San Juan Capistrano has its swallows, celebrated when they return to nest every year. Alameda has its own iconic bird, the California Least Terns, that every year migrates back to their nesting grounds at Alameda Point on a reserve that was once a runway for the former Naval Air Station.

Most of us have seen small brown birds that flit from the ground to a bush or tree just as you start to look at them; they are common in parks and at bird feeders throughout Alameda — but the description fits more than one species of birds.