The answer reveals a first principle applicable to complex ecosystems.

https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=299785

The loss of our local California Quail is even more concerning given how common they used to be in San Francisco.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/some-birds-were-no-shows-in-this-years-annual-sf-count/

The Eggle has landed: Jackie laid an egg on Jan. 8; a second one is expected in a matter of days.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/its-egg-time-for-big-bears-beloved-eagles/2288107/?akmobile=y&akdevice=androidphone&sslEnabled=true&amp

About 97% of the state’s rice is grown in and around Sacramento, drawing more than 230 different species of birds.

The birds fly in from as far as Northern Alaska and stop in Northern California to eat and rest before continuing south.

https://www.kcra.com/amp/article/california-s-rice-crop-attracts-migratory-birds-sacramento-region/30476657

It's a migration dating back millennia. Their arrival sends bird enthusiasts and conservationists flocking to the Sacramento Valley to catch the noisy spectacle. And for the past 20 years, there's been Chico's Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway celebrating the birds' landing.

The five-day festival starts next Wednesday. With festivities only days away, we answer some questions about this very Californian winter roost.

https://amp.redding.com/amp/2844105001

Want to hike and look for birds? Grab your binoculars and head out to this weekend’s Morro Bay Bird Festival.

The annual three-day festival features 140 events, including field trips, workshops, presentations and special activities for bird enthusiasts.

https://amp.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article239399478.html

When it comes to enjoying birds in your own backyard, winter is a season of both copious entertainment and a few practical challenges. On the positive side, this is the time of year when we enjoy the greatest variety and abundance of birds, as northern migrants find refuge in the mild climate of coastal California, and the relative scarcity of natural food encourages visits to feeding stations.

https://www.marinij.com/2020/01/19/there-are-lots-of-birds-in-winter-invite-them-into-your-yard/amp/

In one sweep of the eye, roughly 100,000 snow geese lifted off before us, filling the sky with wings, squawks and honks.

Yet right alongside, cars ripped by at 80 mph on Interstate 5, the drivers with nary a clue of the scene unfolding so nearby.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/amp/Waterfowl-fill-sky-in-winter-spectacle-14994054.php

The world is heating up. According to NASA's Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index, 19 of the past 21 years have been the hottest on record. This dramatic increase in temperature and other more subtle climate changes have been pronounced in the California desert, where temperatures have increased almost four degrees in the past 100 years.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/479622-birds-in-californias-desert-are-dying?amp

Donnelly-Greenan has seen some disturbing items in the stomachs of remote seabirds: bottle caps and even toy army men in the bellies of albatross, for example. The risks of plastic pollution aren’t confined to ingestion, either. Even airborne birds become the bycatch of abandoned fishing lines. But Donnelly-Greenan, a marine biologist at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California, is assembling public data to do something about it.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/01/28/plastic-pollution-birds/