At the corner of Balboa Park, at the intersection of Upas and 28th Street, the sidewalk is dedicated to two kinds of San Diego-area birds: “Perching Birds of San Diego” and “Local Birds of North Park”. There is a little overlap between the two lists; both highlight the wonderful weirdness exhibited by ornithologists of the past when these birds were named.
Many of these birds are listed and described on Birds of Balboa Park.
As you can see from the photos, these birds are listed by way of engraving them in the sidewalk. I don’t see any particular order to the birds, so I’m reproducing their names in the order that they appear on the sidewalk, reading down each column.
“A bird’s eye view of land and sea.”
“Oh feathered world of beak and wing…”
“The need to nest. The urge to sing.”
Perching Birds of San Diego
The “perching birds” are on the sidewalk along 28th Street. Apparently, not all birds are made for perching. It depends on their feet. This part of the sidewalk specifically honors those San Diego birds that are made for perching.
I’m sure there’s a reason somewhere, but it’s not engraved in stone… or cement.
| N. Rough-Winged Swallow | Cliff Swallow | Purple Finch | Loggerhead Shrike |
| Red-Breasted Nuthatch | Western Tanager | Scrub Jay | Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher |
| Rufous-Crowned Sparrow | Spotted Towhee | Bullock’s Oriole | Orange-Crowned Warbler |
| Gray Vireo | Dark-Eyed Junco | Grasshopper Sparrow | Brewer’s Blackbird |
| Marsh Wren | Hooded Oriole | Scott’s Oriole | Willow Flycatcher |
| Fox Sparrow | Song Sparrow | American Goldfinch | White-Breasted Nuthatch |
| California Thrasher | Brown-Headed Cowbird | Purple Martin | Hutton’s Vireo |
| Lark Sparrow | Rock Wren | Pacific-Slope Flycatcher | Canyon Wren |
| Black Phoebe | Olive-Sided Flycatcher | Lazuli Bunting | Crissal Thrasher |
| Tree Swallow | Yellow-Rumped Warbler | Western Meadowlark | Steller’s Jay |
| Dusky Flycatcher | Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher | Ash-Throated Flycatcher | Plain Titmouse |
| Sage Sparrow | Bushtit | Great-Tailed Grackle | Northern Mockingbird |
| Le Conte’s Thrasher | Verdin | Black-Chinned Sparrow | Bewick’s Wren |
| Lawrence’s Goldfinch | American Robin | Common Yellowthroat | Warbling Vireo |
| California Gnatcatcher | Lesser Goldfinch | California Towhee | Pygmy Nuthatch |
| Tricolored Blackbird | Green-Tailed Towhee | Western Wood-Peewee | Bendire’s Thrasher |
| Say’s Phoebe | Black-Headed Grosbeak | Vermilion Flycatcher | American Crow |
| Wrentit | Western Kingbird | Western Bluebird | Brown Creeper |
| Bell’s Vireo | Violet-Green Swallow | Horned Lark | Mountain Chickadee |
| Yellow-Breasted Chat | Cassin’s Kingbird | Barn Swallow | Common Raven |
| Red-Winged Blackbird | Black-Throated Sparrow | Blue Grosbeak | |
| Lucy’s Warbler | Phainopepla | Yellow Warbler | |
| Chipping Sparrow | Cactus Wren | Savannah Sparrow |
Local Birds of North Park
The “North Park” birds are listed along Upas Street. There are, perhaps unsurprisingly, fewer North Park birds than there are “perching birds” in all of San Diego. Some are duplicates, for the obvious reason that birds in North Park are also birds in San Diego, and some of them will be perching birds. Whether the birds that aren’t duplicates are also not perching birds is beyond my ken, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if hawks, kestrels, and pigeons are not perching birds.
| Red-Tailed Hawk | Costa’s Hummingbird | House Sparrow | Starling |
| Cliff Swallow | Great Blue Heron | Nuttall’s Woodpecker | House Finch |
| Common Pigeon | Audobon’s Warbler | American Crow | Bushtit |
| Mocking Bird | Yellow-Rumped Oriole | Blue-Crowned Parakeet | American Kestrel |
| White-Crowned Sparrow | Morning Dove | Great Horned Owl | |
| Hooded Oriole | Red-Crowned Parrot | Common Raven | |
| Black Phoebe | Anna’s Hummingbird | Scrub Jay |
Why did I make this page?
I first noticed these birds by way of noticing that a few of them make for humorous superhero names. And sometimes even serious superhero names. I could easily see the Hooded Oriole in a fifties four-color comic book, and the California Thrasher in a nineties grim comic book.
The Dusky Flycatcher and the Vermilion Flycatcher could go both ways. And I’m not even going to mention (well, I guess I just did) the one that looks like a porn name in a fifties adventure parody.
And every time I saw these names I kept thinking, there must be a page that lists them all. And every time I go back home it turns out that there is not, or if there is, it isn’t easily discoverable.
Well, now it is. If there are more birds along some other street I frankly don’t want to know about them. (Just kidding: if I’ve missed a San Diego bird sidewalk somewhere, let me know where it is.)
More Information
- Birds of Balboa Park
- “Let your avian interests take flight with this guide to Balboa Park's feathered friends.”
More honorary blog post
- Let mortal tongues awake
- Samuel Francis Smith’s America—more commonly known as “My Country, ’Tis of Thee”— is short, direct, and a wonderful hymn to God as the soul of liberty. It’s a perfect hymn for the Fourth of July. It’s also very easy to play using the piano script from 42 Astounding Scripts.
- Critical (fantasy) race theory
- It isn’t racist to address D&D characters by their race. D&D character races are things the character can do. It is racist to imply that real world races are as inferior and superior as fantasy races. Woke racism is still racism.
- The True History of the Hare and the Tortoise
- And even to this day, “a glorious victory for the forces of swiftness” is a catch-phrase in the house of the snail.
- Sparkling lights for Christmas
- This POV-Ray scene file will animate sparkling lights against a green background. If you want to make three dimensional images with lots of similar objects and then animate them, this will show you how to do it.
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- How still we see thee lie. Play this song on your Mac’s command line with the piano script.
- Two more pages with the topic honorary blog post, and other related pages
More San Diego
- San Diego: 5th Avenue Books and Bluestocking Books
- Facing each other across Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest, these two great bookstores complement each other well.
- San Diego, California: Footnote Books
- A crowded, tiny bookstore off the edge of Hillcrest in San Diego, this is a very good bookstore with very little space.
- Two Seasons of San Diego
- A couple of weeks ago, in San Diego’s wonderfully sunny September, I posted a photo looking over the canyon. Here is a similar photo from yesterday morning, showing our other season. September was Sunny & Mild, we are now in Misty & Mild. We do, technically, have a rainy season, but our rainy season is mostly Sunny & Mild.
- Carl DeMaio talks about expanding the San Diego Convention Center
- Looks like San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio is backing an expansion of the convention center to ensure that Comic-Con stays in San Diego. The anchor, who I can’t pick out of the Channel 6 line-up, mentions both Anaheim and Vegas as places that would like to entice the convention away.
- Dark Thursday’s iPad goes far
- Give them this: when everybody else’s cell phones were dying, my iPad and Verizon allowed me to make fun of SDG&E’s twitter feed throughout the night.
- 10 more pages with the topic San Diego, and other related pages
