These free or low-cost mobile phone apps make the task off identification easy.
Redwing Blackbird calling.
Photo by Ingrid Taylar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Male Mission Blue butterfly (Aricia icarioides missionensis) resting on a Silver Bush Lupine (Lupinus albifrons).
Photo, National Digital Library of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in the public domain via Wikimedia commons.
For more information on California species, see: