Left: This White-Crowned Sparrow is enjoying a seed feeder

In October the annual fall migration is at its most intense. The birds of winter flock in while familiar summer visitors are off to warmer places. A sure sign of fall is the return of the White-Crowned Sparrows, with the bold racing stripes on their heads. Usually you can find them somewhere under your bushes, individually or in small flocks, scratching for seeds. They also are enthusiastic visitors to feeders, where the sunflower chips in our No-Mess blends are among their favorites.

Fall brings the Warblers, some of the sweetest singers in your yard. Most of them just move through our area on their way south, but the Yellow-Rumped Warblers come in October and stay for the winter. Like other warblers, they love worms, the best way to attract these lively singers to your garden.

Not many of our local birds in SoCal use bird houses, but chatty energetic Wrens will move in happily when one is available. Bewick's Wrens are the most common wrens in our yards and gardens, flitting from bush to bush and flicking their outsized tails. A slash of a white eyebrow differentiates them from other wrens, as they comb bushes for bugs and spiders. Use the Merlin app on your phone to recognize their short-but-sweet song.

Right: A Bewick's Wren examines a cylinder of seeds

On any morning on the Westside, you likely will hear the chirp-chirp-chirp-trilll of a male Song Sparrow from high in a bush in your yard. Brown on its back, like most sparrows, it is boldly streaked on its whitish front. And, when it's not making a statement with its song, it usually can be found foraging below bushes for seeds and insects.

Northern Flickers are woodpeckers that look like large beautiful songbirds with a Nike-like red swoosh on their cheeks. They migrate to SoCal this month and stay through March. They eat bugs like other woodpeckers, but, unlike their cousins, sometimes forage on the ground for them. Look for them in your trees or under your bushes.

Left: A Northern Flicker shows off its red swoosh (Larry Naylor)

The Grosbeaks may be gone for the year, but, if you want some red with spotted black, you still can see Spotted Towhees beneath your trees and bushes. Like their California Towhee cousins, they scratch, often vigorusly, at the leaf litter beneath trees to find seeds and nuts, adding a dash of bold color to your yard. 

Erratic might be the best word for the appearances of Pine Siskins in our area. Mostly they stay north of us along the central coast. However, in the fall, these streaky cousins of Goldfinches sometimes make surprise appearances along the coast. When a small flock invades your yard, they are looking for seeds, buds, insects and a nyger feeder, if you have one, though they also will be content with sunflower seeds, like their Goldfinch cousins.

Right: Pine Siskins crowd onto a nyger feeder

In October, you might be watching the bears in Katmai National Park in Alaska as they eat huge amounts of salmon to get ready for hibernation and the Fat Bear Week contest (explore.org). Did you know that there is a bird right here in Southern California that also hibernates? It's the Common Poorwill, though its winter rest is more like a state of torpor than true hibernation. They are rarely seen, because they're active mostly at night and live on the ground under bushes. Except for their constant “po-o-orwill” calls, you may never know they are there. But, they have been seen in Brentwood, so they're in the area.