The Sierra Nevada’s Western Birds in the Wild

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Jessica Feis photo

I’m a long ways from that college kid who worked summers for the Predatory Bird Research Group, helping release Peregrine Falcons back into the wild in The Sierra Nevada. Nonetheless those summers honed my eyes for identifying an eagle or falcon at distance in a glance.

 

While our Come Ashore adventures didn’t include official birding forays, I kept a good pair of binoculars at the ready under the passenger seat as we traveled through two national parks and more national forests and BLM land than I could count.

 

Despite time spent in Yosemite and along the East Side of the Sierra, I did not see a Peregrine this trip. Nonetheless, I was pleased with many of the sightings. Following is a list of birds IDed as we drove, hiked and played our way through California, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming this August (no real order here albeit vaguely grouped by family):

Crow
Raven
Wild Turkey
Turkey Vulture

Ferruginous hawk
Red Tail hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
American Kestral

Bald Eagle

Golden Eagle

Osprey
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Magpie
Steller’s jay
Scrub Jay
Clark’s Nutcracker
Loggerhead Shrike
Western Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer’s Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Gambols quail
Mourning Dove

Band-tailed pigeon

Cliff Swallow
Rough Winged Swallow
Cave Swallow
Avocet
Spotted Sandpiper
American Pipit
Killdeer
Canada Geese

Mallard
Gadwall
White pelican
 Brown Pelican
Western grebe
Pied bill grebe
Sandhill Crane
Cormorant

Common nighthawk

Brown Towhee

Black-chinned hummingbird
Broad-tailed hummingbird

Robin
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Pine Siskin
Dark-eyed junco
Mountain bluebird
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
House finch
Yellow-rumped warbler
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-faced Ibis
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