Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)

Active and jumpy, these little birds seldom hold still for photography. This is the gray-flanked subspecies "barlowi" which ranges south of the Golden Gate and into the East Bay. Although resident in California's coastal Douglas Fir forests, this species has been expanding its range over the last fifty years colonizing forest habitats in the central Sierra Nevada as well as suburban areas in eastern San Francisco Bay where they seem to adapt well to parks and gardens.