Birds of California
Protecting California’s 600+ bird species and the habitats they call home.
Brown Pelican diving among humpback whales and other seabirds. Photo: Morgan Quimby/Audubon Photography Awards
California is famous for its people, innovation, stunning coastlines, and world-renowned industries—and Audubon California would add birds to that list. With over 600 bird species recorded in the state, California is home to nearly two-thirds of all North American bird species.
This incredible diversity of birds is a reflection of California’s status as the most biodiverse state in the U.S. Our state is also one of only 36 Global Biodiversity Hotspots, recognized for its exceptional ecological importance.
California boasts around 450 commonly seen bird species, making it one of the most diverse birding states in the country. Our state is home to 175 Important Bird Areas (IBAs)—the most in the Lower 48—spanning shorelines, wetlands, oak woodlands, deserts, and forests. These habitats attract millions of breeding, migrating, and resting birds each year.
Why Our Birds Matter
Birds play an essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. They pollinate plants, control insect populations, clean up carrion, disperse seeds, and even shape the landscapes they inhabit. As indicators of environmental health, birds respond quickly to changes in climate and habitat conditions. Protecting birds means protecting the clean air, water, and land that both birds and people depend on.
California & The Pacific Flyway
California is a critical link along the Pacific Flyway, a migration route used by millions of birds each year. Our wetlands, beaches, and landscapes provide essential stopover, feeding, and nesting sites for birds traveling from the Arctic to as far south as Chile—supporting species throughout their incredible journeys.
An inconspicuous, pale little bird, easily overlooked as it runs around on white sand beaches, or on the salt flats around lakes in the arid west. Where it lives on beaches, its nesting attempts are often disrupted by human visitors who fail to notice that they are keeping the bird away from its nest; as a result, the Snowy Plover populations have declined in many coastal regions. Formerly considered to belong to the same species as the Kentish Plover of the Old World.
This incredibly long-billed sandpiper is the largest of our shorebirds; but more often than not, it is seen away from the shore. It spends the summer on the grasslands of the arid west, appearing on coastal mudflats only in migration and winter, and even then likely to be on prairies instead. It often occurs alongside the Marbled Godwit, which is very similar in size and color pattern; but the godwit's bill curves up, not down.
Although the two dowitcher species are strikingly similar in appearance, they tend to segregate by habitat. The Long-billed prefers fresh water at all seasons; it is a common migrant through much of North America (but scarce in the northeast).
A close relative of the Semipalmated Sandpiper. Western Sandpipers nest mostly in Alaska and migrate mostly along the Pacific Coast, but many reach the Atlantic Coast in fall and remain through the winter. Of the various dull gray sandpipers to be found commonly on coastal beaches in winter, Western is the smallest.
Around lake shores and tidal flats, especially in the wide-open spaces of the west, flocks of elegant American Avocets wade in the shallows. They often feed while leaning forward, with the tips of their bills in the water and slightly open, filtering tiny food items from just below the surface. Sometimes a flock will feed this way in unison, walking forward, swinging their heads rhythmically from side to side.
Everything about the Black-necked Stilt seems delicate -- from its incredibly thin stilt-legs to its slim wings and its needle-like bill -- yet it manages to thrive on the sun-baked flats around shallow lakes, some of them in searing climates.
Our smallest tern. Often seen flying low over the water, with quick deep wingbeats and shrill cries. Usually hovers before plunging into water for tiny prey; does more hovering than most terns. Populations are endangered in many areas because of human impacts on nesting areas, especially competition for use of beaches. However, Least Terns in some parts of the east are now nesting successfully on gravel roofs near the coast.
An unmistakable bird of coastal waters. Groups of Brown Pelicans fly low over the waves in single file, flapping and gliding in unison. Their feeding behavior is spectacular, as they plunge headlong into the water in pursuit of fish. The current abundance of this species in the United States represents a success story for conservationists, who succeeded in halting the use of DDT and other persistent pesticides here; as recently as the early 1970s, the Brown Pelican was seriously endangered.
