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 – Lewis’s Woodpecker
Christmas Bird Counts Excitement Mounts!
Four Wonderful Events!
Friday, December 12th 8:30 a.m. Benicia CBC Pre-count Starting at Benicia Community Park
This trip will highlight and scout out several locations for the upcoming Benicia Christmas Bird Count.
Species observed can be recorded for the count week.
Sunday, December 14th at 9:00 a.m. Christmas Bird Count for Kids at American Canyon Wetlands
Children, bring your parents and a brown bag lunch, water bottle, and come join us to look for birds at American Canyon Wetlands on Sunday, December 14th. We will meet at 9:00 a.m. near the parking area, review birding strategies, have a quick binocular training, break into small groups, and bird throughout the wetlands. We will reconvene to share bird observations, and hear each teams’ highlights. This half-day CBC4Kids is designed as a fun activity for kids aged 7-16 and modeled after the traditional CBCs geared largely towards adults and birding clubs. We will introduce students to citizen science collection techniques and teach them how to use eBird, Cornell Universities’ International Database for bird observations. Parents and their children will join birding team leaders in a fun day of celebrating nature in this wonderful wildlife preserve. Remember to dress in layers and be prepared for the predicted weather. Aa a treat at the end of our morning a Special Friendly Raptor from Napa Wildlife Rescue will join us for up close and personal viewing!
Monday, December 15th Benicia Christmas Bird Count – Time varies based on your team
We’d be delighted if you could join us for a day of birding at this year’s Benicia Christmas Bird Count (BCBC). The Benicia Count was founded in 1930 (95 years ago!) and this year Tom Slyker and Robin Leong are organizing this FUN event. The BCBC count circle includes the communities of Benicia, East Vallejo, Cordelia, West Suisun City, as well as parts of Grizzly Island and all of Grizzly Bay. We will have many teams birding the area, with experienced team leaders and various levels of hiking & walking involved. To join this year’s CBC please sign up using our Google Form by Clicking Here! or more information about the CBC: Contact Tom Slyker or phone 707-771-1918 to let us know you are interested in joining our group of birders for this year’s event. This year we will be serving Mexican food at our compilation dinner which will be held in the Community Center Room of the Church of Latter-day Saints at 1125 Southampton Road, Benicia, CA 94510.
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!
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: A Bird’s Rainbow with Bob Lewis
November 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the Napa Valley Lutheran Church
Many birds are brightly colored, others use patterned feathers for camouflage. How do these colors originate? What’s the difference between colors from pigments and physical colors? From Yellow warblers to Anna’s Hummingbirds, from Snow Geese to Brewer’s Blackbirds, each species makes unique use of the feather colors it possesses. What do the colors indicate to other birds? And do birds see the same colors we do? Bob will unravel some of the mysteries of color in birds with a little chemistry, a bit of physics, and a lot of brightly colored slides.
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.
December Field Trip to Sacramento Valley Wildlife Refuges with
Wendy Cole, Bruce Thomsen & Mark Stephenson
Friday/Saturday, December 5th/6th
Trip Details:
Our next field trip will be to a number of our incredible National and State Wildlife Refuges that dot the Sacramento Valley. We will begin at Colusa NWR and then head onto the Sacramento NWR. (Our route may vary based on recent eBird checklists and a pre-trip exploration.) All of the Sanctuaries host a wide variety of Ducks and Geese. We should have excellent views of Cinnamon, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, American and Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Pintails, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked and Ruddy Ducks as well as White- fronted, Snow, and Ross’s Geese. Along the way we should be able to locate flocks of Long-billed Curlews, Dunlin, Least and other migrating shorebirds, as well as White-faced Ibis, Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans. Raptors will also be on our agenda with Red-tailed, Merlins, Coopers, Sharp-shinned and Bald Eagles expected along with possible Rough-legged Hawks and Short-eared Owls. Many passerines and rarities will also be on our radar.
For those wishing to make this a 2-day event we will stay over in Williams and have dinner at Granzella’s. On Saturday we will head onto the CA Fish & Wildlife Gray Lodge Sanctuary near Gridley. There will be many flooded fields along the way where we hope to view Tundra Swans, Ducks and Geese at close range. More details to follow. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Waved Albatross