Date: 6/17/25 12:42 pm From: ed pandolfino via groups.io <erpfromca...> Subject: Re: [centralvalleybirds] Black-throated Sparrows and burn areas
Amy, both Black-throated and Black-chinned Sparrows make occasional 'irruptive' movements into northern CA from time to time. We were able (in the paper below) to link the BC Sparrow irruptions to southern CA drought, and I suspect the same is true for Black-throated. They do seem to irrupt on similar schedules, but I haven't looked into this carefully.
https://wwjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2022/10/Pandolfino_etal_WW_2022.pdf Both usually show up in these post-fire landscapes, as long as there are some recovering shrubs around. Among other species that tend to concentrate in these same areas, the Lazuli Bunting is particularly common to abundant.
Ed Pandolfino
On Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 12:19:38 PM PDT, Amy Williamson via groups.io <amywillbird...> wrote:
Hey Birders,
Having upgraded from a 2010 to a 2020 vehicle I've been boldly going out farther into areas without cell signal that i haven't yet explored here in central/northern Cali.
Yesterday i went to find some of the Black-throated Sparrows reported in El Do Co very recently, and i have a couple of questions.
These birds are described in guides as "desert species," but have been reported periodically over the years in El Do Co. (I'd previously seen them in SoCal and other deserty areas.) All About Birds shows a couple of breeding areas north of El Dorado County.
The birds I found yesterday were in a revegetating burn area (thanks to Zane Pickus, Julian Johnson, Aidan BruBaker for including in their bird list: "They seemed to especially like areas with moderate vegetation return, characterized by spots of bare dirt distributed amongst patchy areas with a mix of low chaparral-type greenery and dead wood." This helped me locate some of them in precisely this sort of habitat.)
I'm wondering if this species regularly occupies burn habitat as an adaptation to post-wildfire "opportunities." What do we know about how and/or how often they end up in these areas? I've read that Black-backed Woodpeckers like burn areas. What other species should we be on the lookout for, too?
Curiously,
Amy WilliamsonEl Dorado County
