Cardinals, Grosbeaks, and Buntings — Family Cardinalidae
Pyrrhuloxia Cardinalis sinuatus
Pretty birds of primarily Mexican distribution pose an increasing problem to birders in San Diego County. What is the likelihood that, when seen north of the border, they are vagrants all the way from the species’ natural range versus escapees from captivity in Baja California? The California Bird Records Committee has accepted one Pyrrhuloxia from San Diego County and rejected another, though the circumstances of both were similar.
Migration: Although Guy McCaskie wrote that a Pyrrhuloxia at Encinitas (K6/K7) 26–27 May 1983 was “best considered an escapee” (AB 37:914, 1983), the California Bird Records Committee accepted it as a vagrant (Bevier 1990). But it questioned the natural origin of one at Point Loma (S7) 10 June 1998; it “appeared ragged” (Erickson and Hamilton 2001). Yet another San Diego County report (AB 42:483, 1988) was rejected as inadequately supported, and another (AB 40:525, 1986) was not submitted.
Rose‑breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus
Among the vagrants from eastern North America reaching San Diego County, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is one of the most frequent. A few are seen annually in both spring and fall. Winter records average about one per year, and there are even a few records in mid summer.
Migration: Unlike many vagrants, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is more numerous in spring than in fall. The spring of 2001 was exceptional, with at least 13. That year the species was seen at Point Loma (S7) continuously from 27 April to 7 June with up to three individuals per day. Most spring records are from mid May through mid June, but birds that were more likely spring migrants than winter visitors have been seen at Tamarisk Grove or Yaqui Well (I24) as early as 6–13 April (1986, B. Knaak, A. G. Morley) and 15 April (1990, A. G. Morley). During the atlas period, 1997–2001, our latest spring record was of one found dead in Chula Vista (T11) 24 June 1998 (SDNHM 50601), but there are at least six early records for July, one of a bird that remained in El Cajon (Q13) to 10 August 1969 (AFN 23:696, 1969).
Fall records are usually two to four per year, though 1986 had an exceptional 18. Fall dates are concentrated from late September to early November but range from 18 August (1986, Tijuana River valley, G. McCaskie) to 6 December (2001, Borrego Palm Canyon, F23, J. Determan) and 6–11 December (1987, Borrego Palm Canyon campground, R. Thériault).
Winter: Wintering Rose-breasted Grosbeaks average about one per year, so the atlas period was typical with five over its five years. Three of these, however, were on the grounds of the San Diego Zoo (R9) 15 December 2001 (M. B. Stowe, V. P. Johnson). The maximum in a winter was five in 1982–83 (AB 37:347, 1983). Most of the county’s wintering Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have been found in the parks and residential areas of metropolitan San Diego, but a few have been in the lowlands of the north county, such as one near Fallbrook (E7) 20 December 1998 (J. Ginger, P. A. Ginsburg) and one in Bonsall (F9) 1–15 January 1999 (J. Evans). Two records from the Anza–Borrego Desert, from the Roadrunner Club, Borrego Springs (F24), 16 March 1985 and Vallecito (M25) 16 March 1983 apparently represent winter visitors (ABDSP database).
Breeding distribution: The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is not known to nest in California, but occasional hybridization with the Black-headed Grosbeak is likely. A male at Pine Hills (K19) 14 June 1994 was paired with a female Black-headed (R. T. Patton), and a male along the Sunset Trail, Laguna Mountains (O22), 8 June 1997 was associating with a nesting pair of Black-headeds (P. Unitt). The June specimen from Chula Vista was in breeding condition with enlarged testes.
