Bear Divide Birding – D4, D5, D6, D7

   It’s our fourth and fifth day at Bear Divide this year, the species variety and total bird counts are both getting higher, but the greatest forces of Warblers are still not coming.

    Bear Divide is a flat area in a valley within the Angeles National Forest, where a huge number of birds migrate through. For more information about Bear Divide, please see the previous blog post: “Bear Divide Birding – D1“, or visit the Bear Divide website: https://www.beardivide.org/. 

    On the fourth day, there were really a lot of Lazuli Buntings, and the banding station was catching a bunch of Hummingbirds, and was allowing us to actually see the special tail feathers of the Rufous Hummingbird. Also, they even got a Costa’s Hummingbird, which was brilliant under the sunlight. We also got the first two Hermit Warblers, but they flew past very fast and I couldn’t get a photo of them.  

    Rufous Hummingbird is a super tiny climbing bird that doesn’t climb, smaller than half the size of a Yellow-rumped Warbler, with a typical Hummingbird shape, and looks exactly like an Allen’s Hummingbird. It looks so like the Allen’s Hummingbird that unless it was an adult male, no one can separate them in the field. The only thing that really separates them is the tail feathers. The tail feather #2 (from the middle) of a Rufous Hummingbird has a notch at the tip, and the outer tail feathers are slightly broader, which gives them different display calls. The Rufous Hummingbird males have a green top, a structurally colored throat that becomes orange in certain conditions. The rest of its head, belly, and back are rufous colored. The tips of its tail feathers and flight feathers are black, and the upper cover of the wings is green. Its breast and lower tail covers are white, and its eyes, beak, and legs are black. The females and immatures have a green top, back, upper tail covers, and upper wing covers, green striped throat, and the rest of their head, breast, and lower tail covers are white. The tips of its tail feathers have a black and white pattern, and its flight feathers are black. Its eyes, beak, and legs are black, and the rest of its body is rufous. They are usually found in every habitat of North America, feeding on nectar and small bugs. They are also very migratory and have the longest migration routes among all of the North American Hummingbirds.

    On the fifth day, it was at first just as normal and slow as the fourth day. But one time today, when we got back from the banding station, we saw some people looking down the canyon, pointing at something. IT WAS TWO MOUNTAIN QUAIL!!! We finally actually “saw” a Mountain Quail! It was so cool with the “exclamation point” on its head!