Starting to see lots and lots of new sightings of Hooded Orioles on the birding listservs. We've been tracking the birds' northward push for several weeks and the map is really filling up with them. As we've said before, now is really the best time for them to be arriving from their wintering grounds in southern coastal Mexico. Ultimately, they will be seen throughout Southern California and the western part of Northern California. And that's what the eBird maps are showing now. Check them out below:
Here's the map from February, showing hardly anything:
Then, on March 27, more birds showing in the south:
Now, halfway through April, lots more birds -- and pushing further north:
By Garrison Frost
HOTSPOT: Flyover of California's Birds and Biodiversity
California is a global biodiversity hotspots, with one of the greatest concentrations of living species on Earth.