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 […]

Join the Marin Art and Garden Center for an event celebrating one of the most important species of the plant kingdom—the mighty oak tree. In this virtual presentation, Author Doug Tallamy will introduce his new book, The Nature of Oaks. Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going […]

In the early 2000s, LBGT rights were under attack; there was no marriage equality, and LGBTQ people often felt unsafe in the field. To build a veritable, ongoing community, a group of LGBTQ birders banded together to start what is now called QBNA—Queer Birders of North America. Local Bay Area birder Jennifer Rycenga spearheaded the […]

Sparrows are one of the most widespread bird species across North America—but the Song Sparrows of the San Francisco Bay aren’t just any ordinary backyard bird. These birds are the only Song Sparrows equipped to survive in the harsh, inhospitable environment of the salt marsh. Each arm of the Bay is home to a different […]

Our Sonoma County birds are real-life phoenixes, with many of them enduring one wildfire after another and adapting to a changed landscape each year. How does smoke and flame affect bird populations? What happens in a bird rescue center after a wildfire? Which species thrive after a burn? Join us to hear behind-the-scenes stories of […]