The spotted towhee is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee. Literature before 1995 referred to the spotted towhee as a rufous-sided towhee that resides in the western United States. An archaic name for the spotted towhee is the Oregon towhee. The call may be harsher and more varied than for the eastern towhee.
The hooded oriole is a medium-sized New World oriole. The male of this species ranges in color from a bright orange to a paler yellow, with a black back, face, tail and bib, with the wing containing two white bars. The female is more of an olive color with some yellow accents.
The warbling vireo is a small North American songbird.
Say's phoebe is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. A common bird across western North America, it prefers dry, desolate areas. This bird was named for Thomas Say, the American naturalist.
Heermann's gull is a gull resident in the United States, Mexico and extreme southwestern British Columbia, nearly all nesting on Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California. They are usually found near shores or well out to sea, very rarely inland. The species is named after Adolphus Lewis Heermann, nineteenth-century explorer and naturalist.
The lazuli bunting is a North American songbird named for the gemstone lapis lazuli.
Virginia's warbler is a species of New World warbler.
Juniperus californica, the California juniper, is a species of juniper native to southwestern North America.
The black-capped vireo is a small bird native to the United States and Mexico. It was listed as an endangered species in the United States in 1987. Successful conservation efforts on the U.S. Army's Fort Hood and Fort Sill led to delisting the black-capped vireo in 2018. The IUCN lists the species as vulnerable.
The gilded flicker is a large-sized woodpecker of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, including all of Baja California, except the extreme northwestern region. Golden-yellow underwings distinguish the gilded flicker from the northern flicker found within the same region, which has red underwings.
The oak titmouse is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The American Ornithologists' Union split the plain titmouse into the oak titmouse and the juniper titmouse in 1996, due to distinct differences in song, preferred habitat, and genetic makeup.
The juniper titmouse is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The American Ornithologists' Union split the plain titmouse into the oak titmouse and the juniper titmouse in 1996, due to distinct differences in song, preferred habitat, and genetic makeup.
The pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal is a medium-sized North American song bird found in the American southwest and northern Mexico. This distinctive species with a short, stout bill and red crest and wings, and closely resembles the Northern cardinal and the Vermilion cardinal which are in the same genus.
The black-chinned sparrow is a small bird in the genus Spizella, in the New World sparrow family Passerellidae. It is found in the southwestern United States and throughout much of Mexico north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; most populations in the US migrate south after breeding while those in Mexico are resident. It is a slim, long-tailed bird, primarily gray with a reddish-brown back streaked with black, brown wings and tail, a pink beak, and brownish legs and feet. In the breeding season, the male shows black on his throat, chin, and the front of his face. Females, youngsters and nonbreeding males show little or no black in these areas. An unobtrusive bird, it spends much of its time foraging slowly along the ground, either alone or in small groups, sometimes mixing with other Spizella species. It is an omnivore, feeding primarily on seeds during the winter and insects during the summer. It builds a cup-shaped nest of grasses, rootlets, or plant fibers, into which the female lays 2–5 pale blue eggs. The female does most or all of the egg incubation, but both parents feed the hatched nestlings.
The green-tailed towhee is the smallest towhee, but is still one of the larger members of the American sparrow family Passerellidae.
The California thrasher is a large member of family mimidae found primarily in chaparral habitat in California and Baja California. It is the only species of Toxostoma throughout most of its range.
The mountain quail is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. This species is the only one in the genus Oreortyx, which is sometimes included in Callipepla. This is not appropriate, however, as the mountain quail's ancestors have diverged from other New World quails earlier than the bobwhites, no later than 6 mya.
The American gray flycatcher, or American grey flycatcher, or just gray flycatcher as it is known in North America, is a small, insectivorous passerine in the tyrant flycatcher family. It is common in the arid regions of western North America, especially the Great Basin. From sagebrush steppes to pinyon-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forests, this flycatcher forages for insects from shrubs or low tree branches.
The bridled titmouse is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
The pinyon jay is a jay between the North American blue jay and the Eurasian jay in size. The voice is described as a rhythmic krawk-kraw-krawk repeated two or three times. It is the only member of the genus Gymnorhinus. Its overall proportions are very nutcracker-like and indeed this can be seen as convergent evolution as both birds fill similar ecological niches. The pinyon jay is a bluish-grey coloured bird with deeper head colouring and whitish throat with black bill, legs and feet.
