We caught an interesting conversation on the one of the California birding listservs this week about why one will see tons of Lawrence's Goldfinches one season and then none the next. The answer is that this spectacular looking bird is naturally enigmatic, and is simply not necessarily loyal to its earlier breeding sites. Sometimes it comes up out of Mexico and the Southwest in great numbers, while other times not so much. Anyway, the Lawrence's isn't one of those birds that journeys all the way down to South America every winter. In fact, the birds along coastal Southern California and Baja might not go anywhere at all. But typically (if one can use the word "typically" with the species), they'll start heading northward into the rest of California late February and early March. If you want to see what this looks like, check out the eBird maps below:

Here's an eBird map show Lawrence's Goldfinch sightings in February:

Here they are in the first two weeks of March, just starting to branch upward into Northern California:

And if you want to see where we're heading with Lawrence's Goldfinch, check out this map from April of last year:

Once again, we want to express our appreciation to eBird for allowing us to use these maps. And we want to encourage any bird enthusiast of every level of expertise to visit eBird and use its tools. Not only will it enhance your birding experience, but it will also help us in the conservation community track and help these wonderful species.