A Guide to Birding in La La Land

Whether you’re new in town or a lifelong Angeleno, Los Angeles holds a delightful secret: It hosts one of the hottest birding scenes north of the Mexican border.

Amid the Hollywood glamour and urban sprawl, the City of Angels boasts a surprisingly rich variety of birdlife. More wild bird species have been spotted in Los Angeles County—561, according to the most recent count from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird database—than any other county within the United States and Canada.

Extending from turquoise beaches on the west side to the rugged San Gabriel Mountains surrounding the eastern skyline, the U.S.’s second-largest metropolitan area attracts flying creatures for the same reasons people flock to it—warm weather year round, tasty food, chances to mate, and nice housing.

The joy of L.A. birding has been an open secret among dedicated locals for decades, but lately, word has spread. Bird watching soared during the COVID-19 pandemic years, when cooped-up urbanites fled to the great outdoors en masse. Slinging a pair of binoculars around your neck to watch birds unexpectedly became rather cool.

These days, name-dropping your latest star bird sighting—“I was at Griffith Park at sunrise, and this phainopepla perched right in front of me!”—counts as a flex. We’ve come a long way from the fusty bird-watching Miss Jane Hathaway in the 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

So why shouldn’t celebrity-worshipping Los Angeles unabashedly embrace its bird roster? Here are some tips for which ones to look for, plus a few stellar places to find stupendously beautiful and intriguing birds on L.A.’s wild side.

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Take the Fall

Fall is prime time to witness birds passing through L.A. during their annual migrations. On migration days in September, birders get especially excited about warblers. These small, brightly colored songbirds alight in local parks like confetti. The dense human development of Los Angeles has created an oasis effect, concentrating migratory birds into green spaces where they can relax and refuel—and unintentionally put themselves on display for scouting birders. Visiting a local park at dawn, ahead of the day’s hustle and bustle, often pays dividends of unusual sightings.

Go Native in Chaparral

Before the arrival of Spanish settlers, oil drillers, gold diggers, and silver-screen starlets, coastal southern California was covered with chaparral—a tangled hodgepodge of woody shrubs like sage, manzanita, and buckbrush. Special birds evolved to fit this unique plant community of dry slopes and foothills.

The poster bird of coastal Los Angeles is the California gnatcatcher—a tiny puffball with a black cap and perky tail—which lives only in the chaparral of SoCal and Baja California. Although its native home now overlaps some of the world’s priciest real estate, a few original patches remain. Try the Alta Vicente Reserve in Rancho Palos Verdes, or the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center in Upper Newport Bay.

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Embrace the Exotic

The vivid green red-crowned Amazon is now endangered within its home range in northeast Mexico as a result of the illegal pet trade. But a few of these birds made their way to the Los Angeles suburbs, found freedom, and multiplied. Now, several thousand raucous birds fly across neighborhoods from Pasadena to Irvine, outnumbering the Mexican population. These adaptable parrots thrive on non-native plantings in the urban jungle.

Other exotic birds have also gone wild in L.A. Red-whiskered bulbuls, scaly-breasted munias, and swinhoe’s white-eyes mingle with pin-tailed whydahs from Africa, while Indian peafowl (aka peacocks) run amok in Santa Anita and elsewhere. In a city of transplants, such pioneering birds are true Angelenos.

Try Island Hopping

For a fun day out, take a ferry to Channel Islands National Park, which beckons with five gorgeous islands as well as abundant solitude and wildlife.

Birders typically set their sights on 22-mile-long Santa Cruz Island, the state’s largest isle, featuring rugged cliffs, coves, caves, sandy beaches, and a central valley. A genuine celebrity lives here and only here—the island scrub jay, which has the smallest range of any U.S. bird species. The electric-blue jay, commonly hanging around the north side of the island at Prisoner’s Harbor, is jumbo sized and unmistakable.

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Boats also offer excursions to hop islands or venture into deep waters in search of oceangoing birds, such as majestic albatrosses and gliding shearwaters.

Five Hotspots

Birds really get around in L.A. They hang out in asphalt parking lots, inhabit freeway bridges, migrate and nest along the resurging Los Angeles River, flutter around the Hollywood Sign landmark, and haunt cemeteries of the rich and famous. Mostly, they congregate near water and greenery. Here are five perennial birding hotspots where a special sighting is practically guaranteed.

Playa del Rey/Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. A 10-minute drive from the Los Angeles International Airport, the mouth of Ballona Creek stages an ensemble cast of bird species, lured by its lagoon, jetty, and beaches. The Los Angeles Audubon Society schedules regular field trips here.

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Nestled in the rolling Baldwin Hills, this site buzzes with birds of the coastal scrub. Join a bird walk or linger in the hidden hummingbird garden.

Malibu Lagoon. Here, the boardwalk leads into a 110-acre wetland next to iconic Surfrider Beach. Plovers, brown pelicans, and multitudes of other water-loving species gather around the marsh.

Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. Several observation decks overlook a lake in this urban refuge. Confiding cormorants, herons, and osprey make for an eye-pleasing and beginner-friendly outing.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. Spanning more than 1,300 acres of salt marsh and mudflats, this estuary attracts waterfowl and shorebirds—including egrets, stilts, avocets, sandpipers, and terns—by the thousands. Dirt trails offer excellent viewing and photography opportunities.