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Birds of Fall

Our mild winters make Sacramento a favorite spot for many birds looking for a nice place to spend the winter. Fall is when we start looking and listening for those birds.
The ‘Crowned’ Sparrows:

There are two attractive sparrows you might attract to your yard with a ground seed feeder.  White-crowned Sparrows breed up in northern Canada and Alaska and return to our area each fall.  The first arrivals show up in late September.  They often return still singing their slightly eerie but lovely song.

A close cousin is the Golden-crowned Sparrow.  They breed in Washington State and along the Pacific coast of Canada.  They generally arrive here a week or so after the White-crowned Sparrows.  They sing a plaintive descending three-note song that sounds somewhat like, “oh…dear…me….”.
White-crowned Sparrow










Listen 		Golden-crowned Sparrow









Listen

 
Anna’s Hummingbird:

This is the hummer we have all year. They have to fight off breeding Black-chinned Hummingbirds in spring/summer and then deal with aggressive Rufous Hummingbirds who pass through in migration.  Fall is when they can finally relax (as if a hummingbird ever relaxes).  As the peak of flower blooming passes and the weather gets cooler, they will welcome a sugar-water feeder more than ever.

Woodpeckers:

A suet feeder is a great way to attract woodpeckers and lots of other birds to your yard.  Nuttall’s Woodpeckers are here year-round, but the striking Northern Flicker mainly breeds up in the mountains and spends winter in the valley.
Nuttall's Woodpecker
 Northern Flicker