Birds of Mount Falcon

On September 29, seventeen members of the “Tuesday Birders” spent four and one-half hours looking for and counting birds at the West (upper) end of Mount Falcon Open Space Park. One hundred ninety-five individual birds, representing 31 species, were sighted. At the upper park’s elevation, about 7800 feet, both plains and mountain species can be seen.

The most common mountain species were:

nuthatches – 18 pygmy, 6 white-breasted, and 2 red-breasted; and

dark-eyed juncos – 18 gray-headed, 1 pink-sided, and 1 Oregon.

The most common plains species were:

robins – 15 American and

sparrows – 10 chipping and 2 juvenile whitecrowned.

Cooper’s Hawk. Photo by William H. Majoros (Wikipedia.org).

Black-Capped Chickadees. Photo by CheepShot (Wikipedia.org).

Hawks included:

1 Cooper’s,

2 red-tailed, and

1 American kestrel (it really is a falcon).

Woodpeckers included:

2 Hairy and

3 northern flicker.

Jays included:

2 pinyon and

6 Steller’s.

Chickadees included:

16 mountain and

3 black-capped.

Bluebirds included:

39 western and

6 mountain.

Finches:

22 Cassin’s and

2 lesser goldfinch

Other birds identified were:

1 turkey vulture,

1 black-billed magpie,

3 American crow,

1 common raven,

2 brown creeper,

6 Townsend’s solitaire,

1 yellow-rumped warbler,

1 western tanager, and

1 pine siskin. 

See also:

Mount Falcon Park 

Copyright © 2015 Ann Bonnell