Key to Bar Graphs

Color Codes

The colored columns of the graph display seasonal occurrence categories. These categories reflect each species' status in appropriate habitat, appropriate season, and appropriate time of day. The color codes are as follows:

A Note on Irruptive Species
Irruptive (pale yellow) means that in certain years species occurrence is much higher. Hovering your cursor over the pale yellow box in the checklist will also show how likely the species is to be observed in a non-irruptive year.

Symbols Following Species’ Name

Two sets of symbols may immediately follow a species’ name in the first column.

An asterisk * indicates species which should be documented with a detailed description, photographs, etc., and submitted to the appropriate North American Birds county editor. You can find a list of county editors in Northern California at fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/afn.html#nocal.

(L: Number) following a species’ name indicates that this species can best be found at the locality(ies) so numbered on the checklist's map. For example, Blue-winged Teal is followed by (L:10, 11, 18). This indicated Blue-winged Teal are more likely to be found at 10-Davis Wetlands, 11-Yolo Bypass, and 18-Bridgeway Island Pond.

Habitat Codes

In the second column, the habitat categories are listed in order of each species’ preference. For example, SWC indicates this species’ habitat preferences are Savannah followed by oak and pine Woodlands, and lastly Chaparral. The following codes may be found in the Habitat column, and indicate those habitats in which each species is likely to be found:
A - Aerial: usually seen in flight
C - Chaparral: dense foothill shrub lands
Cl - Cliffs: natural and artificial (dams, bridges, buildings)
F - Fields: Agriculture fields and pasture (also includes landfills)
H - Human habitation: cities, suburbs, and urban parks
M - Marshes: tule, cattails and other emergent vegetation (includes flooded rice fields)
Mu - Mudflats: flooded fields lacking emergent vegetation
O - Open water: lakes, rivers, creeks, ponds and sloughs
R - Riparian: trees and shrubs near shorelines of rivers, streams and ponds
S - Savannah: grasslands with scattered oaks
W - Woodland: open stands of oaks and foothill pine
wide - Widespread in a great variety of habitats

Nesting Codes

The third column provides information on breeding status in the checklist area.
N - known nester
RN - rare nester
? - suspected nester
FN - former nester, i.e. a species which previously nested in the area but apparently does so no longer.

Back to Checklist