Yesterday, January 10, 2022, my granddaughter and son-in-law pointed out an active nest in an orange tree, which is in their back yard. What birds would build a nest in January?

Mourning Doves are known to nest anytime the weather allows, as are Crossbills.

If you have the opportunity, watch the nest and see if you can get a good look at the parents. If you can get photos, post an observation on iNat. I don’t know much about birds in your area, but other people probably do.

Blue Herons and egrets nest in winter. I think night herons May also nest in winter. They look very stately as they fly to and from the nest. I believe they usually nest near water (lakes, marshes, wetlands, and oceans)

Great Horned Owls start nesting in January.

Eurasian Collared-Doves, Great Horned Owls, and crossbills will all be nesting in winter.

Anna’s Hummingbirds! I don’t really know anything about their nesting habits except that I saw one on a nest last January: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68387887

Anna’s Hummingbird nest so early that they can even fledge young in December!

That was my first thought too! They’ll start nesting here next month, I think. EDIT I see others had the same thought. It’s generally well below -20 C at the time they start.

This search: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?month=1&place_id=14&q=nest&subview=table&taxon_id=3 returns a few hundred bird observations taken in California in January that mention the word nest. Not all of those are active nests, but many are. For example, I did not know that Yellow-bille…

Are There Birds in Northern California that Nest in January?

Nature Talk

egordon88 January 11, 2022, 9:18pm 4

https://www.audubon.org/news/why-great-horned-owls-start-nesting-winter

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Are There Birds in Northern California that Nest in January?

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