Black-headed Grosbeak Pheucticus melanocephalus
A common summer visitor, the Black-headed Grosbeak is one of the characteristic birds of oak and riparian woodland. It is also locally common in mature chaparral, mainly on north-facing slopes. But is rare, though possibly increasing, as a breeding species in developed areas. As a migrant it is seen throughout the county, including deserts and cities. In winter it is very rare—much rarer than its eastern counterpart, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Breeding distribution: At the scale of our atlas grid, the Black-headed Grosbeak is distributed almost uniformly over San Diego County’s coastal slope. It is most common in oak and riparian woodland, with up to 30, including 20 singing males, in Moosa Canyon (F9) 18 May 1999 (J. Evans) and up to 27, including 20 singing males, along the Santa Margarita River north of Fallbrook (C8) 24 May 2001 (K. L. Weaver). Mature chaparral often offers good habitat as well, as on the north slope of Otay Mountain (U15; 46 on 25 May 1999, G. L. Rogers). Certain types of chaparral, such as those dominated by scrub oak or Tecate cypress, may be more favorable than others, such as those dominated by chamise or redshank. The Black-headed Grosbeak is also numerous in montane pine/oak woodland (up to 25 at Palomar Mountain, E15, 3 July 2000 (E. C. Hall) but over 6000 feet elevation begins to thin out; the maximum daily count near the summit of Hot Springs Mountain (E20) was only three on 19 May 2001 and 15 July 2000 (K. L. Weaver, C. R. Mahrdt).
The distribution hardly extends over the crest of the mountains to the desert slope, however. Records of apparently breeding birds along the east edge of the range are of one at Lower Willows in Coyote Creek Canyon (D23) 20 June 1998 (B. L. Peterson), four, including a pair, in Hellhole Canyon (G23) 7 July 1998 (M. L. Gabel), a pair in Grapevine Canyon (I23) 11 May 1998 (P. K. Nelson), and a pair at Jacumba (U28) 1 July 2000 (P. Unitt). Note that most of these marginal records followed the wet winter of 1997–98. In dry years Scissors Crossing along San Felipe Creek (J22) is probably the farthest into the desert breeding Black-headed Grosbeaks extend.
Nesting: Female Black-headed Grosbeaks build a flimsy open-cup nest of twigs and other plant material, placing it in the outer branches of a tree or shrub. Atlas observers reported nests in willows (5), Engelmann, black, and coast live oak. Nest building begins in the third week of April, egg laying in the fourth week of April, and hatching in the second week of May, in agreement with past data (California egg dates 23 April–10 July, Bent 1968). The birds continue far into the summer, making the Black-headed Grosbeak one of San Diego County’s later-nesting species, with fledglings reported as late as 16 August.
Migration: The Black-headed Grosbeak is one of San Diego County’s most punctual migrants, the first birds normally returning in the last few days of March. From 1997 to 2001 the first reported date varied only from 27 March to 1 April, except for a report of one at Butterfield Ranch (M23) 17 March 1999 (H. and K. Williams). The only earlier published date is 16 March 1986 (one male at Point Loma; J. Oldenettel, AB 40:525, 1986). San Diego County is evidently on the grosbeak’s main spring migration route from western Mexico to the Pacific coast, taking advantage of the comparatively low elevation of the county’s mountains to cross from the desert to the coast. As for many other species, San Felipe Valley (I21) is evidently the center of the corridor, with at least 620 migrating northwest there 24 April 1999 (W. E. Haas) and 100 a short distance farther upstream (H20) the same day (A. P. and T. E. Keenan). The route apparently continues from the head of San Felipe Valley across Warner Valley to Sunshine Summit (D17) at the east base of Palomar Mountain, where A. Mauro noted 50 in migrating flocks 1 May 1999. Many individuals follow other paths. Numbers of migrants drop through May; from 1997 to 2001, during the atlas period 24 May 1999 (six at Yaqui Well, I24, P. K. Nelson) was the latest spring date outside the breeding range. Previous late spring dates for Point Loma run as late as 3 June (1974, J. L. Dunn). Fall migrants pass through mainly from late July through mid September, exceptionally to mid October.
Winter: Of the 14 winter records for the county, only two are since 1983, of one at Point Loma (S7) 8 January 1991 (D. and M. Hastings, AB 45:322, 1991) and one at a feeder in Oceanside winter 1996–97. Thus the Black-headed Grosbeak is much less frequent in winter than the Rose-breasted, and the disparity is growing. All winter records are from parks and residential areas around San Diego, except two reports (possibly of one individual) wintering at Pauma Valley 1953–55 (Unitt 1984).
