{"id":14,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weebly-import-page-9"},"modified":"2026-06-01T03:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:40:59","slug":"askascientist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sfbbo-test.twomoons.systems\/staging\/1924\/askascientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask A Scientist – San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In March 2020, we started Ask A Scientist<\/strong> on our social media where we covered a different topic each week and invited people to ask questions. Click the topics below to learn more about them, then click the images on the right to see a few of the questions and answers we received!
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California Least Terns<\/summary>\n

The endangered California Least Tern ranges from the Bay Area to the tip of Baja California. Historically, there were no breeding Least Terns in the San Francisco Bay except Monterey, but the creation of salt ponds provided suitable breeding habitat for them. We monitor a colony in Eden Landing – one of only 5 colonies in Northern California!<\/span><\/span>In March 2020, volunteers helped us place tern decoys at Eden Landing. The goal is to attract more endangered California Least Terns and encourage them to nest and form colonies at the site. This technique is called social attraction.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Thanks to SFBBO Plover & Tern Program Director Ben Pearl for answering these questions.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

California Gulls<\/summary>\n

Did you know that California Gulls did not breed in San Francisco Bay until 1980? Prior to that, they only bred inland at saline lakes like Mono Lake. Now nearly 50,000 California Gulls come to breed in San Francisco Bay every spring. This will be SFBBO\u2019s 40th year monitoring their population growth and movements.<\/span><\/span>These birds are predators and can eat the eggs and chicks of shorebirds like threatened Western Snowy Plovers, which is why monitoring their breeding is so important.\u200b<\/span><\/span>Want to hear more about the impact of gulls and the work that SFBBO is doing? Check out <\/span>this KALW radio story<\/span><\/a> that featured California Gulls at Mono Lake and San Francisco Bay.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Thanks to SFBBO’s Waterbird team for answering these questions.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\u200bHabitat restoration<\/summary>\n

The transition zone between tidal marshes and upland areas is an ecosystem that many types of wildlife rely on, but much of it has been wiped out by urbanization in the Bay Area. SFBBO has been working to restore plant communities in these areas for nearly a decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u200bInvasive plants are an ongoing problem in many of our restoration sites because they often out-compete natives and reduce biodiversity. One of our goals is to promote a plant community that is not only abundant, but diverse. To track this goal, SFBBO\u2019s Habitats team conducts seasonal plant phenology surveys at our restoration sites.\u200b<\/span><\/span>If you\u2019d like to stay involved, keep an eye out for our photo spots along the trail at the Bair Island Wildlife Refuge in Redwood City. You can help us track plant community progression by taking pictures at these signs and sharing with us on social media.Thanks to SFBBO’s Habitats team for answering these questions.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>

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Bird Banding<\/summary>\n

Did you know that SFBBO runs one of the few year-round bird banding stations in the US? We band about 2,500 birds per year with unique ID tags that identify individuals when we recapture them. We can use this data to look at population trends and life history patterns of resident and migratory species over time. Some of our tagged birds have lived 11 years!<\/span><\/span>SFBBO uses banding data from the Coyote Creek Field Station to track population trends over time. For a 20-year period between 1999 and 2018, bird populations on average have been declining. This graph shows two population groups: resident species like the Song Sparrow and Common Yellowthroat, and neotropical migrant species like the Yellow Warbler and Wilson’s Warbler. Both populations groups are declining at similar rates, despite one group (residents) staying in the Bay Area year-round, and the other group (neotropical migrants) traveling hundreds of miles to winter in Central and South America.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Thanks to SFBBO Landbird Program Director Josh Scullen for answering these questions.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Snowy plovers
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Since 2003, SFBBO has been monitoring these small ground-nesting shorebirds in the South Bay, where most Snowy Plovers in the San Francisco Bay are found. The Pacific Coast Population has been listed as a Federally Threatened \u201cDistinct Population Segment\u201d since 1993 due to habitat loss, human disturbance, and predation. The SF Bay population has averaged ~200 adults in recent years (almost 10% of the entire Pacific Coast Population). Fun fact: Snowy Plovers are polyandrous; males and females share incubation duties, yet males raise the chicks while the female starts a second nest with another male!<\/span><\/span>Snowy Plovers lay eggs directly on the ground in lined scrapes, so camouflage is important for nest success. Snowy Plovers select nest sites with oyster shells, which provide camouflage for adults, eggs, and chicks. Past SFBBO research has indicated that nest success may also improve when Snowy Plovers nest within Least Tern colonies, likely because Least Terns aggressively defend their colony from predators. SFBBO works closely with partners such as the US Fish & Wildlife Service to provide high quality habitat for both of these imperiled species!<\/span><\/span>If you want to help threatened Western Snowy Plovers, keep an eye out for our next Mud Stomp habitat enhancement event!<\/span><\/span>\u200b<\/p><\/div>

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Thanks to SFBBO Plover & Tern Program Director Ben Pearl for answering these questions.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Colonial Waterbirds<\/summary>\n

What is a \u201ccolonial waterbird\u201d? These are birds that feed or live on the water and breed in groups called colonies. Colonies can include one or multiple species. We have many types of colonial waterbirds in San Francisco Bay, including herons, egrets, cormorants, terns, gulls, and shorebirds. April-June are the peak of the breeding season, so it\u2019s a great time to learn more about our local colonies!<\/span><\/span>SFBBO\u2019s Colonial Waterbird Monitoring Program has been tracking the nesting behaviors of colonial waterbirds since the 1980s – all thanks to the efforts of citizen scientists. Volunteers adopt colonies to monitor throughout the season and the data they collect help land managers to protect habitats for birds and people. Some of our volunteers have been monitoring the same colony for over 20 years!<\/span><\/span>SFBBO monitors colonial waterbird colonies all around the Bay Area at a variety of sites. Some of the colonies are in more remote areas, but some of them nest in more urban habitats – including a colony in downtown Oakland!<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/div>

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Thanks to SFBBO’s Waterbird team for answering these questions.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Habitat Gardening<\/summary>\n

Urban development of the Bay Area has caused historically widespread habitats to be fragmented into smaller separated areas. As these areas shrink, the resources needed to support native animals are depleted, causing population declines and increased stress on ecosystems. Fortunately, there are ways for us to help – native gardens can help alleviate the loss of habitat by providing small areas of respite for the animals that need it most.<\/span><\/span>Here are some California native plants for your backyard bird sanctuary:<\/span><\/span>1. Pink flowering currant (<\/span>Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum<\/span><\/em>) is a shrub that draws in hummingbirds with its flowers and attracts thrushes, quail, towhees, robins, and finches with its berries.<\/span><\/span>2. Twinberry (<\/span>Lonicera involucrata<\/span><\/em>) is a shrub that attracts hummingbirds when blossoming and robins, Wrentits, towhees, thrushes, Western Bluebird, and Chestnut-backed Chickadee when fruiting.<\/span><\/span>3. *Habitat Ecologist favorite* California sagebrush (<\/span>Artemisia californica<\/span><\/em>) is a shrub with delicate fragrant leaves that provides excellent shelter for birds. It is also known to attract Rufous-crowned Sparrows.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Additional design features and tips for your habitat garden:<\/span><\/span>