Today 6/6/26, Vayun and I covered Montebello OSP for the Palo Alto Summer
Bird Count.
It was a beautiful day to be out and birding, and we had more species than
typical for the count.
The highlight was an adult male ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.
At around 8:15AM the bird was seen of top of a distant tree, upslope from
the Bella Vista trail, not too far from the start of the trail (where the
Bella Vista Trail splits from Canyon Trail, heading up towards Black Mtn
Summit). GPS coordinates: 37°19'17.5"N 122°10'06.2"W.
Initially I heard a bird that sounded like Black-headed Grosbeak. Scanning
the trees, a grosbeak sized bird was spotted on the top of a tree.
Id was immediate and obvious of an adult male Rose-breasted. Vayun took the
pictures. On Merlin I only had the Western USA bird pack and Merlin was
voice-id'ing it as Black-headed Grosbeak too.
After calling from that upslope tree for about a minute, it flew down and
across the trail down towards Canyon Trail when we lost track of it. We
scanned those distant trees for a few minutes with no luck, before
continuing on with the count.
Do not disclose information that identifies the location of nesting birds of any species, to minimize stress on the nesting birds and the risk of vandalism or abuse.
