Date: 4/24/24 12:22 am From: Lance Benner via groups.io <lbenner...> Subject: [LACoBirds] America's Birdiest County Details: April 26-28
Hi Everyone,
Here's additional information about the "America's Birdiest County" event that will happen in Los Angeles County on April 26-28, 2024.
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
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 the eBird lists 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.
I'm not on the WhatsApp group so if you post there I won' see it.
Please note that we can't count birds seen from boats, but birds seen from Santa Catalina and San Clemente Island count.
The Gambel's quail and chukars on San Clemente Island are self-sustaining so we can count them. Ao 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
There have been a number of rare species in the county recently. Here's an abbreviated list of some reported in the last week or so:
Long-tailed Duck
Common Goldeneye
Red-necked Grebe
White-winged Dove
Common Murre
Franklin's Gull
Yellow-footed Gull
Neotropic Cormorant
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Swallow-tailed Kite
Thick-billed Kingbird
Plumbeous Vireo
Brown Thrasher
Clay-colored Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Orchard Oriole
American Redstart
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
This is a partial list: I haven't had time yet to go through all the rarities found in the county recentl and I know there are more.
The Yellow-footed gull and Swallow-tailed Kite would be new for the count and was reported through April 23. The kite may have been a one-day wonder: It was photographed on April 22 but we don't know if it's still in the area.
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; we'll try to correct that by next year (which I also said last year...).
N = number of years we've found a species from 2004-present
N SPECIES
15 Snow Goose
19 Ross's Goose
18 Greater White-fronted Goose
01 Tundra Bean-Goose NEW
17 Brant
17 Cackling Goose
19 Canada Goose
17 Wood Duck
19 Blue-winged Teal
19 Cinnamon Teal
19 Northern Shoveler
19 Gadwall
19 American Wigeon
19 Mallard
17 Northern Pintail
19 Green-winged Teal
04 Canvasback
19 Redhead
19 Ring-necked Duck
02 Greater Scaup
19 Lesser Scaup
19 Surf Scoter
03 White-winged Scoter
04 Black Scoter
03 Long-tailed Duck
19 Bufflehead
03 Common Goldeneye
11 Hooded Merganser
16 Common Merganser
18 Red-breasted Merganser
19 Ruddy Duck
19 Mountain Quail
19 California Quail
14 Gambel's Quail
14 Chukar
19 Pied-billed Grebe
11 Horned Grebe
19 Eared Grebe
19 Western Grebe
19 Clark's Grebe
19 Rock Pigeon
19 Band-tailed Pigeon
18 Eurasian Collared-Dove
19 Spotted Dove
14 Inca Dove
15 Common Ground-Dove
03 White-winged Dove
19 Mourning Dove
19 Greater Roadrunner
19 Lesser Nighthawk
19 Common Poorwill
19 Vaux's Swift
19 White-throated Swift
19 Black-chinned Hummingbird
19 Anna's Hummingbird
19 Costa's Hummingbird
19 Rufous Hummingbird
19 Allen's Hummingbird
14 Calliope Hummingbird
01 Ridgeway's Rail
18 Virginia Rail
19 Sora
