INTRODUCTION 



LIST OF BIRDS OF SANTA CLARA VALLEY AND SANTA 

 CRUZ MOUNTAINS, EXCLUSIVE OF WATER BIRDS. 



By Walter K. Fishek. 



Resident =: Permanent resident. 



Winter visitant = Winter resident. 



Summer visitant = Breeding bird not occurring in winter. 



The country covered by this list includes practically all of the 

 Santa Clara Valley and the northern half of the Santa Cruz Moun- 

 tains. The Santa Cruz Mountains send a long spur northward to 

 form the backbone of the San Francisco peninsula. This ridge has 

 numerous lateral spurs, particularly toward the sea. On the east 

 the mountains slope down into low foothills rather abruptly, and 

 these foothills gradually merge into the floor of the valley, which, 

 north of San Jose, is largely occupied by the bay of San Francisco 

 and its environing marsh. To the east of the bay is the Mount 

 Hamilton range. 



To the Transition zone belong most of the Santa Cruz Moun- 

 tains, and the country between them and the seacoast. In the 

 mountains are magnificent stretches of redwood forest, mixed with 

 Douglas spruce, tan-bark oak, and madrone, and underbrush of 

 evergreen huckleberry, myrtle, azalea, rhododendron, wild lilac 

 {Ceanothus thyrsiflorus), and several species of manzanita. 



The Upper Sonoran zone includes all the main foothill region and 

 many of the outlying spurs of the Santa Cruz Mountains, much of 

 the Mount Hamilton range, and the greater part of the floor of the 

 valley. The valley contains an infusion of Lower Sonoran ele- 

 ments, but the proximity of the sea, with its tempering breezes, 

 many high fogs during summer, and a rather heavy rainfall (for a 

 valley), so reduces the total (luantity of lieat for the year that the 

 region is really a peculiar humid Upper Sonoran, or perhaps a mix- 

 ture of the two Sonoran zones. Characteristic vallej^ types are the 

 white oak {Qiurnis lolxitu), blue oak ((^. doiigluiiii), valley live-oak 

 {Q- nrjrifoUa), bay tree, buckeye, Christmas berry {ILteronieJcs arhu- 

 tifolia), and sycamore. In the ]\Iount Hamilton range is found the 

 digger june, and on many of the foothills of this range and of the 

 Santa Cruz, chamiso (A(f< nostoma fnKcicitbitiiin), .sage {Artinrisia 

 Cdlifnniird), highland o'i\\<. (Qiicirns irializcni), scrub ox\\i{Q. dinnoxa), 

 ceanothus, and various manzanitas form larire areas of d<'!i«' chap- 

 arral. 



