Golden-crowns were much more numerous than I was expecting going in. We had them as far south as the PV Peninsula, but they were most common on the northern end of our trip, especially from Montana de Oro northward.

We would sometimes have 40-50 of these birds working a lawn area adjacent to chapparal. This photo was taken at Montana de Oro SP.

Interestingly, while most of the birds we saw were 1st-winter birds like these, none of the adults were as bright as the TN individual from Memphis this winter, which I saw in December!