Table
Pyrrhuloxia – Accepted |
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1. 24 Feb–08 Mar 1971 |
Heise Springs IMP |
1971-002 |
1 |
||
and 31 Dec 1971–27 Mar 1972 |
1972-002 |
1 |
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and 22 Jan–23 Mar 1973 |
1984-079 |
10 |
|||
2. 17 Dec 1972–19 Feb 1973 |
Calipatria IMP |
1985-143 |
10 |
ph. |
|
3. 23 May 1974 |
Brock Research Center IMP |
1974-064 |
3 |
||
4. 14 Jul 1974 |
Palo Verde IMP |
1974-072 |
3 |
site not in RIV, cf. Luther et al. (1979) |
|
5. 18 Jul 1974 |
Westmorland IMP |
1974-070 |
3 |
||
6-7. 06 Jun–23 Jul 1977 |
Chemehuevi Wash SBE |
1977-067 |
4 |
Roberson (1980); & on nest on 23 July (K. Van Vuren in litt.) |
|
8-9. 23 Jul 1982 |
Corona RIV |
1983-013 |
10 |
||
10. 07–10 May 1983 |
Wilsona Gardens, Antelope Valley LA |
1983-117 |
11 |
||
11. 14 May 1983 |
Chemehuevi Wash SBE |
1987-313 |
14 |
||
12. 26–27 May 1983 |
Encinitas SD |
1986-089 |
11 |
||
13. 01 Jun 1986 |
Cottonwood Spring RIV |
1986-372 |
11 |
||
14. 19–23 Jul 1990 |
AHY |
San Miguel I. SBA |
1990-140 |
16 |
ph., AB 44:1188 |
15-18. 28 May–08 Jul 1995 |
Chemehuevi Wash SBE |
1995-056 |
21 |
Fig. 437, ph., Garrett & Singer (1998) |
|
19. 28 May–05 Jun 1996 |
El Centro IMP |
1996-122 |
22 |
||
20. 10 Jun 1998 |
Pt. Loma SD |
1999-044 |
24,30 |
accepted on re-review |
|
21. 07 Feb–13 Mar 1999 |
Costa Mesa ORA |
1999-078 |
27,31 |
ph., accepted on re-review |
|
22. 31 Jul 1999 |
AHY |
Yucca Valley SBE |
1999-130 |
25 |
ph. |
23. 27 May 2002 |
vic. Palo Verde IMP |
2002-105 |
28 |
one of two reported |
|
Pyrrhuloxia – Not accepted, identification not established |
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31 Mar–02 Apr 1988 |
Escondido SD |
1988-117 |
14 |
||
27 May 2002 |
vic. Palo Verde IMP |
2002-105 |
28 |
see table entry 23 |
|
01 Sep 2002 |
Jacumba SD |
2002-206 |
28 |
||
Pyrrhuloxia – Not submitted |
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10 Feb–29 Mar 1953 |
Mecca RIV |
14 |
AFN 7:236 |
||
07 May 1961 |
Cottonwood Spring RIV |
14 |
AFN 15:440 |
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and summer 1961 |
2 |
AFN 15:494 |
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28 Apr 1974 |
s end Salton Sea IMP |
14 |
AB 28:854 |
||
23 Dec 1977 |
Brock Research Center IMP |
14 |
AB 32:401, Garrett & Dunn (1981) |
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17 Mar 1986 |
San Diego SD |
AB 40:525 |
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30 Jul 1996 |
vic. Westmorland IMP |
FN 50:998 |
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12 Apr 1999 |
Costa Mesa ORA |
NAB 53:331, different location from 1999-078, see table entry 21 |
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01 Jun 1999 |
Newport Beach ORA |
NAB 53:434 |
Figures

Figure 437. Pyrrhuloxias have twice been found attempting to nest at Chemehuevi Wash in eastern San Bernardino County. This female, photographed on 29 May 1995, participated in the second effort (1995-056; Don Roberson).
Pyrrhuloxia
PYRRHULOXIA Cardinalis sinuata Bonaparte, 1838
Accepted: 23 (88%) |
Treated in Appendix H: no |
Not accepted: 3 |
CBRC review: all records |
Not submitted/reviewed: 9 |
Color image: none |
This species’ northwestern subspecies, C. s. fulvescens, occupies the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona south to northern Nayarit and western Durango; C. s. sinuatus occupies the Chihuahuan Desert from extreme southwestern Arizona east to south-central Texas and south through the Mexican Plateau to northern Michoacán and Querétaro; and C. s. peninsulae occupies Baja California Sur. Birds disperse generally short distances north and east of the breeding range but have strayed much farther, yielding records from southern Nevada, central and northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, northern and east-central Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and south-central Montana. The Ontario Bird Records Committee accepted the identification of a first-winter female photographed in southern Ontario during the period 23 December 2004–1 January 2005 but deferred making a final decision as to its wild status (Crins 2006). Patten (2006) identified a pattern of fall/winter vagrancy north and east of the species’ range versus spring/summer vagrancy to the west, a difference that might be explained by eastern sinuatus breeding and dispersing earlier than western fulvescens.
California’s first Pyrrhuloxia was a male that returned to Heise Springs, located north of Westmorland in Imperial County, for three consecutive winters starting in 1971 (McCaskie 1971b). After one more winter record from Imperial County came a string of 18 Pyrrhuloxias between 7 May and 31 July. All but a handful of the state’s accepted records come from the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, and two involve breeding attempts at Chemehuevi Wash, a tributary to the Colorado River located south of Needles in San Bernardino County. The first attempt, in 1977, was by a single pair; the second attempt, in 1995, involved a pair plus two nearby unmated males. The species occurs only irregularly in the Mohawk and Castle Dome Mts. of southwestern Arizona (Monson and Phillips 1981) and in the lower Colorado River Valley (Rosenberg et al. 1991). Recent field work for the Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas yielded no sightings within 60 miles of the California border (Corman and Wise-Gervais 2005).
The following coastal slope records fit the established pattern of spring/summer vagrancy: Corona, Riverside County, 23 July 1982 (two birds); Encinitas, San Diego County, 26–27 May 1983; San Miguel Island, Santa Barbara County, 19–23 July 1990; and Pt. Loma, San Diego County, 10 June 1998. The last of these, involving a “ragged” female, was not accepted during initial review due to concerns about proximity to Tijuana and San Diego. The record was, however, accepted upon re-review because it fit with the overall coastal pattern and because year-old Pyrrhuloxias normally look somewhat worn at this time of year. Another record that the Committee initially failed to endorse—the unique coastal winter record of a female present 7 February–14 March 1999 in Costa Mesa, Orange County—was also accepted at a later time.
Pyrrhuloxias do not share the Northern Cardinal’s history of large-scale importation into California, and far fewer of them are sold in northwestern Baja California, although up to five per day have been encountered in pet shops there (Hamilton 2001). As with any species generally believed to occur in California both naturally and as an escapee, determining natural occurrence for any given record—particularly in cities and close to the international border—is problematic. Unitt (2004) lamented the ever-increasing difficulty of divining the provenance of Mexican songbirds in San Diego County.
[YELLOW GROSBEAK Pheucticus chrysopeplus (Vigors, 1832) – see hypothetical section and Appendix H]