Conservation: The Black-headed Grosbeak’s ability to adapt to the urban environment is so far modest. The species persists uncommonly in San Diego’s largest canyons (San Clemente, Tecolote, Mission Valley), with a maximum of 16, including 10 singing males, in Tecolote Canyon (Q8) 15 June 1999 (J. C. Worley). In small urban canyons and residential areas, as a breeding species, it is rare. For example, in La Jolla (P7) a pair with two fledglings came to a feeder 27 June 1999 (L. Polinsky), in a La Mesa (Q11) canyon a pair had a nest 29 May–4 June 2002 in a laurel sumac within 20 meters of backyards (M. A. Patten), a pair nested in a pepper tree along I Avenue in Coronado (S9) in 1997 and 1998 (J. Guilmette), and in East San Diego (R10) the only record outside migration periods is of one in Talmadge Park Canyon 30 June 1997 (J. A. Dietrick). At least one pair began summering in eucalyptus groves in Fallbrook (D7) in 2000 (K. L. Weaver).
Taxonomy: Specimens from San Diego County, migrants and breeders (none yet for winter), are P. m. maculatus (Audubon, 1837), occurring all along the Pacific coast and smaller billed than the nominate subspecies of the Rocky Mountain region.
Blue Grosbeak Passerina caerulea
Lush, low plants, growing in damp swales, offer prime habitat for the Blue Grosbeak. The grosbeak is primarily a summer visitor to San Diego County, locally common at the edges of riparian woodland and in riparian scrub like young willows and mulefat. Blue Grosbeaks can also be common in grassy uplands with scattered shrubs. Migrants are rarely seen away from breeding habitat, and in winter the species is extremely rare.
Breeding distribution: The Blue Grosbeak has a distribution in San Diego County that is wide but patchy. Areas of concentration correspond to riparian corridors and stands of grassland; gaps correspond to unbroken chaparral, forest, waterless desert, and extensive development. Largely insectivorous in summer, the Blue Grosbeak forages primarily among low herbaceous plants, native or exotic. So valley bottoms, where the water necessary for the vegetation accumulates, provide the best habitat. Grassland is also often good habitat, as can be seen on Camp Pendleton (the species’ center of abundance in San Diego County) and from Warner Valley south over Mesa Grande to Santa Ysabel Valley. Blue Grosbeaks take advantage of grassland invaded by nonnative plants, using stands of mustard. Because of its preference for herbaceous undergrowth, the Blue Grosbeak is more widespread after wet winters than after dry ones. It is primarily a species of low to middle elevations but probably breeds up to 4100 feet elevation north of Julian (J20; up to nine on 1 July 1999, M. B. Stowe) and to 4600 feet at Lake Cuyamaca (M20; up to five on 10 July 2001, M. B. Mulrooney). A male near the Palomar Observatory (D15) 11 June–21 July 1983 (R. Higson, AB 37:1028, 1983) was exceptional—and in an exceptionally wet El Niño year. In the Anza–Borrego Desert the Blue Grosbeak is confined as a breeding bird to natural riparian oases.
Nesting: The Blue Grosbeak places its cup nest in herbaceous vegetation, shrubs, or trees, with no one type of site apparently favored. The nest is usually hidden in dense vegetation, and difficult to find, accounting for atlas observers’ reporting only eight. The one whose situation was described was 3 to 4 feet above the ground in coyote brush.
After wet years, Blue Grosbeaks enjoy a long breeding season. Then they pair, build a nest, and lay within a week of arriving. Nests with nestlings along the San Diego River near Lakeside (P13) 30 April 1998 (W. E. Haas), at Goodan Ranch County Park (N12) 3 May 1998 (W. E. Haas), and fledglings at the Wild Animal Park (J12) 11 May 1998 (D. and D. Bylin) must have come from clutches laid around the earliest recorded date for eggs of the Blue Grosbeak in California, 18 April (Austin 1968). The season ran late that year too, with young being fed at Lake Henshaw (G17) 5 September 1998 (C. G. Edwards). Raising of second broods is apparently common (Ingold 1993) but probably more so after wet years than dry ones.
