is a photo of a western scrub-jay pulling twigs off a dead tree for its nest. The scrub-jays always try to pull off branches that are too large for them. They reject the small twigs that they pull off. This can be seen in the video below the photo. The video would have been longer, but my camera turned off while I was filming (low battery).
Western Scrub-Jay
The bushtits built their nest a while ago. I saw a female gathering tiny bits of grass and followed her to a tree in my front yard. I found the nest, as well as the other helpers (the female's partner and two or three other males). Below are a photo of the female and a photo of the nest (the fluffy sack in the center). It has been very windy recently, but so far, the nest is fine and there are still bushtits visiting it.
Bushtit
Another tiny nesting bird was an Anna's hummingbird. My parents found the nest while on a walk with our dog. It's an extremely tiny nest about the size a bottle cap. It is very firmly attached to a chain-link fence. Below is a photo of the female sitting on the nest.
Anna's Hummingbird
The Allen's hummingbirds have started nesting as well. Below is a female.
Allen's Hummingbird
A pair of California towhees had a nest in the rose bush that the Bewick's wrens nested in last year. I know that they had at least one chick. Below are four photos. They are (in order) one of the parents in a catfood bowl, the two parents together, the chick, and their rose bush home.
California Towhee
California Towhees
California Towhee
The black phoebes have already nested. There are two young ones hanging around the yard. They are able to fly, but they are still being fed by their parents. Below are three photos and a video. The first photo is of one of the young phoebes. The second two are a parent and a young one (parent on left, young on right in first photo; parent on right, young on left in second photo). The video is of the parent feeding the young. A large cat appears in the bottom right corner. He didn't catch the phoebes; they flew away as soon as he came around the corner.
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