INTRODUCTION 
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LIST OF BIRDS OF SANTA CLARA VALLEY AND SANTA 
CRUZ MOUNTAINS, EXCLUSIVE OF WATER BIRDS. 
By Walter K. Fisher. 
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 thyrsi for us), 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 quantity of heat for the year that the 
region is really a peculiar humid Upper Sonoran, or perhaps a mix¬ 
ture of the two Sonoran zones. Characteristic valley types are the 
white oak ( Quercus lobata), blue oak (Q. douglasii ), valley live-oak 
(Q. agrifolia), bay tree, buckeye, Christmas berry ( Heteromeles arbu 
tifolia ), and sycamore. In the Mount Hamilton range is found the 
digger pine, and on many of the foothills of this range and of the 
Santa Cruz, chamiso ( Adenostoma fasciculatum), sage ( Artemisia 
californica), highland oak ( Quercus wislizeni), scrub oak (Q. dumosa ), 
ceanothus, and various manzanitas form large areas of dense chap¬ 
arral. 
