Date: 10/20/25 10:24 pm From: Philip Unitt via groups.io <unitt...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Notable specimens received via Project Wildlife at the San Diego Natural History Museum
Dear friends,
Injured or sick birds that cannot be rehabilitated by Project Wildlife or Sea World can still serve a valuable purpose being preserved for the permanent record in the research collection at the San Diego Natural History Museum--and they often tell us about types of dispersal that we birders never observe. The most notable additions to the collection from this source this summer and fall...
Black Storm-Petrel, 28 September 2025, NASSCO shipyard onSan Diego Bay near Barrio Logan: juvenile female reportedly flew into a beam ona ship (SDNHM 58377). Unfortunately the record doesn’t say if it was at nightor by day. Whenever we receive storm-petrels from on shore or inland, they are invariably juveniles in the fall (except for the rare Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel in winter). Linda King informed me of two other Black Storm-Petrelsbrought to Project Wildlife, then transferred to Sea World: another from NASSCOon 23 September and one from Jamacha Road, El Cajon, on 25 September. I haven’tyet heard if they survived to be released. I can only surmise that juvenile storm-petrelsfledging on Los Coronados Islands become disoriented by city lights and end upflying toward them. This latest Black Storm-Petrel was extremely fat, suggesting it had been well supplied by its parents and only recently fledged. We now have over 25 specimens of such inland storm-petrels, of allthree species nesting on Los Coronados.
American Bittern, 30 September 2025, National City: adultfemale found entangled in a passion-fruit vine with a broken left tarsus (SDNHM58376). The location was 1 mile north of the Sweetwater River, the closest siteof any habitat even marginally suitable for an American Bittern.
Ridgway’s Rail, 9 August 2025, Normal Heights, San Diego:juvenile female found injured with a small patch of feathers missing from theright side of the breast, suggesting that it hit an electrical wire, thencrashed to the ground (SDNHM 58346). Of the various specimens of Ridgway’s Railwe have received from atypical habitat, this is the second farthest fromsuitable habitat (one from El Cajon was the farthest). Essentially all havebeen in juvenile plumage around this time of year.
Guadalupe Murrelet, 28 August 2025, came aboard a boat somewhereoffshore (SDNHM 58362). My attempts to contact the finder to get any moreprecise locality have not yet been answered—I’ll keep trying.
Red-whiskered Bulbul, 17 June 2025, "originally foundoff Greenfield Dr.", El Cajon: juvenile female (recently fledged); hadbeen kept in captivity ~8 days before transfer to Project Wildlife (SDNHM58262). The odd circumstances suggest the bird could have been raised incaptivity. Dispersers from the population established in the San Gabriel Valleyof Los Angeles County have been seen south to southern Orange County but notyet in San Diego County, as far as I know.
Blackburnian Warbler, 13 October 2025, Linda Vista, San Diego:immature male found in shrubbery near a multi-story medical building onCardinal Court—therefore about 0.8 mile from Kearny Mesa Community Park, wherea Blackburnian was seen a few days earlier (SDNHM 58375). Only 2 previousspecimens preserved from San Diego County, 13 previous specimens fromCalifornia as a whole.
Black-and-white Warbler, 21 September 2025, between CarmelMt. and Del Mar Mesa: immature male hit a garage door (SDNHM 58374).
Good birding,
Philip UnittSan Diego
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