Birding California’s Big Sink with Eddie Bartley & Noreen Weeden Take a fast-paced virtual spin around one of California’s most important birding areas: the Salton Sink. Though much altered by humans in the past century, the endorheic or drainless Salton Sink (of which the Salton Sea is a major feature) holds magnificent bird diversity and […]

With California Young Birders Club Members – Joseph Zeno, Mark Schulist, Lucas Corneliussen, and John King Marin County hosts some of the best opportunities to see and find rare birds. You can see a new bird in Marin every time you go outside. As you grow as a birder and begin to be able to […]

Farallones‚ Minus The Seasickness with Alvaro Jaramillo The Farallon Islands are the most important seabird colony in the US Pacific Coast south of Alaska. Hundreds of thousands of seabirds breed there, and others forage nearby. We are lucky in the Bay Area, that Southeast Farallon Island is accessible on a one day boat trip, as […]

In an effort to promote bird knowledge and interest, OAS has partnered with author and bird expert Jon Dunn for a 3-part set of one and a half hour sessions on three consecutive Thursday’s from April 1 to April 15, 2021 starting at 7pm each night. Jon Dunn is one of the top birders in […]

Raptors Of Skaggs Island with Anne Ardillo & George Eade This virtual voyage will take you beyond the locked gates of Skaggs Island to learn about its many raptors — eagles, hawks, owls, kites, falcons, and more. A former naval base, now a part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge in the North […]

Treasures Of Mines Road with Steve Lombardi This virtual 65-mile round trip will explore all of Mines Road plus connecting portions of San Antonio Valley and Del Puerto Canyon Roads. They all run through the East Bay’s Diablo Range in an area virtually devoid of humans, but not of birds. Our virtual tour will take […]

Dr. Chris Clark will present ongoing research in his lab, starting with work on how hummingbirds make sounds with their tail feathers during courtship displays. Then he will shift to ongoing research he is conducting on why owls have evolved to fly quietly. Dr. Clark grew up in Seattle where he started birdwatching at age […]

Puzzling Pairs: An Id Workshop with Oliver James & Adrian Hinkle Spring is here—the perfect time to brush up on your ID chops! Need to recalibrate on the difference between female House and Purple Finch? Is the jury still out on whether that’s a pewee or a dreaded empidonax? Oliver and Adrian will break down […]

Behind The Gates At Hayward Marsh with Bob Lewis Stopping at the Hayward visitors center to pick up a key and enjoy the Barn and Cliff Swallows collecting mud, we’ll make our way to the gate to the Hayward freshwater marsh just beyond. We’ve been coming here for about 10 years now, and we always […]

Condors Of Pinnacles with Rusty Scalf & Richard Neidhardt The bird and the place are both national treasures. The California Condor is the largest bird in North America, recovering from near-extinction in the 1970s due to the pesticide DDT. Pinnacles National Park—a release and research site for these birds—is a 23 million-year-old rhyolitic volcanic formation, […]

Speaker: Daniel Edelstein Host: Doug Waterman Date: April 15th, 2021 Start time: 7:30 PM End Time: 9:30 PM Register for Zoom Webinar HERE Which wood-warbler species typically nest annually in in Marin County and the North Bay region? Which are year-round residents and when do returning spring migrant species arrive? And why do vagrant wood-warblers […]

Finding Rarities In The East Bay with Alex Henry The East Bay is home to an impressive variety of habitats—from vast tidal mudflats, to rolling grassland hills, to the pine-oak woodlands of the interior Coast Range. Corresponding to these varied landscapes is an incredible diversity of avifauna. Join us for a chronological exploration of the […]

Magic Of Mitchell Canyon with Maureen Lahiff Since riparian habitat is scarce in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mitchell Canyon, on the north side of Mount Diablo, is a magnet for migrating birds seeking a refueling stop. In addition to migrants, we’ll also see and hear a number of permanent residents and summer nesting birds. […]

Oaks support more life forms than any other tree in North America, and California’s oaks are no exception. In a presentation filled with woodpeckers, woodrats, Wood Ducks, and many other organisms, author and naturalist Kate Marianchild will explain why oaks play such an important role in oak woodland food webs. She will talk about animals […]

The Icteridae are the blackbirds, but they include many colorful species such as the orioles and meadowlarks as well as the all-black species, such as cowbirds and grackles. Some of the tropical species, such as the oropendolas are downright amazing-looking and sounding birds. This group of birds is only found in the Americas and they […]

Signs of spring: flowers, pollinators, and bird songs. If you’ve noticed more avian chatter, movement, and transportation of nesting material, it’s because it’s bird breeding season. Join the California Academy of Sciences to learn about how scientists monitor the health of California songbird populations and get a peek into the Academy’s stunning collection of eggs […]