Workshop Dates:
Nov 1 & 3, 2021
6:00pm – 8:00pm
$100 total per person for both sessions

This workshop will be a basis to identify the wintering sparrows in California, with a focus on the Bay Area. We hope to also give you a background to understand a bit about the biology, evolutionary history, migration, and behavior of our sparrow fauna. With regards to identification, we will give more details on the trickier species. Although this is not a bird sound workshop, we will dabble in the vocal aspects of sparrows, particularly those useful for identification or that are particularly interesting, such as the recent song change that is racing through populations of White-throated Sparrows. Apart from the classic field guide, “field mark” approach to identification, we will try to short-cut to holistic ways to identify sparrows by looking at the entire bird, shapes, impression, and facial expression to aid in identification. We are lucky to have a really varied set of sparrows in California that remain with us through much of the winter or move south towards us during this season. Unlike the warblers where most of them are gone in winter, the sparrows are often more abundant and diverse in winter in many spots in the continent, so take this workshop to prepare for the Christmas Bird Counts and a winter full of sparrow watching!