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BASIC INFORMATION
Beginning Bird
Identification
Bird Feeding
Instructions
Feeding
Hummingbirds
CHECKLISTS
Kern River Valley Birds Checklist
Kern Valley Spring Nature Festival
Birds
Audubon Kern River Preserve
Winter Birding Guide
Audubon Kern River
Preserve Spring Bird Arrival Guide
Audubon Kern River Preserve
Summer Birding Guide
Audubon Kern River Preserve
Fall Birding Guide
MAPS & DIRECTIONS TO BIRDING HOTSPOTS
Canebrake Ecological Reserve
Birding on the Kern River Preserve and
South Fork Kern River
KRV Hummingbird Finding Guide
Visitor and Travel Information Page
SPECIES ACCOUNTS
Summer Tanagers on the Kern River
Tricolored Blackbird - May 2008
White-crowned Sparrows in the Kern River
Valley and beyond
RESEARCH
Bird Banding on the Kern River Preserve
and South Fork Kern River
Kern River Valley Turkey Vulture
Community Watch
CONTESTS
America's birdiest inland county 2010
Kern County
2008, America's birdiest inland county!
Kern County, America's
birdiest inland county in 2007
Kern River Valley Christmas Bird
Count History
Schedule of KRV
Christmas Bird Counts |
 The South Fork Kern River Valley
was one of the first areas in the U.S. to be designated a Globally
Important Bird Area (IBA). The total number of
birds recorded in the South Fork stands at 339 and on
Audubon's Kern River Preserve 261 birds (108
nesting) have been documented. Because of the area’s unique geography
and botanical resources it is the north-westernmost breeding
location for many southwestern desert specialty birds.
With loss of the riparian forest throughout the Great Central
Valley, the South Fork Valley is one of the last strongholds for the
state endangered, Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo in California.
The Kern Red-winged Blackbird is an endemic race found only in the
Kern River Valley. This species differs from populations of Central
Valley bi-colored Red-winged Blackbirds by the presence of both
yellow and red on its wing epaulets. Geoff Keller, the avian
audiographer of Cornell’s Bird Songs of California, declared the
song to be truly unique among all of the Red-winged Blackbirds he
had recorded across the state.
A large population of what Bob Barnes refers to as the “flying neon
tomato”, Summer Tanager, breeds throughout the South Fork Forest.
The federally endangered, Southwestern Willow Flycatcher,
tenaciously hangs on to this last bit of habitat in its
north-westernmost breeding grounds.
The area’s bird community is exceptionally diverse with 110 species
nesting on the Kern River Preserve and over 140 species breeding in
the South Fork Valley as a whole. The mid-summer rapid assessment
bird count has documented over 300 Yellow Warblers and hundreds of
Song Sparrows. It is assumed due to the riparian habitat and
proximity of agricultural fields, that Tri-colored Blackbirds and
other icterids remain quite successful here. The open habitats of
uplands, grasslands and seasonal wetlands support wintering
Ferruginous Hawks, summering Grasshopper Sparrows, and year round
populations of Osprey, White-tailed Kite, Northern Harrier, and
Wilson’s Snipe.
In spring the South Fork Kern River Valley has some of the highest
numbers of migrating birds in the entire southern Sierra Nevada.
Beginning in late April and ending near the end of May each year
thousands of individual birds fly over and through the forest. The
fall migration of 30,000 southbound Turkey Vultures is the highlight
of the season during September and October.
Research at the Kern River Preserve has been ongoing since the 1980s
and has resulted in numerous publications on the Western
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, the Summer
Tanager, hummingbirds and Turkey Vulture migration. Much research
continues to be coordinated by the Southern Sierra Research Station
but recently several universities have begun extensive studies of a
variety of biological resources at the Kern River Preserve.
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