One of the more striking birds of spring migration is the Western Tanager. And if you start seeing a little more black and yellow in your wooded areas in the next few weeks, it will be because this popular bird is passing through, possibly even setting up a nest. The Western Tanager spends the winter in southern Mexico and Central America, but breeds throughout the western United States and Canada. This is a bird benefits from Audubon California's work throughout the state -- it appears at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary, the Audubon Kern River Preserve, and anywhere where we're maintaining the vitality of open woodland habitats. Its arrival in California this month will be quite sudden, as we illustrate in the maps below (photo by USFWS):

This is the eBird map from the end of March of this year, showing a few sightings around the state. Most in the south:

And here's the map from the end of April 2011, showing wide distribution in California. This is what's going to happen: