Date: 4/22/26 9:42 pm From: Lance Benner via groups.io <lbenner...> Subject: [LACoBirds] America's Birdiest County: Detailed Information
Hi Everyone,
Here's additional information about the "America's Birdiest County" event that will happen
in Los Angeles County on Friday-Sunday, April 24-26, 2026.
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.
HISTORY
America'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
2025 267
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.
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LOGISTICS
Please 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.
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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.
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RARE SPECIES
As 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.
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SPECIES PREVIOUSLY RECORDED
Below 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 but it's pretty close.
N = number of years we've found a species from 2004-present
N SPECIES
17 Snow Goose
21 Ross's Goose
19 Greater White-fronted Goose
01 Tundra Bean-Goose
19 Brant
19 Cackling Goose
21 Canada Goose
19 Wood Duck
21 Blue-winged Teal
21 Cinnamon Teal
21 Northern Shoveler
21 Gadwall
21 American Wigeon
21 Mallard
19 Northern Pintail
21 Green-winged Teal
05 Canvasback
21 Redhead
21 Ring-necked Duck
02 Greater Scaup
21 Lesser Scaup
21 Surf Scoter
03 White-winged Scoter
04 Black Scoter
04 Long-tailed Duck
21 Bufflehead
04 Common Goldeneye
11 Hooded Merganser
17 Common Merganser
20 Red-breasted Merganser
21 Ruddy Duck
21 Mountain Quail
21 California Quail
16 Gambel's Quail
15 Chukar
21 Pied-billed Grebe
11 Horned Grebe
21 Eared Grebe
21 Western Grebe
21 Clark's Grebe
21 Rock Pigeon
21 Band-tailed Pigeon
20 Eurasian Collared-Dove
21 Spotted Dove
15 Inca Dove
15 Common Ground-Dove
03 White-winged Dove
21 Mourning Dove
21 Greater Roadrunner
21 Lesser Nighthawk
21 Common Poorwill
01 Black Swift. Requires outstanding documentation!
21 Vaux's Swift
21 White-throated Swift
21 Black-chinned Hummingbird
21 Anna's Hummingbird
21 Costa's Hummingbird
21 Rufous Hummingbird
21 Allen's Hummingbird
16 Calliope Hummingbird
01 Ridgeway's Rail
20 Virginia Rail
21 Sora
21 Common Gallinule
21 American Coot
01 Sandhill Crane
21 Black-necked Stilt
21 American Avocet
21 Black Oystercatcher
21 Black-bellied Plover
04 Pacific Golden-Plover
21 Snowy Plover
21 Semipalmated Plover
21 Killdeer
21 Hudsonian Whimbrel
20 Long-billed Curlew
21 Marbled Godwit
20 Ruddy Turnstone
20 Black Turnstone
02 Red Knot
21 Surfbird
01 Ruff
01 Stilt Sandpiper
21 Sanderling
21 Dunlin
04 Baird's Sandpiper
21 Least Sandpiper
01 Pectoral Sandpiper
02 Semipalmated Sandpiper
21 Western Sandpiper
16 Short-billed Dowitcher
21 Long-billed Dowitcher
15 Wilson's Snipe
16 Wilson's Phalarope
20 Red-necked Phalarope
03 Red Phalarope
21 Spotted Sandpiper
16 Solitary Sandpiper
21 Wandering Tattler
21 Greater Yellowlegs
21 Willet
19 Lesser Yellowlegs
07 Pomarine Jaeger
12 Parasitic Jaeger
07 Common Murre
05 Scripps' Murrelet
03 Cassin's Auklet
01 Pigeon Guillemot NEW in 2025
03 Rhinoceros Auklet
01 Sabine's Gull
21 Bonaparte's Gull
01 Laughing Gull
11 Franklin's Gull
20 Heermann's Gull
02 Short-billed Gull
21 Ring-billed Gull
01 Yellow-footed Gull. New in 2024
21 Western Gull
21 California Gull
19 American Herring Gull
02 Iceland Gull (Thayer's Gull)
02 Lesser Black-backed gull
21 Glaucous-winged Gull
01 Glaucous Gull
20 Least Tern
21 Caspian Tern
06 Black Tern
01 Common Tern
21 Forster's Tern
21 Royal Tern
21 Elegant Tern
21 Black Skimmer
21 Red-throated Loon
21 Pacific Loon
21 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
14 Pink-footed Shearwater
19 Sooty Shearwater
09 Black-vented Shearwater
01 Red-footed Booby
21 Brandt's Cormorant
21 Pelagic Cormorant
06 Neotropic Cormorant
21 Double-crested Cormorant
20 American White Pelican
21 Brown Pelican
04 American Bittern
20 Least Bittern
21 Great Blue Heron
21 Great Egret
21 Snowy Egret
18 Western Cattle Egret
21 Green Heron
21 Black-crowned Night-Heron
08 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
21 White-faced Ibis
03 California Condor
21 Turkey Vulture
21 Osprey
18 White-tailed Kite
19 Golden Eagle
20 Northern Harrier
20 Sharp-shinned Hawk
21 Cooper's Hawk
09 Bald Eagle
21 Red-shouldered Hawk
20 Swainson's Hawk
01 Zone-tailed Hawk
21 Red-tailed Hawk
04 Ferruginous Hawk
21 Barn Owl
12 Flammulated Owl
21 Western Screech-Owl
21 Great Horned Owl
19 Northern Pygmy-Owl
14 Burrowing Owl
16 Spotted Owl
07 Long-eared Owl
18 Northern Saw-whet Owl
21 Belted Kingfisher
15 Lewis's Woodpecker
21 Acorn Woodpecker
16 Williamson's Sapsucker
01 Red-naped Sapsucker
21 Red-breasted Sapsucker
18 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
21 Nuttall's Woodpecker
21 Downy Woodpecker
21 Hairy Woodpecker
21 White-headed Woodpecker
21 Northern Flicker
01 Crested Caracara
21 American Kestrel
18 Merlin
21 Peregrine Falcon
19 Prairie Falcon
03 Nanday Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it
04 Mitred Parakeet: 2022 was the first year we could count it
03 Red-masked Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it
05 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet. 2021 was the first year we could count it
21 Red-crowned Amazon
04 Lilac-crowned Parrot: 2022 was the first year we could count it.
21 Olive-sided Flycatcher
21 Western Wood-Pewee
01 Least Flycatcher
21 Hammond's Flycatcher
20 Gray Flycatcher
21 Dusky Flycatcher
21 Western Flycatcher Formerly Pacific-slope Flycatcher
21 Black Phoebe
21 Say's Phoebe
12 Vermilion Flycatcher
05 Dusky-capped Flycatcher
21 Ash-throated Flycatcher
09 Tropical Kingbird
21 Cassin's Kingbird
03 Thick-billed Kingbird
21 Western Kingbird
21 Bell's Vireo
21 Hutton's Vireo
21 Cassin's Vireo
12 Plumbeous Vireo
21 Warbling Vireo
21 Loggerhead Shrike
21 Steller's Jay
21 California Scrub-Jay
01 Wooodhouse's Scrub-Jay. New in 2024
17 Clark's Nutcracker
21 American Crow
21 Common Raven
21 Mountain Chickadee
21 Oak Titmouse
20 Verdin
21 Horned Lark
21 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
10 Purple Martin
21 Tree Swallow
21 Violet-green Swallow
19 Bank Swallow
21 Barn Swallow
21 Cliff Swallow
05 Red-whiskered Bulbul. 2021 was the first year we could count it.
