By Bob Lewis
In 2004, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published the second edition of its Handbook of Bird Biology, a hefty volume of 11 chapters. It was in black and white, and Cornell offered a companion mail order course that seemed tempting to some at Golden Gate Bird Alliance, but at the same time appeared daunting. Della Dash suggested we assemble a study group, and I ended up leading two year-long groups of future bird biologists as we strove to qualify for our Cornell certifications. Those of us who succeeded became some of the 15,000 students from 65 countries who placed the certificate on our wall. In 2010 the book went out of print, and Cornell no longer supported the mail order class.
In 2013, after Jack Dumbacher had joined the GGBA Board, we embarked on a different approach to teaching bird ID and biology, offering our first Master Birding class at the California Academy of Sciences. Taught by Jack, Eddie Bartley and myself, with occasional guest lecturers, we are now completing our fourth year, each year with 20 registrants in the class. Although the class has evolved, much of it was based on Cornell’s Handbook.
A few weeks ago, the third edition arrived. Edited by Irby J. Lovette and John W. Fitzpatrick and published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., it is a thing of beauty.
Third edition of the Handbook of Bird Biology
With glossary and index it runs over 700 pages, and contains 15 chapters authored by 18 expert ornithologists. Five of the authors extensively revised their second edition contributions, while 13 contributed entirely new material. Many of the references in the new volume are post-2012, with some from 2016, covering recent advances in bird biology well. Also new to this edition are 1,150 color photographs, illustrations, and figures, adding much to the updated text. The second edition had a definite East Coast bias, with most examples coming from that area. The third edition approaches issues globally, picking illustrative examples from birdlife worldwide.
Illustration of how blue feathers come from the structure of keratin proteins, rather than pigments. From the Handbook of Bird Biology by Andrew Leach.
 
The Royal Flycatcher’s facial bristles help detect prey during aerial foraging, by Andrew Snyder.
Chapters cover Bird Classification, Evolution, Flight, Anatomy, and Physiology. Behavioral aspects include Food and Foraging, Mating and Social Behavior, Song, Breeding Biology and Migration.…

By Alan Hopkins

I awoke to the clanging and clashing of the garbage trucks outside my window. It was 2 a.m. When I listened carefully, I could also hear tires splashing on Manhattan’s rain-wet West 22nd Street below. Not what I wanted to hear. The alarm was set for five; I needed my sleep for the long day ahead. But I tossed and turned. I wondered, Would I see any birds? Would I miss our flight? Would I get soaked and have to spend five hours wet on the plane?

Then I had a small epiphany. I should get off the subway at 72nd Street and not 86th Street as planned! Eventually I fell asleep and eventually the alarm went off at five. I dressed in the bathroom to keep from waking my wife Julie. I grabbed my pack and headed for the elevator.

I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this crazy New York to San Francisco Big Day again. The idea was to see birds in Central Park in the morning, hop on a plane, and bird in San Francisco in the afternoon — while raising money for Point Blue’s Rich Stallcup Bird-a-thon. I’d done this bicoastal Big Day once before and had a good morning in the park but was squeezed in San Francisco by a very slow shuttle and fog along the coast.

I’ve done many and varied big days before. Dan Murphy and I started the Bird Blitz some time in the early 70s before county listing was in vogue. Our Golden Gate Bird Alliance team, the Loonaticks, did GGBA bird-a-thons that started in Los Banos and ended in Pescadero to raise funds to save Mono Lake. I’ve been doing San Francisco County big days to raise funds for research on the Farallon Islands for more years than I can count. Our best — and the S.F. Big Day record — is 149 species.
It just happened that I was in New York the weekend we usually do our S.F. County big day. And it just happened that Julie arranged our flight back to San Francisco in a way that would allow me a bit of birding time in the morning and a bit more time in the afternoon. It was clear that I needed to try this exotic big day again. After all how many times can you see Great Black-backed Gull, Heermann’s Gull, Blue Jay, California Scrub Jay, and Steller’s Jay all in the same day? …

By Ilana DeBare
Fall is a great time to create a garden that attracts birds… and we’ve got some resources to help!
We just published a new version of our brochure on Inviting Wildlife Into Your Backyard — now with versions focused on San Francisco, the East Bay, and in Spanish. Download the version of your choice or pick up a paper copy from our office. It includes a short list of native plants that support Bay Area birds, gardening tips, and local nurseries specializing in native plants.
Some other good resources:
National Audubon Society just rolled out a terrific interactive web site called Plants for Birds that will help you select plants native to your region of the country. It also allows you to see which bird species are attracted to a particular plant, and offers lots of gardening tips.
From NAS’s Plants for Birds web site
San Francisco’s Department of the Environment has a web site focused on gardening to support pollinators — bees and butterflies, as well as birds.  You’ve probably read how bee populations are under severe stress worldwide. One way to help them is to avoid the use of neonicitinoids, pesticides which may harm pollinators. The SF Environment web site includes a list of nurseries in San Francisco, the East Bay, and North Bay that don’t use neonicitinoids.
The SF Plant Finder web site will help identify native plants suited to the terrain in your part of San Francisco.
Bringing Back the Natives offers monthly East Bay workshops in selecting native plants, as well as a springtime tour of inspiring native-landscaped gardens.
Allen’s Hummingbird by Bob Gunderson
And… this weekend offers great opportunities to buy native plants! In the East Bay, seven native plant nurseries including the U.C. Botanical Garden are holding a special Native Plant Extravaganza sale on Sunday, October 23. Many of these nurseries are only open to the public once or twice a year: Click here for details and directions.
In San Francisco, the Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society is extending its fall plant sale to this Saturday, October 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 2207 26th Avenue.
Get started planning or planting now for a beautiful, bird-filled garden in the spring. Let us know what you plant and how it goes! Or — if you already have a garden that attracts birds — tell us about it.…

