This species is uncommon in San Mateo County, although they are regularly seen in the parking lot of a shopping center in Daly City, a likely a feeding area for the small breeding colony at the south end of nearby Lake Merced in San Francisco. They were first recorded in California 1964 along the Colorado River with first nesting in the 1980's. Birds in Northern California are presumably the smaller western Q. m. nelsoni but the larger more easterly Q. m. monsoni is reported to have reached California in the 1980's. The two apparently form a hybrid zone in the Southern California deserts.