Migration: In spring, Blue Grosbeaks begin arriving in mid April. From 1997 through 2001 we recorded earliest dates ranging from 11 April (1998, two in Oriflamme Canyon, L22, D. and C. Batzler; 2001, one along San Mateo Creek, C2, S. Brad) to 16 April. No earlier dates appear in the literature. A report from Otay Valley (V12) 22 March 1998 (P. Walsh) is so much earlier than other spring dates it more likely represents a wintering bird. In migration, Blue Grosbeaks are rare away from their breeding habitat. From 1997 through 2001 we recorded only about 15 such migrants in spring. The latest of these was at Point Loma (S7) 17 May 1997 (C. G. Edwards). In fall, migrants pause little in San Diego County. By late September the species is very rare, and 1 November (1984, one at Point Loma, R. E. Webster, AB 39:104, 1985) is the latest recorded fall date.
Winter: During the atlas period, one was near Moretti’s Junction (H18) at the surprisingly high elevation of 2800 feet on 12 December 2000 (P. Unitt, M. Mathos), and another was at the Dairy Mart pond in the Tijuana River valley (V11) on 9 December 2001. The only previous records are from Escondido 20–22 February 1957 (AFN 11:291, 1957), Otay Mesa 29 January 1964, Solana Beach 22 February–13 March 1964 (McCaskie et al. 1967c), and the Sweetwater River in National City 12 December 1979 (AB 34:308, 1980).
Conservation: As a species primarily of undergrowth, the Blue Grosbeak shows no ability to cope with urbanization. Occurrences in isolated patches of suitable habitat within heavily developed areas are rare (one in Tecolote Canyon, Q8, 14 June 1999, J. C. Worley; one singing male near the mouth of the Sweetwater River, T10, 30 June 1999, P. Unitt). Loss of riparian habitat to agriculture, golf courses, and sand mining have undoubtedly taken their toll, but the Blue Grosbeak never experienced population collapse on the scale of some other riparian songbirds. The Blue Grosbeak has been subject to heavy parasitism by the Brown-headed Cowbird in Orange County (7 of 7 nests parasitized in 1949, Bleitz 1956), but the effect on the grosbeak’s population is unclear; it may have been able to sustain the parasitism better than smaller birds. Yet the Blue Grosbeak is not represented among 38 cowbird-parasitized egg sets collected in San Diego County 1915–52.
Taxonomy: San Diego County specimens are all P. s. salicaria (Grinnell, 1911), with a smaller bill than the subspecies east of the Colorado River. The inclusion of the Blue Grosbeak in the genus Passerina, so strongly suggested by the birds’ calls, songs, posture, behavior, and plumage, is now supported by mitochondrial DNA as well (Klicka et al. 2001).
Lazuli Bunting Passerina amoena
One of San Diego County’s most colorful birds, the Lazuli Bunting is of interest for more than just pretty plumage. A species typical of riparian woodland edges and mountain meadows, the Lazuli Bunting is also a fire follower. It colonizes burned chaparral in recovery, during the stage when wildflowers—and insects that feed on them—can proliferate before the resprouting shrubs take over again. The Lazuli Bunting is common in San Diego County as both a breeding bird and a migrant, but it is absent in winter.
Breeding distribution: Though not linked to oak woodland, the Lazuli Bunting has a distribution similar to that of several species characteristic of this habitat. That is, the bunting is widespread as a breeding bird over the coastal slope but not along the coast itself. The distribution approaches the coast in the north, then retreats inland toward the south. Macario Canyon near Agua Hedionda Lagoon (I6) is the southernmost known nesting site near the coast (active nest 4–11 May 1999, W. E. Haas). In the southern half of the county, a pair in Los Peñasquitos Canyon (N8) 6 June 1999 (M. Baumgartel) and eight individuals in Tecolote Canyon (Q8) 10 June 1999, dropping to one four days later (J. C. Worley), are outliers. On the east slope of the mountains, Lazuli Buntings breed possibly at 2200 feet elevation in Borrego Palm Canyon (F23; singing male 5–8 July 2001, L. J. Hargrove), definitely along San Felipe Creek, in wet years probably down to the mouth of Sentenac Canyon (I23, pair 26 May 1998, P. K. Nelson), and probably east to near Bankhead Springs (pair regular in April and May 1997, F. L. Unmack). Any breeding east of Campo (U22), though, is tenuous; all records there are within the period of spring migration.
