On the afternoon of December 4, 2024, I spent an hour or so in the yard observing and photographing birds. Perhaps the most interesting of my observations involved the Orange-crowned warbler that has been visiting the yard for several days, feeding from both the suet and peanut feeders and this day even visiting the platform feeder holding sunflower seed. 

I had six species of sparrows: Spotted towhees, Dark-eyed. (Oregon) juncos and House, Golden-crowned, a Song and a Fox sparrows. The juncos were by far the most numerous birds in the yard.  With the inclusion of White-crowned sparrows and White-throated sparrows seen earlier in the year, that brings the total number of sparrows seen in the yard for the year to eight.  

I had both species of kinglets, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned. Until recently the latter has been a rare visitor but this day I had two visits and I think one of the visits was by a pair. 

I had originally identified and published the following bird as another kinglet, but a keen-eyed friend of mine contacted me in February, 2025, and suggested that it was a Hutton’s vireo, a bird very similar in appearance to the Ruby-crowned kinglet as you can see from the two photos. He is right! Thanks so much, Jim, for the correction!

Two species of wrens, Bewick’s and Pacific, very briefly visited the yard but I was unable to get photos of either. 

At least two male Anna’s hummingbirds are visiting the yard. I have no way of determining if these two photos are of the same hummingbird,

I had multiple visits from one or more flocks of Bushtits. This one is a female but for what is probably a first in my Bushtit photography, I was able to photograph a male and female together.

Very late in the afternoon of the previous day (12/3/20214) I had a male Varied thrush feeding in the yard but there was no sign of the bird today. I thought the snow in the mountains would bring more of the thrushes down to the yard, but it hasn’t happened yet.