Birding at Biola

Hey everybody, I just got back from a little lunch time meander through the olive grove. This was a pre-planned excursion with the goal of identifying a species that I thought I had seen yesterday (and about a month ago) in the creek.

Yesterday morning I was on my way back from the dumpsters behind the baseball field, when I noticed a group of small brown finches flitting about in the tall reeds that populate the creek. I couldn't tell for sure what they were, but it looked to me as if they were an exotic finch called Nutmeg Mannikins, which is fairly common here in Southern California. But I didn't know for sure, since I had never seen one before, and the only field mark I remembered was that they were light brown and had a scalloped pattern on their belly.

Anyway, I brought my binoculars with me today, and took a walk on the olive grove side of the creek to check it out. At first all I saw was a shy female mallard and a lot (like 20+) yellow-rumped warblers. As I was starting to walk back, however, I saw some movement in the reeds. It took another 5 minutes or so, but I finally got a good look at the bird. It is a Nutmeg Mannikin: a small skinny finch from Asia with a nutmeg colored back and a patterned belly. These birds' bellies aren't very distinctly patterned, but one individual showed clear marks.

Here's a picture.

The species originally comes from southeast Asia.

I was also happy to see a Song Sparrow, Western Bluebirds, House Finches, House Sparrows, and Anna's Hummingbirds along the creek. Their cutting all the reeds right now, so it will be interesting to see if the Mannikins lose their little colony.