feat AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
Pirie Osea Uy DU BON Ss 0: GRE Y 
2001 NorRTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
Number 43 September, 1942 
Birds of Banning, California 
By BELLE WILSON* 
IF BIRDS are attracted by beautiful natural scenery it is little wonder that 
many spend their winters in Banning. The glistening snow-capped moun- 
tains on either side of the city make a sublime scene, especially when viewed 
through the beautiful rows of Italian cypress trees which line San Gorgonio 
Avenue. Banning may justly be proud of its beauty and healthful climate. 
I have feeding at my back door every day a pair of California jays, a 
pair of brown towhees, a pair of California thrashers, several mockingbirds, 
and a flock of Gambel’s sparrows, besides a large number of unwanted 
English sparrows. These birds, together with Brewer’s blackbirds and 
linnets, seem to be our commonest birds. Besides the birds that come daily 
for food I have had occasionally in my yard Anna’s hummingbird, chipping 
sparrows, red-shafted flicker, cedar waxwing, Audubon’s warbler, green- 
backed goldfinch, Brewer’s blackbird and sharp-shinned hawk. 
Anna’s hummingbird, which has frequently visited the fiowering quince 
in my yard, is the only hummer that remains with us all winter. It is an 
early nest builder. In the middle of February I was washing dishes before - 
a kitchen window, when I noticed a female Anna’s hummingbird flitting 
about the interior of a bush which grows almost against the window. 
Watching the bird closely, I discovered that it was collecting cobwebs. 
That could mean only one thing—it was building a nest somewhere, for 
hummingbirds use cobwebs to bind nesting materials together, and to tie 
the nest to the branch. Then I recalled that last year I had secured a 
very early record of the Anna’s nest building. On February 1, 1941, I 
was on a bird-walk led by Mr. Frank Gander, of the staff of the Natural 
History Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego. He conducted our group to 
an evergreen tree and pointed out a tiny nest which, without glasses, 
looked like a cone, but with my binoculars I saw an almost completed nest 
of the Anna’s hummingbird. The female hummer accommodatingly came 
to the nest while we watched, but, discovering she was observed, dashed 
away. I returned to this nest several times later. My records show that 
on March 23 the nest contained two young birds almost ready to fly, and 
as I watched through my glasses one stood on the edge of the nest exercising 
its wings. They vibrated so rapidly that they became only a blur. Its 
*Miss Wilson, long a member of the Illinois Audubon Society, recently became a 
resident of Banning, California. This is a portion of a paper read by her before the 
Women’s Club of that city. 
