The Mendocino coast is a winter birding hotspot, with more than 130 species regularly found on each of our Christmas Bird Counts. Instead of trying to review all of them in one presentation, and wearing everyone out, we have created a series of video tutorials on the Mendocino Audubon YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mendocinoaudubon6053/videos Look under “Playlists” for “Birding Tutorials.” There you will find ten short videos focused on certain taxonomic groups, providing more detail on what to look for when trying to identify these birds in the field. You can go through those at your own pace, skipping through the stuff you already know and slowing down to let the new information soak in.

Having done those, we now feel free to loosen up and have some fun with the annual slide show of winter birds. Instead of trying to teach you anything, we want to find out what you’ve already learned. In the last couple of years we learned that some of you really know your birds (and we’re taking credit for that), so look for some new challenges this year.

David Jensen and Tim Bray are the compilers of the Manchester and Fort Bragg Counts, and past and current Presidents of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society.

Find the Zoom link at www.mendocinocoastaudubon.org