Lazuli Buntings are usually most abundant in the inland valleys and lower mountains where low herbs grow near thick shrubbery. Daily counts of breeding birds run very exceptionally up to 150, as in the Nature Conservancy’s Edwards Ranch northeast of Santa Ysabel (I19) 30 June 2001 (D. W. Au, S. E. Smith). The species’ distribution is rather patchy, though, and somewhat irregular from year to year. This irregularity arises in part because one of the Lazuli Bunting’s prime habitats in San Diego County is successional: recovering burned chaparral in which low herbaceous growth still dominates. Its preference for low herbaceous growth also means that more habitat will be suitable after wet years than after dry ones. Michael A. Patten (pers. comm.) found the bunting widespread as a breeding species in sage scrub on the periphery of San Diego in 2001, when rainfall was near average, but virtually absent in 2002, when rainfall was at a record low. Perennial habitats are riparian woodland and scrub and mountain meadows, especially where there are thickets of California rose.
Nesting: The Lazuli Bunting usually hides its cup nest in dense, low vegetation. Atlas observers described or inferred four nests in rose thickets, two in white sage, two in California sagebrush, one in San Diego sunflower, one in a willow, and one in a laurel sumac in a burned area. Clearly the buntings recognize the ability of rose thorns to deter predators.
Lazuli Buntings generally begin nesting in late April or early May. In the wet spring of 1998, they apparently began a bit early. Observations of adults carrying insects that year began as early as 3 May in Sycamore Canyon (O12; I. S. Quon), of fledglings, as early as 15 May (J9; J. O. Zimmer), implying egg laying no later than 21–23 April. Adults fed fledglings far into July, even to 8 August in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park (N21) in 2000 (P. D. Jorgensen). Early or failed breeders, though, depart earlier, in mid July.
Migration: Spring arrival of the Lazuli Bunting is typically in early April. From 1997 to 2001, the first report of the spring varied only from 27 March (1997, one at Upper Willows, Coyote Creek Canyon, C22, P. D. Jorgensen) to 3 April. Arrival even a day or two before 1 April, however, is rare. Migrants are widespread throughout the county, including coastal and desert areas where the species does not nest. High concentrations of migrants run up to 40 around Scissors Crossing (J22) 13 April 1998 (E. C. Hall) and 25 at Carrizo Marsh (O29) 4 May 1999 (P. D. Jorgensen). In most years, migrants headed farther north have continued on by the third week of May; our latest such date 1997–2001 was 23 May 2000 (two in Goat Canyon, W10, W. E. Haas). In other years, stragglers have been seen as late as 15 June (1977, Point Loma, S7, P. Unitt). Fall migration takes place primarily in August and early September. By late September the Lazuli Bunting is rare; 4 November (1962, one in the Tijuana River valley, G. McCaskie) is still the latest known date.
Winter: Although the Lazuli Bunting winters regularly as close to California as southeastern Arizona and southern Baja California, there are no well supported winter records for San Diego County.
Conservation: The Lazuli Bunting does not adapt to urbanization. A few holes in its distribution are likely due to habitat loss, as around Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, and El Cajon. The core of its range in San Diego County, though, is at higher elevations little threatened by development. In some parts of its range the Lazuli Bunting is parasitized heavily by the Brown-headed Cowbird (Greene et al. 1996). In San Diego County cowbird parasitism seems not to have been a significant factor, as implied by the bunting’s not clearly decreasing after the cowbird’s invasion, the lack of cowbird eggs among collected sets of the bunting, and atlas observers’ not reporting any parasitism 1997–2001. The inevitability of fire in chaparral implies that the Lazuli Bunting will persist, shifting from burn to burn, as long as chaparral dominates San Diego County’s landscape.
Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea
In the 1960s the Indigo Bunting was just another vagrant from the eastern United States. But the front of its expanding breeding range has now almost reached the Pacific coast. Today this brilliant bird, though still rare, is becoming ever more frequent as a summer visitor to San Diego County’s inland valleys and foothills. A noticeable upswing in occurrences coincided with the arrival of the new millennium.
Breeding distribution: The Indigo Bunting is a recent colonist in San Diego County, as elsewhere in southern California (Rowe and Cooper 1997). Until 2002, all known nestings were of mixed pairs, Indigo and Lazuli, or, the identity of the female was ambiguous. The first likely hybridization took place in Spring Canyon (P11) in 1973, when a male Indigo was seen paired with a female Lazuli 2–10 June and the female was later seen with fledglings (P. Unitt, AB 29:920, 1973). Since then, summer records have become ever more frequent, too frequent to list individually. Subsequent records of apparent or definite breeding have been 22 May–3 July 1991 near Lake Cuyamaca, where a male Indigo was paired with a Lazuli and feeding a fledgling on latter date (R. Ford, C. G. Edwards, AB 45:1162, 1991), 28 May 1993 near Ramona, where a male was paired with female Lazuli (C. G. Edwards, AB 47:1151, 1993), 16 July 2000 at Pine Hills (K19), where an unidentified female and/or juvenile bunting were near a male Indigo (J. R. Barth), and 21 June 2001 in Peutz Valley (P16), where a male was calling agitatedly as well as singing territorially (M. B. Stowe, P. Unitt). On 24 June 2001, along Kitchen Creek near Cibbets Flat (Q23), an agitated female Indigo, with male Lazuli Buntings singing nearby, had two probable fledglings (C. G. Edwards). On 28 June 2001, in Cañada Verde near the Warner Springs fire station (F19), an apparent first-year male Indigo (some irregular white on belly) was associated with a female Indigo and a hybrid fledgling (streaking heavier than in a juvenile Lazuli; M. B. Stowe, P. Unitt). On 13 July 2001, near the confluence of San Felipe and Banner creeks (J22) a male Indigo was paired with a female Lazuli, and a mixed pair nested twice at the same site in summer 2002 (J. R. Barth), the first apparent return of an Indigo, another step toward establishment of a population. Outside the Lazuli Bunting’s observed breeding range, a male Indigo at Jacumba (U28) 28 June–1 July 2000 was paired with an ambiguous female; she was with a fledgling on the first date and went into a copulation-solicitation posture when the male few over her on the latter date (J. K. Wilson, P. K. Nelson, P. Unitt).
Though records of territorial Indigo Buntings are still scattered, they range from the inland valleys to the desert edge but exclude the coastal strip and the desert floor. The birds’ habitat is not too specialized: riparian woodland and edges, oak woodland edges, and even an abandoned avocado orchard.
Nesting: Like the Lazuli, the Indigo Bunting places its nest in dense low, often thorny vegetation, usually within 3 feet of the ground. The nest is screened from above by leaves (Payne 1992). A female Indigo paired with a first-year male Indigo was building a nest, later abandoned, near Scissors Crossing (J22) 7 July 2002 (J. R. Barth). The nest was about 2 feet off the ground in a thicket of mugwort.
Migration: In San Diego County, the Indigo Bunting has been recorded primarily from mid May through July, when the males stop singing. From 1997 through 2001 the earliest date was 12 May (2001, one at Lower Willows, D23, B. L. Peterson; one in Los Peñasquitos Canyon, N8, P. Lovehart). Records as early as 11–12 April (1992, one at Point Loma, S7, G. McCaskie, AB 46:482, 1982) and 15 April (1987, one at Vallecito, M25, B. Andeman, AB 41:490, 1987) are exceptional. Spring vagrants may be seen at least as late as 21 June (1997, one at Widman Park, Encanto, S11, P. Unitt). The latest summer record is of an adult male in the Tijuana River valley 7 August 1976 (G. McCaskie). The Indigo Bunting is now more frequent in spring and summer than in fall but still occurs regularly as a vagrant in September and October, exceptionally as late as 22 November (1975, Balboa Park, J. L. Dunn).
