Date: 4/24/25 12:06 pm From: Lance Benner via groups.io <lbenner...> Subject: [LACoBirds] America's Birdiest County April 25-27: More information
Hi Everyone,Here's additional information about the "America's Birdiest County" event that will happen in Los Angeles County on April 25-27, 2025.The count starts at midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning and ends at midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning. The objective is to find as many species in Los Angeles County over this three day interval as possible. We've been doing this since 2003 and regularly find more than 260 species. Birds can be identified by sight or sound, and as usual, rare species require documentation. All birds must be counted from land, so we can't accept anything seen on a whale watch, or from a boat on a lake, but we'd be glad to count any birds seen from Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands or from seawatches at places such as Point Vicente and Point Dume. I will act as compiler again this year. HISTORYAmerica's Birdiest County started in 2003 in San Diego as a friendly competition among counties across the country to see how many species people could find in a single 24-hour period. After the first three years, the organizers changed the protocol to make it a three-day event. There were also various categories across the country to try to level the playing field so that counties in very different areas wouldn't be competing against those in other areas that have vastly more birds. Thus, counties in, say, Maine weren't competing against counties in California. Los Angeles was in the "Coastal West" category and our chief competition, at least initially, was with San Diego and Monterey. After the format changed to a three-day event, Monterey stopped competing in order to continue their traditional one-day county-wide birdathon. After 2011, the organizers discontinued the nationwide event, but selected counties continued due to strong local interest. Los Angeles and Kern Counties, which usually did very well, both continued. Here are the number of species found in Los Angeles County since 2003: Year Total 2024 276 2023 268 2022 265 2021 277 2020 No count due to covid 19 2019 257 2018 263 2017 264 2016 270 2015 275 2014 272 2013 265 2012 262 2011 277 2010 271 2009 264 2008 255 2007 272 2006 265 2005 246 2004 240 2003 239 Our total jumped in 2006 due to better organization and increased interest. This event has turned into an intensive sweep of the whole county each spring and has provided a useful snapshot of the species that are present in late April. Many people who participate also record their observations in eBird, and as a result, tens of thousands of bird sightings are permanently archived, so in addition to having fun, we're also making a scientifically useful contribution. ###################################### LOGISTICSPlease email reports to me at <lbenner...> and/or to the LA County listserve (<lacobirds...>). We welcome you to send ebird lists: the easiest way is to email eBird lists to your self and then forward them to me: This makes checking for new species really easy. We prefer that you * NOT * share them with me unless I happened to be with you. I will provide updates two to four times each day to track our progress and to help guide searches for species we're missing. The first update will probably happen by mid afternoon on Friday. We will also provide updates each night so that we everyone can see what we still need first thing in the morning. We welcome reports on the county listserve all weekend regardless of what you see: the species do not have to be rare. Please note that we can't count birds seen from boats, but birds seen from Santa Catalina and San Clemente Island count. Also, the Gambel's quail and chukars on San Clemente Island are self-sustaining so we can count them. Also, to continue the protocol we adopted a few years ago, we are now glad to count bald eagles seen from Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands. ###################################### NON-NATIVE SPECIES: Kimball Garrett asks us to please report established non-native species even if they're not the list that's accepted by the AOS or the CBRC. This means that we want to hear about introduced species such as parakeets and parrots, pin-tailed whydahs, orange bishops, white-eyes, Egyptian goose, Mandarin ducks, and so forth. Monitoring those populations is becoming increasingly important so please report them, and, of course, enter your sightings into eBird. We'll keep them in a supplemental list separate from the "regular" species. ######################################RARE SPECIESAs always, anything flagged as "rare" in eBird is going to require documentation, so please take photos, jot down notes, obtain recordings and videos, or make sketches. Please remember that your cell phone probably has an app that allows you to record sounds. They're quite sensitive and can be good for documetation. ###################################### SPECIES PREVIOUSLY RECORDEDBelow is the list of every species we've found during previous ABC weekends.There are some species that we get regularly that are actually quite local and require special effort to find and/or that are just leaving or arriving at this time of year . Among them, in no particular order, are prairie falcon, American dipper, common ground-dove, Inca dove, spotted owl, northern saw-whet owl, northern pygmy owl, flammulated owl, burrowing owl, golden-crowned kinglet, LeConte's thrasher, Williamson's sapsucker, red crossbill, Swainson's hawk, common merganser, hooded merganser, summer tanager, golden eagle, and wandering tattler. We often struggle to find pelagic species; alcids are particularly difficult. The table below lists every species we've recorded during the ABC weekend since 2004 and the number of years in which we've found it. Note that this list isn't strictly in taxonomic order although it's pretty close. N = number of years we've found a species from 2004-presentN SPECIES 16 Snow Goose 20 Ross's Goose 19 Greater White-fronted Goose 01 Tundra Bean-Goose 18 Brant 18 Cackling Goose 20 Canada Goose 17 Wood Duck 20 Blue-winged Teal 20 Cinnamon Teal 20 Northern Shoveler 20 Gadwall 20 American Wigeon 20 Mallard 18 Northern Pintail 20 Green-winged Teal 04 Canvasback 20 Redhead 20 Ring-necked Duck 02 Greater Scaup 20 Lesser Scaup 20 Surf Scoter 03 White-winged Scoter 04 Black Scoter 04 Long-tailed Duck 20 Bufflehead 04 Common Goldeneye 11 Hooded Merganser 16 Common Merganser 19 Red-breasted Merganser 20 Ruddy Duck 20 Mountain Quail 20 California Quail 15 Gambel's Quail 15 Chukar 20 Pied-billed Grebe 11 Horned Grebe 20 Eared Grebe 20 Western Grebe 20 Clark's Grebe 20 Rock Pigeon 20 Band-tailed Pigeon 19 Eurasian Collared-Dove 20 Spotted Dove 15 Inca Dove 15 Common Ground-Dove 03 White-winged Dove 20 Mourning Dove 20 Greater Roadrunner 20 Lesser Nighthawk 20 Common Poorwill 01 Black Swift. Requires outstanding documentation! 20 Vaux's Swift 20 White-throated Swift 20 Black-chinned Hummingbird 20 Anna's Hummingbird 20 Costa's Hummingbird 20 Rufous Hummingbird 20 Allen's Hummingbird 15 Calliope Hummingbird 01 Ridgeway's Rail 19 Virginia Rail 20 Sora 20 Common Gallinule 20 American Coot 01 Sandhill Crane 20 Black-necked Stilt 20 American Avocet 20 Black Oystercatcher 19 Black-bellied Plover 04 Pacific Golden-Plover 20 Snowy Plover 20 Semipalmated Plover 20 Killdeer 20 Whimbrel 20 Long-billed Curlew 20 Marbled Godwit 19 Ruddy Turnstone 19 Black Turnstone 02 Red Knot 20 Surfbird 01 Ruff 01 Stilt Sandpiper 20 Sanderling 20 Dunlin 04 Baird's Sandpiper 20 Least Sandpiper 01 Pectoral Sandpiper 02 Semipalmated Sandpiper 20 Western Sandpiper 16 Short-billed Dowitcher 20 Long-billed Dowitcher 14 Wilson's Snipe 15 Wilson's Phalarope 19 Red-necked Phalarope 03 Red Phalarope 20 Spotted Sandpiper 16 Solitary Sandpiper 20 Wandering Tattler 20 Greater Yellowlegs 20 Willet 19 Lesser Yellowlegs 07 Pomarine Jaeger 11 Parasitic Jaeger 07 Common Murre 04 Scripps' Murrelet 02 Cassin's Auklet 03 Rhinoceros Auklet 01 Sabine's Gull 20 Bonaparte's Gull 01 Laughing Gull 10 Franklin's Gull 18 Heermann's Gull 02 Short-billed Gull 20 Ring-billed Gull 01 Yellow-footed Gull. New in 2024 20 Western Gull 20 California Gull 18 Herring Gull 02 Iceland Gull (Thayer's Gull) 02 Lesser Black-backed gull 20 Glaucous-winged Gull 01 Glaucous Gull 19 Least Tern 20 Caspian Tern 05 Black Tern 01 Common Tern 20 Forster's Tern 20 Royal Tern 20 Elegant Tern 20 Black Skimmer 20 Red-throated Loon 20 Pacific Loon 20 Common Loon 01 Yellow-billed Loon 01 Black-footed albatross 01 Black Storm-petrel. New in 2024 01 Leach's Storm-petrel 03 Northern Fulmar 13 Pink-footed Shearwater 19 Sooty Shearwater 09 Black-vented Shearwater 01 Red-footed Booby 20 Brandt's Cormorant 20 Pelagic Cormorant 05 Neotropic Cormorant 20 Double-crested Cormorant 19 American White Pelican 20 Brown Pelican 04 American Bittern 19 Least Bittern 20 Great Blue Heron 20 Great Egret 20 Snowy Egret 17 Western Cattle Egret Formerly "Cattle Egret" 20 Green Heron 20 Black-crowned Night-Heron 07 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 20 White-faced Ibis 02 California Condor 20 Turkey Vulture 20 Osprey 18 