THANKS TO NATURALIZED EUCALYPTUS, ALONG WITH OTHER IMMIGRANTS - SPECIES HAVE BEEN INCREASING!! The San Francisco Christmas Count total bird species data: Year # of species 1915 35 1916 72 1917 75 1918 61 1926 37 1930 88 1931 85 1935 70 1936 80 1937 86 1938 94 1939 102 1940 97 1941 65 1942 97 1943 107 1944 82 1945 89 1946 96 1947 86 1948 94 1949 97 1950 110 1951 114 1952 107 1953 111 1954 116 1955 105 1956 104 1957 117 1958 121 1959 120 1960 126 1961 130 1962 113 1983 176 1984 184 1985 177 1986 176 1987 180 1988 177 1989 193 1990 167 1991 149 1992 166 1993 174 1994 169 1995 166 1996 160 1997 165 1998 162 1999 164 2000 170 2001 167 2002 165 2003 173 2004 162 2005 170 2006 171 2007 169 2008 172 2009 159 2010 177 2011 176 2012 175 2013 184 I have reviewed the species data for the first six Christmas counts, which took place in 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1926, and 1930; and from the last six Christmas counts for which species information is available -- from 2007 to 2012. All of the species that were found during the first six counts were also found during the five year period from 2007 to 2012, with the following ten exceptions: Whistling (Tundra) Swan California Shrike California Horned Lark Dusky Warbler Scotts Seaside Sparrow Western Goshawk Ferruginous Hawk Red-Backed Sandpiper Western Kingbird Sitka Kinglet The following 115 species were found in the San Francisco Christmas Counts from 2007 and 2012, but were not seen in any of the counts from 1915 to 1930: Snow Goose Rosss Goose Brant Cackling Goose Domestic Goose Mute Swan Wood Duck Gadwall Eurasian Wigeon Blue-Winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Redhead Harlequin Duck Black Scoter Long-tailed Duck Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Domestic Duck/Mallard Hybrid Ring-necked pheasant Horned Grebe Red-Necked Grebe Clarks Grebe Aechmophorus Northern Fulmar Double-Crested Cormporant Great Egret Snowy Egret Osprey White-Tailed Kite Bald Eagle Accipeter Red-Shouldered Hawk Buteo Peregrine Falcon Clapper Rail Common Gallinule Semipalmated Plover Black Oystercatcher Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Spotted Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Willet Long-Billed Curlew Marbled Godwit Red Knot Dunlin Peep Short-billed Dowitcher Long-billed Dowitcher Red Phalarop Thayers Gull Glaucous-winged Gull/Western Gull hybrid Black-legged Kittiwake Forsters Tern Pigeon Guillemot Marbled Murrelet Ancient Murrelet Rock Pigeon Eurasian Collard Dove Red-Masked Parakeet Great Horned Owl White-throated Swift Selasphorus Red-breasted Sapsucker Red-breasted Sapsucker/Red Ringed Sapsucker hybrid Nuttalls Woodpecker Norther Yellow-shafted Flicker Dusky-capped Flycatcher Tropical Kingbird Stellars Jay Yellow-bellied Magpie Common Raven Tree Swallow Violet-Green Swallow Barn Swallow Oak Titmouse Pygmy Nuthatch Brown Creeper Rock Wren Winter Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wrentit Northern Mockingbird California Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Tennessee Warbler Orange-Crowned Warbler Nashville Warbler Yellow Warbler Black-throated Gray Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Palm Warbler Black-and-white Warbler American Redstart Worm-eating Warbler Wilsons Warbler Western Tanager Field Sparrow Savannah Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Lapland Longspur Rose-breasted Grosbeak Yellow-headed Blackbird Great-Tailed Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Bullocks Oriole Red Crossbill Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Evening Grosbeak House Sparrow Im no bird expert, but I think this data conclusively proves that San Francisco has far more ornithological biodiversity now than it did one hundred years ago, when there were far more native plants, far more grasslands, and far less tree habitat for birds. In other words, San Francisco is far more hospitable to a far wider range of bird species now than it was in the past. Im not sure exactly what policy implications can be drawn from this data, but at the very least such a striking comparison should inform policy decisions about how to manage the undeveloped open space in the city.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:29:19 +0000
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