Winter: Still only two records, of one in Balboa Park 10–23 December 1967 (AFN 22:480, 1968) and one in San Marcos 9 March 1976 (AB 30:770, 1976).
Conservation: Despite heavy cowbird parasitism in its breeding range, being trapped as a cage bird in its winter range, and failing to adapt to urbanization anywhere (Payne 1992), the Indigo Bunting continues to spread.
Taxonomy: A borderline case as species or subspecies, the Indigo and Lazuli Buntings hybridize wherever they occur together. Yet differences in song, molt, females’ mate preference, and the persistence of the parental phenotypes in the zone of overlap imply that mechanisms isolating the two have taken hold.
Painted Bunting Passerina ciris
The most popular cage bird in Baja California, the Painted Bunting occurs in San Diego County mainly as an escapee from captivity. On the basis of records of immatures well north of the international border, however, the species also reaches California as a natural vagrant, at least in fall migration. The California Bird Records Committee has accepted 15 Painted Buntings as vagrants to San Diego County, but identifying any particular individual as a vagrant rather than escapee is now impossible.
Migration: Of San Diego County’s 15 committee-endorsed records of the Painted Bunting, eight are from the Tijuana River valley, five are from Point Loma, one is from San Diego (4 September 1992, N. Whelan, Garrett and Singer 1998), and one is from Encinitas (21–22 October 2000, K. Aldern, Garrett and Wilson 2003). The 14 fall records range in date from 24 August (1993 or 1994, Tijuana River valley, D. W. Aguillard, McCaskie and San Miguel 1999) to 3 December (1995, same locality, G. McCaskie, Garrett and Singer 1998). Even though the evidence for spring vagrancy of the Painted Bunting to California is much weaker, the committee has also accepted one spring record from San Diego County, of a female at Cabrillo National Monument (S7) 16 May 2001 (G. C. Hazard, T. Plunkett, Garrett and Wilson 2003).
In northern Baja California, Hamilton (2001) found the Painted Bunting to be the cage bird offered for sale most abundantly by far. Females are sold as much as males. Escapees are seen at all seasons; at least 13 were reported in San Diego County during the atlas period 1997–2002. They can often be identified by injuries around the bill, damage to the flight feathers, and, in adult males, by the faded red of the underparts. Even some of the accepted records from San Diego County may represent escapees. At least the five Painted Buntings in the Tijuana River valley 1962–63 (McCaskie et al. 1967c), however, were almost certainly vagrants, as they predated the explosive growth of Tijuana’s human population.
Taxonomy: Thompson (1991) discounted the long-maintained division of the Painted Bunting into two subspecies.
Dickcissel Spiza americana
The Dickcissel breeds largely in the prairie region of the central United States and winters largely in the llanos of Venezuela, in immense flocks. Its frequency as a vagrant to San Diego County is on the decline, reaching about one every other fall by the beginning of the 21st century. Responsible factors likely include both overall population decline and local habitat changes, in the form of loss of the agricultural fields in the Tijuana River valley where the species had been found most often.
Migration: All of San Diego County’s fall records of the Dickcissel are from the Tijuana River valley, Otay Mesa, and Point Loma, except for one at Camp Pendleton 3 October 1964 (AFN 19:82, 1965). Their dates range from 7 September (1980, Tijuana River valley, AB 35:228, 1982) to 2 November (1968, Otay Mesa, AFN 23:112, 1969).
Winter: The county’s single winter record of the Dickcissel is of one that frequented a feeder on Kearny Mesa (P9) 2 December 1963–16 March 1964 (McCaskie et al. 1967c).
Conservation: The maximum annual count of Dickcissels in San Diego County was 12 in 1963 (McCaskie et al. 1967c). By the mid to late 1970s the species was occurring at a rate of one to four per year (Unitt 1984). From 1993 through 2003, however, only four were reported. The Dickcissel’s concentration on the Venezuelan llanos in huge winter roosts renders the species vulnerable to mass killing, especially as it is regarded there as an agricultural pest.