Date: 4/19/26 6:48 pm From: Liam Murphy via groups.io <liammsf...> Subject: Re: [SFBirds] PAINTED REDSTART Bernal Hill
Hi birders,
A little more info on the Bernal PAINTED REDSTART from this morning.
The bird was initially sighted from the paved ring road, foraging mid height in the tall trees just south of the Esmeralda steps, approximately here: 37.74291824136184, -122.41697067766808
From there we watched the bird feed voraciously in typical flitting redstart style down the coordinates from my original email. It seemed to primarily prefer the trunks of the tall pines, but was also seen in eucs, and at several points aggressively chased other birds such as Yellow-rumped Warblers. It also sang loudly and repeatedly, a repetitive warble recalling Yellow-rumped Warbler, but sweeter sounding and much louder. Once some other locals arrived, my group moved on; I was happy to hear that a handful of others who arrived later also got to see the bird. From what I understand, it was later refound considerably further downhill, with the last sightings being around midday in the Three Pines just above the bottom gate at the crest of Folsom (north slope), approximately here: 37.74368899822701, -122.41330264063963
Conditions became windy, and rain is going to move in overnight. I am skeptical that the bird would have launched into long distance flight in the middle of the day. I suspect it could remain on Bernal Hill, and encourage folks to come back to search for it when the rain stops. If it is singing like it was this morning, that will help significantly in locating it, as it was quite loud. Check the tree groves, particularly the ones with pines, around the hill.
One of the coolest parts of this sighting is that we found it on a GGBA Bird Curious walk with a number of beginning birders. The excitement and awe was totally palpable and the bird put on an absolute show for us, foraging at length at eye level just 20 feet away. I have a feeling it may have been a “light bulb” moment for some of the folks there, a reminder of what keeps us venturing out into the field because you just NEVER know what might happen on any given day. I want to give a big thanks to fellow co-leaders Lydia Bruno, Lyra D’Souza, and Travis Smith. Travis completely nailed the photo ops today (see eBird checklist below) and Lydia and Lyra have been the driving force behind our blossoming Bernal Heights community birding events, which started up last summer and are only growing. We have been getting a lot of engagement from folks on the Hill and hopefully helping to grow the ranks of birders and conservation-minded citizens.
Other migrants of note on our walk were WILSON’S and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, HOODED ORIOLES, LAZULI BUNTINGS, WESTERN TANAGER, and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK.
Because we were chatting with our group and the Redstart took up so much attention, I encouraged the other arriving birders chasing the rarity to keep an eye out for other birds. We did have a bit of a Patagonia Picnic Table Effect, with others finding BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER (Eli Gross), HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHER (Cédric Duhalde), as well as ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER and multiple CASSIN’S VIREOS (forgive me, I didn’t hear who these birds should be attributed to - but thanks!). Stellar morning for Bernal Hill.
Get out there and find those spring migrants!
Cheers,
Liam
> On Apr 19, 2026, at 9:08 AM, Liam Murphy via groups.io <liammsf...> wrote:
>
> GGBA Bird Curious walk on Bernal Hill just found a Painted Redstart on the west slope.
>
> 37.743331,-122.416750
>
> More details later,
> Liam
>