19 Common Gallinule
19 American Coot
01 Sandhill Crane
19 Black-necked Stilt
19 American Avocet
19 Black Oystercatcher
19 Black-bellied Plover
04 Pacific Golden-Plover
19 Snowy Plover
19 Semipalmated Plover
19 Killdeer
19 Whimbrel
18 Long-billed Curlew
19 Marbled Godwit
18 Ruddy Turnstone * We missed this last year *
18 Black Turnstone
02 Red Knot
19 Surfbird
01 Ruff
01 Stilt Sandpiper
19 Sanderling
19 Dunlin
04 Baird's Sandpiper
19 Least Sandpiper
01 Pectoral Sandpiper
02 Semipalmated Sandpiper
19 Western Sandpiper
15 Short-billed Dowitcher
19 Long-billed Dowitcher
13 Wilson's Snipe
14 Wilson's Phalarope
18 Red-necked Phalarope
03 Red Phalarope
19 Spotted Sandpiper
15 Solitary Sandpiper
19 Wandering Tattler
19 Greater Yellowlegs
19 Willet
18 Lesser Yellowlegs
07 Pomarine Jaeger
10 Parasitic Jaeger
06 Common Murre
04 Scripps' Murrelet
02 Cassin's Auklet
03 Rhinoceros Auklet
01 Sabine's Gull
19 Bonaparte's Gull
01 Laughing Gull
10 Franklin's Gull
18 Heermann's Gull
02 Short-billed Gull
19 Ring-billed Gull
19 Western Gull
19 California Gull
17 Herring Gull
02 Iceland Gull (Thayer's Gull)
02 Lesser Black-backed gull
18 Glaucous-winged Gull
01 Glaucous Gull
18 Least Tern
19 Caspian Tern
05 Black Tern
01 Common Tern
19 Forster's Tern
19 Royal Tern
19 Elegant Tern
19 Black Skimmer
19 Red-throated Loon
19 Pacific Loon
19 Common Loon
01 Yellow-billed Loon
01 Black-footed albatross
01 Leach's Storm-petrel
03 Northern Fulmar
13 Pink-footed Shearwater
18 Sooty Shearwater
08 Black-vented Shearwater
01 Red-footed Booby NEW
19 Brandt's Cormorant
19 Pelagic Cormorant
04 Neotropic Cormorant
19 Double-crested Cormorant
18 American White Pelican
19 Brown Pelican
04 American Bittern
18 Least Bittern
19 Great Blue Heron
19 Great Egret
19 Snowy Egret
16 Western Cattle Egret Formerly "Cattle Egret"
19 Green Heron
18 Black-crowned Night-Heron
06 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
19 White-faced Ibis
01 California Condor
19 Turkey Vulture
19 Osprey
18 White-tailed Kite
17 Golden Eagle
18 Northern Harrier
18 Sharp-shinned Hawk
19 Cooper's Hawk
07 Bald Eagle
19 Red-shouldered Hawk
18 Swainson's Hawk
01 Zone-tailed Hawk
19 Red-tailed Hawk
04 Ferruginous Hawk
19 Barn Owl
12 Flammulated Owl
19 Western Screech-Owl
19 Great Horned Owl
17 Northern Pygmy-Owl
14 Burrowing Owl
16 Spotted Owl
06 Long-eared Owl
16 Northern Saw-whet Owl
19 Belted Kingfisher
14 Lewis's Woodpecker
19 Acorn Woodpecker
15 Williamson's Sapsucker
01 Red-naped Sapsucker
19 Red-breasted Sapsucker
16 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
19 Nuttall's Woodpecker
19 Downy Woodpecker
19 Hairy Woodpecker
19 White-headed Woodpecker
19 Northern Flicker
01 Crested Caracara
19 American Kestrel
16 Merlin
19 Peregrine Falcon
17 Prairie Falcon
01 Nanday Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it
02 Mitred Parakeet: 2022 was the first year we could count it
01 Red-masked Parakeet 2023 was the first year we could count it
03 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet. 2021 was the first year we could count it
