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.
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.
The great horned owl is the second largest owl in California. The “horns” of the owl are actually only feather tufts, colored brown with the rest of the body. They also have some spotted coloration in darker shades of brown. The great horned owl is one of the most common owls, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards and cities.
Great horned owls are fierce predators and are often referred to as “tigers of the sky”. They can take large prey, including raptors such as ospreys, falcons, and other owls. They mainly eat squirrels, jackrabbits, skunks and other small mammals and birds. They also eat much smaller items such as rodents, frogs, and scorpions, which they swallow whole and later regurgitate in owl pellets. They have excellent hearing, specially adapted feathers that dissipate air flow, facilitating silent flight, plus powerful feet and talons.
Females will usually lay 2-3 eggs once a year. These eggs will be incubated by both parents. They will hatch in 4 weeks, and will mature and leave the nest in 1-2 months.
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.
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.
This water bird is the heaviest North American bird. Their huge throat pouch is used as a dip net to catch fish and in hot weather pouch fluttering is a cooling mechanism. Standing up to 70 inches tall, they have white feathers with black primaries and outer secondary feathers. Adults have a yellow crest and bright orange bill. All four toes are connected by a web of skin.
The American white pelican eats 3 to 4 pounds of fish every day and an occasional salamander or crayfish. Their bill may collect 3 gallons in volume to which they squeeze the water out from the corners of their mouth before swallowing their food.
Migrating inland, pelicans will nest in colonies from a few to hundreds of pairs. Monogamous, courtship precedes nesting. The nest may be on the ground with no nest material or a slight depression or a mound of dirt and debris. Usually 2 eggs are laid. Hatching in 36 days, both parents feed the chicks that leave the nest in 3 to 4 weeks and fledge at 8 weeks.
The Gila monster is a large and heavy bodied lizard, 18 to 24 inches in length, with small bead-like scales on the back. Their pattern varies from broken blotches, or bars, spots of black and yellow, pink or orange with bands that extend into its blunt tail. The Gila monster and the related Mexican beaded lizard are the only known venomous lizards.
Hatchlings are only about 1 inch long and the adults grow to 4- 9 inches in length. They are usually a drab brown, olive, or blackish color with a low-domed carapace (top of the shell). Shells may have radiating patterns of lines or spots and the legs may have speckling as well. Female turtles often have dark markings on their throats while the males often have no markings on their light colored throats.