Connecting People with Birds
Our mission is to share the fun of birding, promote conservation and scientific understanding of wild birds and their habitats, and offer engaging, science-based education emphasizing the communities of Napa and Solano counties.
Learn more about us
Get Involved
Napa-Solano Birds is predominantly a volunteer organization. To make our programs successful we need membership involvement in all of our activities. Donating even a few hours of time can help a lot. There are all sorts of fun ways to get involved – from helping out with a classroom visit, bird walk or special event, to monitoring your own area for breeding birds.
Bird Family Galleries
Welcome to Napa Solano Audubon Society!
Bird of the Week – Tundra Swan
Christmas Bird Counts Excitement Mounts!
Four Wonderful Events!
Christmas Bird Count for Kids Thanks
Many thanks to our Volunteers and Mentors from American Canyon High School for Helping Out with this event!
Benicia Christmas Bird Count Thanks
Many thanks to Tom Slyker and Robing Leong for all of their efforts organizing this year’s Benicia CBC! The day was extraordinary with many species and birds recorded for this year’s CBC. Many thanks to our Volunteer Birding Teams and their participants. Special thanks to Cindy and Lydia Slyker for organizing this year’s delicious CBC Culmination Dinner!
Thursday, January 1st – Angwin Christmas Bird Count – Time varies based on your team
Start the New Year off with a blast by participating in the Angwin CBC! Birding opportunities are available throughout the count circle including the Napa Valley, Pope Valley, Lakes Berryessa, Hennessey, and Angwin. We have an excellent crew of experienced area leaders so everyone is encouraged to take part. The count is an important measure of local birdlife, and has gained added importance as a tool to monitor changes in numbers & distribution of birds in the wildfire burn zone that impacted about forty percent of the count circle in 2020. Our compilation dinner begins at 5:00 p.m. at the Carnegie Building – 1360 Oak Ave. St. Helena, CA 94574 – situated at the corner of Oak Ave & Adams St., where we will share highlights of each count teams’ birding adventures. For details & how to participate: Contact Murray Berner! Please Contact Claudia Zinn if you would like top attend the culmination Dinner by clicking here.
January Field Trip to Consumnes River Preserve with
Wendy Cole, Bruce Thomsen & Mark Stephenson
Saturday, January 17th 8:30 a.m.
The Cosumnes River Preserve protects one of California’s last remaining undammed rivers and its associated ecosystems: wetlands, riparian oak forest, grasslands, and sloughs. It is home to more than 250 species of birds, over 40 fish species and more than 230 plant species. We will walk nature trails observing woodland and riparian birds and boardwalks searching for close-up views of waterfowl. Next on the trip we will head over to the Woodbridge Ecological Preserve. This preserve provides California’s largest area of freshwater marsh wintering habitat. Featured here are the majestic sandhill crane, along with geese, swans and many other waterbirds. The trip will conclude at Nature Conservancy’s Staten Island. Staten Island has been a wintering destination for sandhill cranes moving along the Pacific Flyway for more than 40 years.Situated in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Staten Island’s 9,200 acres are located between the North and South Forks of the Mokelumne River, with thousands of acres of crops in production annually, that provide both foraging and roosting habitat for these majestic cranes. In cooperation with several partners, the Nature Conservancy acquired the island in 2001 to protect its important role as a place for wildlife-friendly agriculture to support conservation along the flyway. This key stop is a wonderful location for viewing Sandhill Cranes. We hope to observe their graceful dances and bugling calls along with Cackling Geese and many other ducks and swans. Register by clicking here: https://forms.gle/gRAmYH8H8R6TqSao8
Winged Migration Expo
Saturday, January 31st to Sunday, February 1st
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Stay tuned for many events, including birding field trips, expert speakers, educational tabling, interactive kids activities, food and drink vendors, area hikes, and historic ship viewing are scheduled for this year’s Winged Migration Expo. Venue activities will be held at Building 69 Waterfront Ave. on Mare Island (just off Nimitz Ave.). Many Birding Field Trips will be held throughout the weekend led by experienced Birders. For more information, a complete schedule, and to see how you can support this year’s festival visit their website: wingedmigrationexpo.com
Our NSAS Board has Voted to Participate in the
CA Breeding Bird Atlas Project.
