The ringtail is a mammal of the raccoon family. The ringtail is buff to dark brown in color with white under parts and a flashy black and white striped tail that has 14 -16 white and black stripes, and is longer than the rest of its body. The eyes are large and purple, each surrounded by a patch of light fur. Much like the common raccoon, the ringtail is nocturnal and mainly solitary.
The ringtail eats insects, lizards, small rodents, birds, and small mammals such as rabbits, mice, rats and ground squirrels, and occasionally will also eat fish, snakes and carrion. The ringtail also enjoys juniper, black berries, persimmon, prickly pear, and fruit in general.
The ringtail prefers to live in rocky habitats associated with water. These areas can include riparian canyons, caves, and mine shafts. Ringtails mate in the spring and the male will procure food for the female. There will be 2–4 kits in a litter. The kits open their eyes after a month and will hunt for themselves after four months.
This marsupial, or pouched mammal, resembles a large rat. It has a long pointed nose, large ears and is covered with long, coarse hair that is gray mixed with white in color. Each foot is like a hand with 5 toes, the great toes much like human thumbs, being opposable for grasping. Like a kangaroo, the female has a pouch. The female gives birth to many helpless young opossums that are as tiny as a honeybee.
The opossum is often incorrectly referred to as a “possum”, and although there is no link between the possums of Australia and the opossums of America, the opossum is the only species of marsupial that is found outside of Australia and its surrounding islands.
Opossums like to eat fruit, berries, grains, green vegetation, earthworms, insects, eggs, frogs, and small mammals and they prefer to live in moist woodlands, brushy habitats, wetlands, agricultural areas and residential areas that provide abundant food and cover.
The most vocal of all North American wild mammals, this opportunistic hunter and scavenger is steadily increasing in number through rapid adaptation to human encroachment and a fast reproductive rates. The coyote looks similar to a large dog. Its coat is grayish brown to yellowish gray in color with a white throat and belly and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
Classified as a carnivore, the coyote will eat pretty much anything. 98% of its diet is meat from rodents, reptiles, insects and carrion. The other 2% is made up of fruits and berries. To catch their prey, coyotes will pounce with all of their legs held stiff. The coyote is the dominant wild animal in the food chain.
Found throughout most of North America, the coyote is common in open sagebrush areas, but has adapted to living in urban areas, as well. They have expanded their range due to the decreasing population of their larger competitor, the wolf. Pups are born in litters of 6-7 with the males leaving the pack at 6-9 months.
Screech owls have prominent, wide-set feather tufts with bright yellow eyes. They have different brownish hues with whitish, patterned undersides. This coloration helps them get camouflaged against the tree bark. They have well-developed raptorial claws and curved bills. They use them as a tool to tear their prey into pieces that are small enough for them to swallow. They tend to carry their prey to the nest and then eat it.
Screech owls are primarily solitary. They are known as a “sit and wait” predator.
During the late-winter breeding season, however, males make nests in cavities, sometimes reusing abandoned nests of other animals, to try to attract females. The females select their mate based on the quality of the cavity and the food located inside. During the incubation period, the male feeds the female.
The normal territorial call is not a hoot as with some owls, but a trill consisting of more than 4 individual calls per second given in rapid succession (although the sound does not resemble screeching or screaming).
The red-shouldered hawk is brown-black with extensive spotting and rusty-red shoulder patches that are not always conspicuous. Under parts from his throat to his tail are barred with brown, red and white, and his tail is banded in black and white. He lives in areas of wooded river bottoms, along streams, and in moist mixed woodland with low-land wet places.
Red-shouldered hawks eat mice, shrews, moles, tree squirrels, chipmunks, and an occasional bird or reptile.
Red-shouldered hawks are residents in California west of the high Sierra Nevadas. They often nest close to a tree trunk. The nests are well built of twigs and sticks; lined with strips of bark, leaves, mosses, feathers, and sprigs of evergreen. The outside diameter is 18 – 24”. Mated pairs have a strong attachment to their nesting territory. They sometimes join forces with crows to drive larger predators, like great horned owl, out of their territory.
They lay 3 to 4 eggs per year and both male and female parents will incubate the eggs for 28 days.
