https://www.blacksdesign.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5519
Location: Big Sur area, along Hwy 1, latitude 36.2085137889, longitude
-121.7357950564

Bird tags clearly identified: 35, 45, 94, 11, 75

Bird tags not as clearly identified (this is what we think we saw): 30, 51,
5, 22, 08

Behaviors witnessed:
-- The birds were gathered together in a large group, approximately 8-10
individuals, sitting in the sun on a rock wall on the side of the road, in
between two vehicle pull-out areas, about 5.5 miles south of Big Sur post
office (see lat and long above).
-- In the middle of the group, there was a small culvert draining rainwater
from the mountains; we did not see any birds drinking from the culvert, but
they may have been there for the water.
-- A small crowd of people had gathered to watch the birds and take photos,
however no one approached the birds (while we were there, anyway).
-- One bird appeared to be juvenile (dark head); another appeared to be
younger (head mottled pink and black); the rest appeared to be adults (pink
heads).
-- One adult bird appeared to be shredding something with its beak that
looked like plastic wrap. The juvenile (dark head) was trying to beg some
of the plastic wrap from the adult, but it didn't appear that the adult was
sharing much, if any.
-- Most of the birds were sitting quietly in the sun; some made short
flights (100 yards or so) on the canyon side, between the edges of the two
vehicle pull-out areas.
-- One bird (#94) flew out into the road just a few feet above ground,
causing a small AT&T truck to swerve to miss the bird.
-- The birds seemed completely unperturbed by the presence of humans.

We caught much of this behavior on short video clips. If you are interested
in having copies of the videos, please let us know; we will be happy to
provide.]]> en-us Gallery 2 RSS Module, version 1.1.7 Sun, 26 Apr 2026 15:55:44 -0700 120 https://www.blacksdesign.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5520 https://www.blacksdesign.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5519