I Just Discovered a Great Website

 I recently discovered a great website, Birds of the Villages. Put together by Villages resident Bruce Blinn, this is a very useful resource for all those Birders living at The Villages Golf and Country Club in San Jose, CA.
To go to the site, click the following link:
 http://www.bruceblinn.com/photography/Villages/Birds/index.html

Below is an example of some of the useful information you will find on Bruce's website.

Birds of the Villages

 

This web site contains pictures and information about the birds that can be found in The Villages Golf and Country Club in San Jose, California. This web site is not complete; there are many birds that you may see in the Villages that are not yet included on this page. I will continue to add new birds whenever I can photograph and identify them.

You can click on any of the pictures of birds on this page to see additional pictures of that bird. You can then select any of those pictures to see a larger version of that picture.

Note: The pictures on this web site were all taken at the Villages, but the audio recordings of the birds were found on the web.

 

• Bluebird, Western

  
  The western bluebird is about 5-7 inches from beak to tail. The head, tail, and wings of the male are deep blue. They have a rusty colored breast and back and their belly is light gray. The colors of the female are much more muted. They are easily recognized; if you see a small bird and catch a glimpse of blue, it is probably a bluebird.
  The western bluebird is very common in the Villages all year long, but more so in the summer. It is one of the birds that nests in the birdhouses around the golf course. Their nesting period is from May and June. When you see a bluebird, there are usually several others nearby. You will frequently see them in the grass eating insects or flying back to a nearby tree. They frequently perch on upright posts or wires. You can find these birds all over the golf course, but they seem to be most abundant around the 9-hole golf course or holes #4 and #5 on the 18-hole golf course.
  Reference: Sibley (c2000) p401; Peterson (c2010) p288.
  rnia.

Some additional information that may be useful:

• Villages Birdhouse Map - This is a PDF file of a map showing the location of the twelve birdhouses that are located on the Villages golf courses.
• Birds of Santa Clara County - This is a PDF file from the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society showing the distribution of birds in Santa Clara County.
• Birds of California - This is a link to a Wikipedia page that lists all the birds that can be found in Califonia