What is a Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA)? And why is it so important? A Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA) is a large-scale, multi-year project that documents the breeding distribution and activity of bird species within a specific geographic area, such as a state or county. It provides crucial data for understanding changes in bird populations and their habitats, informing conservation and management efforts. This current State-wide project, being coordinated by the California Bird Atlas organization, with well- known birder, Van Pierszalowski serving as the Executive Director, is especially important, as California is one of only 6 states that has never engaged in a state-wide atlas. In fact, only 16 of our 58 counties have ever published a BBA. We are proud of the work by our many volunteers who completed 2 of the 16 state-wide atlases in both Napa and Solano Counties in years past.
However, it has been 32 years since NSAS completed the field work for the first Napa Breeding Bird Atlas in 1993. The information was published 10 years later in 2003. The field work for the first Solano County BBA was held from 2005-2010 more than 15 years ago and was published in 2014. Many changes have occurred in our area during the past 15–30 year span as a result of housing and urban development that are sure to have impacted birds and their habitats since our last BBAs were completed. A new BBA would be of huge value to document the changes to birds, our landscape, and consequential conservation needs and priorities.
In order to support this endeavor, we are attempting to raise $10,000 to contribute to the success of this project. We are hoping that our members will value this project as much as our Board of Directors and support us during the coming months both as volunteer birders, and in or efforts to raise these funds. We would like to thank our members in advance for their incredible support over the years. We are hopeful this BBA Project will continue our important work of supporting birds and protecting critical habitats throughout our region and across our state. To help us with the costs of this project, please select the Donate Button at the top of this page. To read more about the BBA CLICK HERE!
NSAS Monthly Speaker Series Presents: “Birding from Here to There” with Harry Fuller
January 8th at 7:00 p.m. at the Napa Valley Lutheran Church
We will explore what San Francisco’a natural history was like BEFORE the missions and the Gold Rush. Which bird species became known to science because they were found in the Bay Area? Then we will digitally explore the best birding spots along I-5 heading north. Where is there a Lewis’s Woodpecker community near the freeway? When we get just inside the Oregon border, we’ll spend some time looking for Great Gray Owls.
Harry Fuller has lived in Oregon since 2007. Before retirement he managed TV and Internet newsrooms in San Francisco and London. Harry has written four natural history books, including Birding Harney County; Great Gray Owl in California, Oregon and Washington; and San Francisco’s Natural History, Sand Dunes to Streetcars. Oregon State University Press published Edge of Awe in 2019. It is an anthology of essays about Malheur and the Steens. Fuller contributed the chapter on Common Nighthawks at Malheur. He has been leading bird trips and teaching birding classes since the 1990s. Currently he leads trips for the Malheur Field Station, Salem Audubon Society, and the Klamath Bird Observatory, and provides private guiding service. His birding journal is online: ecowise.wordpress.com.
Weekly Field Trips to Napa & Solano County Hotspots
with Andrew Ford are in Full Swing!
Everyone is Welcome to Join In!
Our Next Beginner Field Trip to American Canyon Wetlands
with Carol Boykin and Tom Slyker is Sunday, December 7th from 9:00a.m. – Noon
So, if you are dipping a toe into birding, or dusting off a pair of binoculars for the first time in a while and you want some company as you learn about birding, we’d be delighted to have you join us for our Beginners Bird Walks. We hold Beginner’s Walks at the American Canyon Wetlands Edge Park on two Sundays each month beginning at 9:00 a.m. No reservations are necessary, just plan to show up and enjoy being outdoors for a little while. Sign up for Field Trip Notices by clicking on the Activity Sign-up Button at the top of our Home Page or Check our Calendar for the next Beginner’s Bird Walk. These walks are open to birders of all levels and ages. It’s free, it’s fun, and loaner binoculars are on hand if you need them. Napa Solano Audubon membership is not required. Karina Garcia, Carol Boykin, and Tom Slyker lead these walks. They are citizen science volunteers and participate in the Napa Solano Audubon’s CA Birdseasons project at this wetlands park location. NSAS has been monitoring birds at this site every Monday morning since 2016. This monitoring has provided the participants with a wealth of knowledge about the birds you might see at this location. They have been observing numerous species of waterfowl, a variety of shorebirds including American Avocets and Black Necked Stilts, as well as a variety of raptors, while looking and occasionally spotting the secretive Sora and Virginia Rails. Be on the lookout for our upcoming eBlast on trip details and registration timelines.