By Anne Hoff
Sitting on a plastic mat on a pebble beach, the wind blowing at 30 miles per hour from the north, I join a line of thirty warmly bundled birders watching the wild Bering Sea. A slight windbreak is provided by the line of all-terrain vehicles along the flat ridge of the beach behind us. Though the temp is 40 Fahrenheit, it’s cold!
Thus begins a birding day at the Siberian Yupik village of Gambell on the Northwest Cape of treeless St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. The population of 680 native residents swells for a few weeks from mid-May to June and from mid-August to October each year by up to 50 non-islanders who seek a view of birds found nowhere else in North America, as well as surprise Asian vagrants that draw big-list birders.
Part of the Bering Land Bridge during the last Ice Age, St. Lawrence Island is about 20 miles by 100 miles. It now lies 45 miles off the coast of the Chukotsk Peninsula of Siberia and 195 miles WNW of Nome. (You truly can see Russia while doing a sea watch!)
I travelled there as part of a ten-person, 11-day tour with Wilderness Birding Adventures. We flew to Nome and then transferred to a 12-seat plane for the flight to Gambell. Luckily, all of our food — omitted from our flight due to weight limitations — arrived on the next flight.
When the tiny plane door opened, tour guide Aaron Lang looked in and said, “Are you Anne?” It turns out that I was the only newbie to this company and one of only two new to the island. Aaron knew everyone else on the tour and most of them knew several others. I discovered that Gambell birding etiquette required that everyone who wanted to see a bird sighted by anyone in any group on the island be summoned by radio while the finder “sat on” the bird and held off photographers who risked flushing the bird while others raced to the site. This fits the definition of “chasing birds.”
Aaron’s first announcement was, “There’s a Gray-tailed Tattler just reported from along the lake just down the airstrip, so instead of going to the house first, we’ll head down to find it.” We left our luggage on the tarmac (no terminal) and climbed aboard the “birder’s bus”, a two-wheeled open-air cart holding six passengers pulled behind an ATV (also known as “four-wheeler”).…

By Jess Beebe
Most people think of Point Isabel primarily as a dog park, and indeed it features one of the largest and most scenic off-leash dog areas anywhere. But this park is also the gateway to a premier birding destination, offering access to a delightful stretch of the San Francisco Bay Trail that meanders through a restored salt marsh and slough and past expansive mudflats.
Tires, shopping carts, and chunks of concrete remind us that this place – like many shoreline parks – has a checkered history of human use. (It was acquired by the East Bay Regional Park District in 1975 to offset the construction of the neighboring Postal Service facility.) Here, as elsewhere, the Bay Trail runs parallel to a busy freeway. Yet the place has a wild beauty that transcends the heavy impact by people, both past and present, and makes it a worthwhile destination even for nature lovers who generally prefer more pristine places.
The mudflats and salt marsh provide outstanding habitat for shorebirds year-round and ducks in winter. Upland habitat hosts warblers and other songbirds. But without a doubt, the star resident is the Ridgway’s Rail. This species was known as the Clapper Rail until 2014, when the West Coast population was declared distinct from Gulf and Atlantic populations and given its own name. The interpretive displays along the Bay Trail still refer to the birds as Clapper Rails. Whatever you call this species, it is classified as endangered, both federally and in California, mainly due to habitat loss.
Tidal channel west of the Bay Trail near Point Isabel / Photo by Jess Beebe
Ridgway’s Rail (formerly California Clapper Rail / Photo by Bob Lewis
Rails are known for their secretive habits. They spend much of their time hidden deep in the salt marsh, venturing out onto the muddy banks of the channels only occasionally, and often for just moments at a time, before disappearing back into the marsh.
I saw my first Ridgway’s Rail on a trip to the Upper Coast of Texas. A fellow birder had told me that they could reliably be seen alongside a certain road on the Bolivar Peninsula. Determined to finally lay eyes on one of these elusive birds, I brought a sandwich and staked out the muddy marsh edge. About two hours later, a rail appeared. Having seen that rail – if only briefly – I felt more confident searching for them at Point Isabel, and later that season I spotted one there, too.…