Mallards are the most common and recognized duck in North America, with the male’s beautiful shiny green feathers on his head and neck. The females are a mottled light brown and have an orange bill with black markings.
Both males and females have matching blue speculum on their wings and like to live in shallow freshwater areas where shelter and food are plentiful.
Mallards are dabbling ducks. They can often be seen with their “bottoms up” when feeding. The serrated edges of their flat-rounded bill sieve out seeds, aquatic plants, insects, larvae, fish eggs, tadpoles, algae, and snails.
The female lays an average of 8 eggs in a loosely built nest on the ground. Laid all in one day, the female alone incubates the eggs. The average incubation time is 28 days and she will turn each one every day. The precocial ducklings are able to follow the female into the water within hours after hatching. They will happily become non-migratory if food and shelter are available year round.
This species is perhaps the most common and familiar of all North American geese. Living from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts and from Mexico to the Arctic, there are 11 sub-species that vary greatly in size. They have a long black neck and head, white chin strap, brown-gray body, a white U-shaped rump band and pale under parts. Their bill, tail and feet are black, with the larger species having a loud and deep musical honk-honk.
The Canada goose likes to live in flocks near ponds, marshes, grasslands and open farm land. They are noisy, social and monogamous, flying in flocks during the day in a “V” formation along all four flyways in the United States.
The Canada goose is a grazer who feeds below the water surface and on land. Their diet includes roots, tubers, algae, cattails, small aquatic animals, seeds, grains, grass and crops.
They mate for life and pairs remain together throughout the year with each bird choosing a mate of appropriate size with the male being slightly larger.
The California Condor is the largest flying bird in North America with a magnificent wingspan of 9.5 feet. They are black in color with white underwing patches and a bald head with very few feathers. The color of the head varies from white to reddish purple. The bare head is an adaptation for hygiene since they eat dead and rotting meat and must, for the most part, stick their heads into carcasses to feed.
Soaring on thermal air currents, California condors can reach speeds of 55 mph and altitudes of up to 15,000 ft. They can travel 150 miles per day in search of dead animals to scavenge.
California condors are slow to mature and reproduce. At 6-8 years old, they start to breed. They do not build nests but instead lay their eggs directly on the floor of a cave, cavity or tree hallow.
The California condor population steadily declined during the 20th century until there were only 22 known to exist in the world. The last of the free-flying condors were taken into captivity in 1987 in order to save the species from extinction. There were no California condors in the wild between 1988 and 1991, but reintroduction efforts began in early 1992 and continue today. As of December 2015 there were 435 condors living in the wild or in captivity.
Nycticorax means “night croaker”, which this heron likes to do at dusk. They have a stocky body with short yellow legs and red eyes, black crown and back, gray wings and a white belly. Until they reach adult plumage around 3 years of age, immature night herons have a gray-brown head, chest and belly streaked with white, yellow eyes and gray legs.
Black- crowned night herons are experts at fishing; stand motionless in shallow water, then with a quick burst of speed they thrust their bill into the water to catch small fish, their main food. Good swimmers, they know to eat algae and other plants, but are most likely to eat shad, herring, suckers, minnows, toads, crayfish, mice, and dragonflies.
Females lay 3-5 eggs in a nest of sticks and twigs in reeds and thickets. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed regurgitated food to the chicks. They nest in colonies and often with other birds like ibises and other herons. The chicks will fledge in 42 to 49 days.
Barn owls don’t hoot; they clack their beak and hiss. Barn owls are the only members of their family (the Tylondae) that live in North America. Barn owls live throughout California. Nocturnal hunters, they are named for their habitat of roosting in secluded places, such as barns. They are threatened by the conversion of agricultural land to urban development.
They have a distinctive heart-shaped facial disc and small dark eyes.
Their ability to locate prey by sound alone is the best of any animal that has ever been tested. It can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab or hidden vegetation in the wild.
Their long legs are feathered to the toes. They are sometimes mistakenly identified as snowy owls because of their white appearance while flying.
Barn owls fly about 10’ off the ground while hunting and are often hit by cars. They feed on small rodents and occasionally birds. One barn owl can eat over 1,000 mice in one year.