California spring is very much in full swing, and most of the migratory breeding birds have returned to the state. However, every year it takes me some time to track down all the new arrivals. I thought it would be fun to talk a bit about the migratory species that I found for the first time this year during my stay at Sedgwick Reserve, in Santa Barbara County, California. I’ll order them by how far they’ve come to get here.

Tricolored Blackbirds are a threated species is almost exclusively found in California throughout the year. They are nomadic, moving around the Central Valley in the winter. Many stay there to breed in marshes and croplands, sometimes in colonies of tens of thousands. A few hundred birds breed at Sedgwick, making the short trip every March to a small cattail-filled pond they share with Red-winged Blackbirds. Strangely, the two blackbird species seem to have divided the pond down the middle with very little intraspecies conflict–Trikes to the north, Red-wings to the south

Costa’s Hummingbirds also migrate to Santa Barbara from just a couple counties over. The closest locations that regularly have this species in the winter are the sage scrub covered hills above Los Angeles. In springs when the desert super blooms, most Costa’s will take advantage of all the delicious nectar and spend the spring and early summer there. In these years of bounty they can double or even triple clutch. This year saw extremely low precipitation across the desert. Therefore, more Costa’s may end up wandering west rather than staying east.

Lawrence’s Goldfinchs are another nomadic species. They tend to winter in the deserts of California and Arizona, returning to the oak woodlands that ring the Central Valley in March. However, their numbers at any one place fluctuate wildly from year to year as they follow large blooms of their favorite food–fiddleneck (Amsinckia)seeds. Despite far below average rainfall here, it strangely seems to be a good year for both fiddleneck and finches. As the fiddleneck finishes setting seed, some of them may follow the bloom into Northern California before heading back east for the winter.

Lazuli Buntings have just recently joined us here from the weedy fields and thorn scrub of nearby western Mexico. In southern California, they like brushy hillsides, and seem to do quite well in recently burned areas. Each beautiful turquoise and ochre male sings an individualized three-part song in hopes of attracting an extremely drab-colored female. Once breeding is over, Lazuli Buntings will fly to Southeast Arizona or neighboring Sonora for fall, where they’ll molt while chowing down on the seeds and bugs produced by the summer monsoons there. At the end of fall, they’ll head southwest, completing their unique triangle migration.

A few Bullock’s Orioles winter in coastal southern California, but most likely the ones I’m seeing here arrived a few weeks ago from woodlands in central Mexico. They are already hard at work building their hanging, woven nests. California Lace Lichen seems to be a key component, but one I found by the barn has also integrated some nylon rope and shreds of tarp. Bullock’s Orioles primarily breed in cottonwood trees throughout much of their range, but in California, they also nest in Valley Oaks and Sycamores. The important requirements are big, widely-spaced trees full of lots of tasty caterpillars.

Black-headed Grosbeaks also like foraging in and singing from the tree tops, but a closed canopy forest or suburban garden suits them better than the open savannah here at Sedgwick. The male I saw stopping for a bath at one of the station water-features was probably planning to continue on. The final destination could be as close as the forests just up the road or as far as Southern British Columbia. He was coming from somewhere in central Mexico, where some of his kin are resident, never bothering to take the trip north.

Black-throated Gray Warblers and MacGillivray’s Warblers have similar ranges to the Grosbeak, both in winter as well as summer. Both warblers, like the Grosbeak, are just passing through the area to points north. However, their preferred habitats are quite different. Rather than tall broadleaf trees, Black-throated Grays prefer open pine forests with a brushy understory, and MacGillivray’s like streamside thickets of willows. They also eat different things. A gross (fat) beak is great for crushing fruits and berries, while a tweezer-shaped warbler beak is perfect for finding little spiders and other bugs amongst the leaves.

Western Kingbirds flew in from somewhere from Southern Mexico or Central America a few weeks ago. Here, they joined the closely related Cassin’s Kingbirds who had previously made the much shorter journey from Baja. Despite their aggressive attacks on other members of their species, and even birds of prey, the two species seem to leave each other alone. I’ve never seen a Western go after a Cassin’s or vice versa.

Western Wood-Pewees make among the longest journeys of the songbirds that breed in Southern California. They all winter in forests in northwestern South America, where they possibly spend time with their close relative, the Eastern Wood-Pewee. We actually don’t fully know how much the winter ranges of the two species overlap, because they look extremely similar and tend not to use their distinctive voices while overwintering. It’s also unclear what’s wrong with all the seemingly suitable habitat found throughout central America. The long commute makes them one of the later species to make it to their breeding grounds. The one individual spotted at Sedgwick during my week there was a vanguard of the main force that will arrive in early May.