Yellow-headed Amazons in Imperial Beach

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Gary Nunn

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2013] – Driving out of (North) 7th Street in Imperial Beach this evening, I quickly pulled the car over to the curb when a magnificent pair of Yellow-headed Amazon Amazona oratrix came flying down the street right at me! Close views of parrots, wild or introduced, are always exciting and these birds were no exception. I hopped out, camera in hand, and ran back down the street. Larger in size than Lilac-crowned and Red-crowned Parrots, and stunning looking in canary yellow head plumage, it was easy to see why the pet trade had decimated their wild populations in Mexico in recent decades. Now massively reduced in numbers a population estimate, somewhat dated now from 1994, puts them at around only 7000 individuals left in the wild found in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. BirdLife International considers this species Endangered because of the precipitous population decline.

Yellow-headed Amazon – 7th St., Imperial Beach, California 16 July 2013

The pair of Yellow-headed Amazon sat together on the overhead line for a few minutes before disappearing into the greenery of a medium size and densely crowned pine tree found in a front yard on 7th Street. The resident with the pine tree in her front yard actually came out of her house and told me that the Yellow-headed Amazons had been coming to her pine tree for years. The bed of chewed up small pine cones under the tree evidenced her statement! She also mentioned there were more of them in past years, 4-6 birds sometimes appearing. But only two individuals came now, and almost every day at the same time! As I walked back to my car another resident of 7th St., watering his front yard nearby, smiled and told me more stories about the parrots. Evidently these birds are well regarded by the local residents of Imperial Beach!

Exotic brood parasite alert – Pin-tailed Whydah

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Gary Nunn

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2013] – I checked out several locations in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park today including a long look around the Community Gardens at Hollister St and Sunset Ave. There seemed an endless number of Song Sparrow and House Finch but in among the cacophony of calls I heard something distinctly different. After some stalking around the allotments, distracted by some good looking vegetables, I finally located the calling bird. I was surprised to find a female Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura, the first time I have seen this introduced cage-bird exotic in San Diego County. I recall this species being reported in Orange County, to our north, and searching the SDBIRDS archive reveals one or two other reports in recent years here in San Diego County. This well marked individual, showing off a bright pink bill and striped head pattern, seemed to behave wild enough and did not appear to have any feather damage or aviculture leg bands.

Pin-tailed Whydah female, Tijuana River Valley Community Gardens, San Diego 06 July 2013

The real mystery is where did this bird come from? It would be easy to explain it as a recent escape, but reports of this African species are definitely on the increase in Southern California. Surely they cannot all be escaped cage birds? Since the Pin-tailed Whydah is an obligate brood parasite, laying 2-4 eggs at a time in other species nests, if they are breeding around here what host species are they parasitising? In a recent Birding magazine interview, Kimball Garrett suggested the introduced exotic Nutmeg Mannikin Lonchura punctulata could be the host species here in Southern California. Numbers of the Nutmeg Mannikin are increasing quite dramatically at various localities around San Diego and this species is from the same family as the Whydah’s natural estrildine finch hosts back home in Africa.

Escaped cagebirds on the increase – Point Loma

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Gary Nunn

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2013] – I have been seeing a lot of introduced or escaped birds lately around San Diego. Reported earlier this year in Point Loma, both at the residence of Sara and Keith Mayers and in February near Famosa Slough, I just happened upon this European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis while getting into my car on Silver Gate Ave. I heard a twinkling goldfinch song, not quite right for our native species, and, sure enough, here was an iconic bird from my childhood in England singing from a small maple tree right over my car! The goldfinch eventually moved up to a higher tree perch and continued calling before flying off further away out of sight. This bird is of the nominate carduelis group of forms found throughout the Western Palaearctic, I think the most popular form kept in captivity.

European Goldfinch – Silver Gate Ave neighborhood, Point Loma, San Diego 07 May 2013

Just the other day I again heard the giveaway gurgling fluty call of a bulbul in the southeast corner of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Sure enough it appears to be the same White-eared Bulbul Pycnonotus leucotis that I ran into back here last year in June. Perhaps it does not make its way up to the cemetery very often, but I did also see a report in eBird from this location recently of this species! Easily recognized by its black-and-white head pattern, long tail and yellow undertail coverts, this bird is banded (blue left leg) and the call is loud and sounds typically like members of this genus of bulbul. This species originates from the Middle East and Asia with a widespread range extending from Kuwait through India and Pakistan. This individual is rather shy but I did obtain some photographs at a distance shown below.

White-eared Bulbul – Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego 01 May 2013

Tijuana River Valley expanding exotic – White-collared Seedeater

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Gary Nunn

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2013] – Finding the introduced exotic West Mexico “Cinnamon-rumped” form of White-collared Seedeater Sporophila t. torqueloa is now quite easy to do at the Dairy Mart Ponds, Tijuana River Valley Regional Park in San Diego County. This location, right on the Mexico border with the hillside slopes of Tijuana looking down in the distance, has harbored small numbers of this species for a number of years. The birds are assumed to have originated from escaped cagebirds brought to Tijuana since the nearest location they occur is Sinaloa, Mexico. This species is not on the California bird list. On a recent visit I found at least six males singing on territories around the ponds, as well as east across Dairy Mart Road following the riparian corridor towards San Ysidro. No doubt more birds exist further afield in the expanding willow scrub edging the drier areas. In this area the species can be found most often singing from quite well hidden perches between 15-25 feet up in willow trees. Look 5-10 feet below the top of the tree for the preferred hidden perch. They can be remarkably hard to see even when closely approached. Early spring, when the trees have not leafed out too much, is a good time to locate the singing males like the one below.

“Cinnamon-rumped” form of White-collared Seedeater – Dairy Mart Ponds, TRV, San Diego County 22 March 2013

The song of the “Cinnamon-rumped” form of White-collared Seedeater is fairly easy to pick out among the usual Southern California riparian bird species. Listen particularly for the beginning “sweee-sweee-sweee” phrase, which then goes into a fast tumble of varied notes, and ends with a couple more, less hearty, “tuweee-tuweee” calls. Parts of the song, particularly the middle portion, sound quite similar to Lesser Goldfinch, which is also commonly present around the Tijuana River Valley. A nice recording by Mexican birder Manual Grosselet, well matched to the Tijuana River Valley birds, can be listened to below.

San Diego Birding

Birding California and beyond with Gary Nunn

Category Archives: Introduced Exotic

Yellow-headed Amazons in Imperial Beach

Exotic brood parasite alert – Pin-tailed Whydah

Escaped cagebirds on the increase – Point Loma

Tijuana River Valley expanding exotic – White-collared Seedeater