19 Red-crowned Parrot
02 Lilac-crowned Parrot: 2022 was the first year we could count it.
19 Olive-sided Flycatcher
19 Western Wood-Pewee
01 Least Flycatcher
19 Hammond's Flycatcher
19 Gray Flycatcher
19 Dusky Flycatcher
19 Western Flycatcher Formerly Pacific-slope Flycatcher
19 Black Phoebe
19 Say's Phoebe
10 Vermilion Flycatcher
04 Dusky-capped Flycatcher
19 Ash-throated Flycatcher
08 Tropical Kingbird
19 Cassin's Kingbird
02 Thick-billed Kingbird
19 Western Kingbird
19 Bell's Vireo
19 Hutton's Vireo
19 Cassin's Vireo
11 Plumbeous Vireo
19 Warbling Vireo
19 Loggerhead Shrike
19 Steller's Jay
19 California Scrub-Jay
16 Clark's Nutcracker
19 American Crow
19 Common Raven
19 Mountain Chickadee
19 Oak Titmouse
18 Verdin
19 Horned Lark
19 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
09 Purple Martin
19 Tree Swallow
19 Violet-green Swallow
17 Bank Swallow
19 Barn Swallow
19 Cliff Swallow
03 Red-whiskered Bulbul. 2021 was the first year we could count it.
19 Bushtit
19 Wrentit
19 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
09 Golden-crowned Kinglet
19 Red-breasted Nuthatch
19 White-breasted Nuthatch
19 Pygmy Nuthatch
19 Brown Creeper
19 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
19 California Gnatcatcher
19 Rock Wren
19 Canyon Wren
19 House Wren
19 Marsh Wren
19 Bewick's Wren
19 Cactus Wren
13 American Dipper
19 European Starling
19 California Thrasher
13 LeConte's Thrasher
19 Northern Mockingbird
19 Western Bluebird
01 Mountain Bluebird
16 Townsend's Solitaire
19 Swainson's Thrush
19 Hermit Thrush
19 American Robin
01 Varied Thrush
19 Cedar Waxwing
19 Phainopepla
09 Scaly-Breasted Munia
19 House Sparrow
01 Red-throated Pipit
19 American Pipit
01 Evening Grosbeak
19 House Finch
19 Purple Finch
19 Cassin's Finch
13 Red Crossbill
15 Pine Siskin
19 Lesser Goldfinch
19 Lawrence's Goldfinch
19 American Goldfinch
04 Grasshopper Sparrow
19 Chipping Sparrow
03 Clay-colored Sparrow
19 Black-chinned Sparrow
01 Field Sparrow
15 Brewer's Sparrow
19 Black-throated Sparrow
18 Lark Sparrow
19 Fox Sparrow
19 Dark-eyed Junco
19 White-crowned Sparrow
19 Golden-crowned Sparrow
03 Harris' Sparrow
14 White-throated Sparrow
19 Bell's Sparrow
03 Vesper Sparrow
19 Savannah Sparrow
19 Song Sparrow
17 Lincoln's Sparrow
02 Swamp Sparrow
19 California Towhee
19 Rufous-crowned Sparrow
19 Green-tailed Towhee
19 Spotted Towhee
19 Yellow-breasted Chat
19 Yellow-headed Blackbird
19 Western Meadowlark
03 Orchard Oriole
19 Hooded Oriole
19 Bullock's Oriole
01 Baltimore Oriole
19 Scott's Oriole
19 Red-winged Blackbird
19 Tricolored Blackbird
19 Brown-headed Cowbird
19 Brewer's Blackbird
19 Great-tailed Grackle
02 Northern Waterthrush
05 Black-and-white Warbler
01 Tennessee Warbler
19 Orange-crowned Warbler
19 Nashville Warbler
19 MacGillivray's Warbler
19 Common Yellowthroat
01 Hooded Warbler
02 American Redstart
03 Northern Parula
19 Yellow Warbler
01 Chestnut-sided Warbler
11 Palm Warbler
19 Yellow-rumped Warbler
19 Black-throated Gray Warbler
19 Townsend's Warbler
19 Hermit Warbler
19 Wilson's Warbler
01 Red-faced Warbler
01 Painted Redstart
07 Summer Tanager
19 Western Tanager
19 Black-headed Grosbeak
19 Blue Grosbeak
19 Lazuli Bunting
02 Indigo Bunting
Total: 348 species
We added four new species in 2023:
Tundra Bean-Goose
Red-footed Booby
Nanday Parakeet Introduced: recently accepted by the CBRC
Red-masked Parakeet Introduced: recently accepted by the CBRC
Removed: black swift and willow flycatcher because we think those reports were in error. If you think you found them, be prepared to provide outstanding documentation!
Please start thinking of where you might be able to contribute, and we look forward to hearing from you on April 26, 27, and 28!