White-tailed Kite 18 Golden Eagle 19 Northern Harrier 19 Sharp-shinned Hawk 20 Cooper's Hawk 08 Bald Eagle 20 Red-shouldered Hawk 19 Swainson's Hawk 01 Zone-tailed Hawk 20 Red-tailed Hawk 04 Ferruginous Hawk 20 Barn Owl 12 Flammulated Owl 20 Western Screech-Owl 20 Great Horned Owl 18 Northern Pygmy-Owl 14 Burrowing Owl 16 Spotted Owl 06 Long-eared Owl 17 Northern Saw-whet Owl 20 Belted Kingfisher 15 Lewis's Woodpecker 20 Acorn Woodpecker 16 Williamson's Sapsucker 01 Red-naped Sapsucker 20 Red-breasted Sapsucker 17 Ladder-backed Woodpecker 20 Nuttall's Woodpecker 20 Downy Woodpecker 20 Hairy Woodpecker 20 White-headed Woodpecker 20 Northern Flicker 01 Crested Caracara 20 American Kestrel 17 Merlin 20 Peregrine Falcon 18 Prairie Falcon 02 Nanday Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it 03 Mitred Parakeet: 2022 was the first year we could count it 02 Red-masked Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it 04 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet. 2021 was the first year we could count it 20 Red-crowned Amazon 03 Lilac-crowned Parrot: 2022 was the first year we could count it. 20 Olive-sided Flycatcher 20 Western Wood-Pewee 01 Least Flycatcher 20 Hammond's Flycatcher 20 Gray Flycatcher 20 Dusky Flycatcher 20 Western Flycatcher Formerly Pacific-slope Flycatcher 20 Black Phoebe 20 Say's Phoebe 11 Vermilion Flycatcher 05 Dusky-capped Flycatcher 20 Ash-throated Flycatcher 08 Tropical Kingbird 20 Cassin's Kingbird 02 Thick-billed Kingbird 20 Western Kingbird 20 Bell's Vireo 20 Hutton's Vireo 20 Cassin's Vireo 12 Plumbeous Vireo 20 Warbling Vireo 20 Loggerhead Shrike 20 Steller's Jay 20 California Scrub-Jay 01 Wooodhouse's Scrub-Jay. New in 2024 17 Clark's Nutcracker 20 American Crow 20 Common Raven 20 Mountain Chickadee 20 Oak Titmouse 19 Verdin 20 Horned Lark 20 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 09 Purple Martin 20 Tree Swallow 20 Violet-green Swallow 18 Bank Swallow 20 Barn Swallow 20 Cliff Swallow 04 Red-whiskered Bulbul. 2021 was the first year we could count it. 20 Bushtit 20 Wrentit 20 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 09 Golden-crowned Kinglet 20 Red-breasted Nuthatch 20 White-breasted Nuthatch 20 Pygmy Nuthatch 20 Brown Creeper 20 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 20 California Gnatcatcher 20 Rock Wren 20 Canyon Wren 20 House Wren 20 Marsh Wren 20 Bewick's Wren 20 Cactus Wren 14 American Dipper 20 European Starling 20 California Thrasher 14 LeConte's Thrasher 20 Northern Mockingbird 20 Western Bluebird 01 Mountain Bluebird 17 Townsend's Solitaire 01 Varied thrush 20 Swainson's Thrush 20 Hermit Thrush 20 American Robin 20 Cedar Waxwing 20 Phainopepla 10 Scaly-Breasted Munia 20 House Sparrow 01 Red-throated Pipit 20 American Pipit 01 Evening Grosbeak 20 House Finch 20 Purple Finch 20 Cassin's Finch 14 Red Crossbill 16 Pine Siskin 20 Lesser Goldfinch 20 Lawrence's Goldfinch 20 American Goldfinch 04 Grasshopper Sparrow 20 Chipping Sparrow 03 Clay-colored Sparrow 20 Black-chinned Sparrow 01 Field Sparrow 16 Brewer's Sparrow 20 Black-throated Sparrow 19 Lark Sparrow 20 Fox Sparrow 20 Dark-eyed Junco 20 White-crowned Sparrow 20 Golden-crowned Sparrow 03 Harris' Sparrow 15 White-throated Sparrow 20 Bell's Sparrow 03 Vesper Sparrow 20 Savannah Sparrow 20 Song Sparrow 18 Lincoln's Sparrow 02 Swamp Sparrow 20 California Towhee 20 Rufous-crowned Sparrow 20 Green-tailed Towhee 20 Spotted Towhee 20 Yellow-breasted Chat 20 Yellow-headed Blackbird 20 Western Meadowlark 03 Orchard Oriole 20 Hooded Oriole 20 Bullock's Oriole 01 Baltimore Oriole 20 Scott's Oriole 20 Red-winged Blackbird 20 Tricolored Blackbird 20 Brown-headed Cowbird 20 Brewer's Blackbird 20 Great-tailed Grackle 02 Northern Waterthrush 05 Black-and-white Warbler 01 Tennessee Warbler 20 Orange-crowned Warbler 20 Nashville Warbler 20 MacGillivray's Warbler 20 Common Yellowthroat 01 Hooded Warbler 02 American Redstart 01 Blackburnian Warbler New in 2024 03 Northern Parula 20 Yellow Warbler 01 Chestnut-sided Warbler 12 Palm Warbler 20 Yellow-rumped Warbler 20 Black-throated Gray Warbler 20 Townsend's Warbler 20 Hermit Warbler 20 Wilson's Warbler 01 Red-faced Warbler 01 Painted Redstart 07 Summer Tanager 20 Western Tanager 20 Black-headed Grosbeak 20 Blue Grosbeak 20 Lazuli Bunting 02 Indigo Bunting 01 Painted Bunting. New in 2024Total: 353 species We added SIX new species last year: Yellow-footed Gull Black Storm-Petrel Black Swift. Requires outstanding documentation! Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay Blackburnian Warbler Painted Bunting Good luck to us, Lance Lance Benner Pasadena, CA_._,_._,_
