Ebird Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S123227225
Date: November 26, 2022
Location: 16th Avenue Tiled Staircase and Grand View Park
Latitude, Longitude: 37.75625° N, 122.47327° W
Elevation: 531.5 ft (162 m)
Site Description: This park has stunning views from downtown San Francisco all the way to Lake Merced. But the park has a dune plant community on top of a 140-million-year-old rock called Franciscan chert, which was first formed when the region was part of the sea floor. Millions of years ago, countless radiolaria combined with mineral dust blown from inland deserts to form layers of chert, which were later uplifted. This park has a small trail network, although most of the climb is made of wooden stairs. The short trail around the hilltop is made up of soft sand-like soil. The hill’s fragile plant community and animal habitat depend on stopping erosion.¹ The tiled staircase below it is also extremely beautiful to look at, but the important habitat is found on either side, where there are plants, shrubs, and small trees planted to restore the habitat. Although there is development, the staircase itself has fences. This is where I saw the scrub jay perched. A topographic map of the area is included below.²
Species Account: Anna’s Humminbird – Calypte annai (Species name), Caprimulgiformes (Order) > Trochilidae (Family). These birds are amongst the most common hummingbirds along the Pacific Coast, but they are striking with their iridescent emerald feathers and sparkling rose-pink throats. They are extremely small, no larger than a ping pong ball but make extremely strong impressions with loud impressive vocals for their size. In their thrilling courtship displays, males climb up to 130 feet into the air and then swoop to the ground with a curious burst of noise that they produce through their tail feathers. (I was actually able to see this again which was very cool.) Both sexes are sparrow-sized or smaller and are between 3.9 in (10 cm) in length and weigh about 0.1-0.2 oz (3-6 g) with a wingspan of 4.7 in (12 cm). Anna’s Hummingbirds are a blur of motion as they hover before flowers looking for nectar and insects. They are common in yards, parks, residential streets, eucalyptus groves, riverside woods, savannahs, and coastal scrub, and also come to feeders easily as well. Although this bird is abundantly seen thanks to widespread backyard feeders and introduced trees such as eucalyptus, Anna’s Hummingbirds can still fall prey to outdoor cats in gardens where flowers grow close to the ground.⁴
Picture from e-bird of Anna’s Humminbird.
Picture from e-bird of flying Anna’s Humminbird.
Narrative: I left around 8:30 and took the 5 bus and then transferred buses until I got to 16th avenue. Climbing up the tiled staircase was a lot of work – I am entirely out of shape. But there were many Anna’s Hummingbirds all around the place flitting around, especially near the shorter trees along the staircase. I climbed all the way up and then up another set to Grand View Park where I spent about another extra hour and a half before going back down and catching the bus home. I had a really difficult time identifying the Cooper’s, but I am reasonably confident it was one due to its size and color.
Additional Pictures: Uploaded a picture of the California Scrub Jay to e-bird.
Sources:
¹Grandview Park Trail. San Francisco Recreation and Parks, CA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://sfrecpark.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/Grandview-Park-Trail-400
² Elevation Finder. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://www.freemaptools.com/elevation-finder.htm
³ Anna’s hummingbird overview, all about birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Annas_Hummingbird/overview