Birds

Over 45 species of birds have been spotted or heard in the forest. The eucalyptus forestwith its dense understory of acacia, blackberry and ivy and 90 other plant species forms a rich environment for forest-loving birds. (In this connection: There’s an urban legend that eucalyptus kills birds through gumming up their breathing holes. That’s debunked here.)

Birder Keith McAllister  sent us a list of nearly thirty species from one day’s birding around the forest in late March 2010. From several other people, and covering several separate visits to the forest, we have yet more species. This, including the Great Horned Owl, brings the total to 46 species. (Scroll down for an illustrated list.)

Birding through the seasons might well yield more species that use the forest. Craig and Eileen Newmark, who live right next to the forest, have had 48 species visit their bird-feeders; many do not overlap with the list below.) According to the Cornell E-bird website (viewed in June 2014), some 61 species have been seen on Mount Sutro.

We’ve listed the yellow-rumped warbler as a single species. The International Ornithological Congress recently replaced it in the official nomenclature by four separate species. Two of them, the Audubon’s and the Myrtle have been spotted or heard in the forest. So far, the American Ornithologist’s Union hasn’t split the species.

Clicking on any picture usually gives a larger version.

BIRDS SEEN and/or HEARD IN SUTRO FOREST
(including Green Belt forest south of Clarendon)

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The List:

From Keith McAllister:

Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Band-tailed Pigeon
Anna’s Hummingbird
Allen’s Hummingbird
American Robin
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Hutton’s Vireo
Steller’s Jay
Scrub Jay (on house in residential area)
American Crow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Pygmy Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Hermit thrush
Varied Thrush (or Song Sparrow mimicking Varied Thrush?)
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing (in pine tree at forest/Twin Peaks boundary)
Townsend’s Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Lesser Goldfinch

From others:

OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER
CASSIN’S VIREO
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (Audubon’s and/ or Myrtle)
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK
PURPLE FINCH
BULLOCK’s ORIOLE
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET
VARIED THRUSH
SWAINSON’S THRUSH
HOUSE FINCH
WHITE CROWNED SPARROW
GOLDEN CROWNED SPARROW
WESTERN TANAGER
HOUSE WREN

Unless we’ve noted differently, the photos used to illustrate this article are in the public domain, mainly from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Special thanks to David Parsons, to Harry Fuller of Towheeblog, and to Craig Newmark (CN) of Craigslist, who lives on the edge of the forest, for permission to use their pictures. If anyone else would like to contribute pictures of birds, particularly from in and around the forest, we’d be happy to publish them.