Cowboys sometimes called these owls 'howdy birds,' because they seemed to nod in greeting from the entrances to their burrows in prairie-dog towns. Colorful fiction once held that owls, prairie-dogs, and rattlesnakes would all live in the same burrow at once. A long-legged owl of open country, often active by day, the Burrowing Owl is popular with humans wherever it occurs, but it has become rare in many areas owing to loss of habitat.
A holdover from prehistoric times, the great condor is one of our largest and most magnificent birds -- and one of the rarest. Soaring over wilderness crags, feeding on carcasses of large dead animals, reproducing very slowly, it was not well suited to survival in modern-day southern California. Headed toward extinction in the 1980s, the last birds were brought in from the wild in 1987, to be bred in captivity for eventual release into the wild again. The captive breeding program turned out to be surprisingly successful, and flocks of released condors are surviving in several areas of California and in the region of the Grand Canyon.
This magnificent bird is widespread in the wilder country of North America, Europe, and Asia. About the same size as the Bald Eagle, the Golden is less of a scavenger and more of a predator, regularly taking prey up to the size of foxes and cranes. The Golden Eagle was important to many Native American tribes, who admired the eagle's courage and strength, and who ascribed mystical powers to the bird and even to its feathers.
Well-named, this very large grouse is found nowhere except in sagebrush country of the west. It nests on the ground among the sage, and the leaves of this plant are its staple diet in winter. The Sage Grouse is best known for the spectacular courtship displays of the males: Large numbers (up to 70 or more) will gather in spring on traditional dancing grounds and strut with their chests puffed out and spiky tails spread, hoping to attract females.
While the Red-winged Blackbird is abundant over most of the continent, the very similar Tricolored Blackbird has a very small range in the Pacific states. It differs in its highly social nesting: in a dense cattail marsh, nests may be packed in close together, only a foot or two apart. Some colonies may have over 100,000 nests, although such large concentrations seem to be growing scarcer in recent years, as the birds shift to smaller (but hopefully more) colonies.
A bird of open country in California's central valleys. While its Black-billed relative lives across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, as well as western North America, the Yellow-billed Magpie lives only in California -- in an area about 500 miles from north to south and less than 150 miles wide. Within this limited region, Yellow-billeds nest in colonies in groves of tall trees.
Sometimes common but usually hard to observe, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo inhabits dense leafy groves and thickets during the summer. Its stuttering, croaking calls, audible at a great distance, are often heard on hot, humid afternoons; people sometimes call this bird the 'rain crow,' imagining that it is calling for rain.
This is the "blue jay" of parks, neighborhoods, and riverside woods near the Pacific Coast. Pairs of California Scrub-Jays are often seen swooping across clearings, giving harsh calls, with their long tails flopping in flight. They readily come to backyard bird feeders. Until recently, this jay was considered part of the same species as the Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay; the two were officially "split" in July 2016.
This sharply-marked bird with the curving topknot is common along the California coast and in a few other areas of the west. It has adapted rather well to the increasing human population, and is often found around well-wooded suburbs and even large city parks. California Quail live in coveys at most seasons, and are often seen strutting across clearings, nodding their heads at each step. If disturbed, they may burst into fast low flight on whirring wings.
Because it requires old-growth forest, this owl has been at the center of fierce controversy between conservationists and the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. The owl itself seems anything but fierce: it has a gentle look, and it preys mostly on small mammals inside the forest. Its deep hooting calls carry far on still nights, especially in southwestern canyons where they may echo for more than a mile. Found on their daytime roosts, Spotted Owls may allow close approach.
Phalaropes reverse the usual sex roles in birds: Females are larger and more colorful than males; females take the lead in courtship, and males are left to incubate the eggs and care for the young. Wilson's Phalarope is an odd shorebird that swims and spins on prairie marshes. The other two species of phalaropes nest in the Arctic and winter at sea, but Wilson's is a bird of inland waters, nesting mostly on the northern Great Plains. Huge numbers may gather in fall on some salty lakes in the west, such as Mono Lake and Great Salt Lake, before migrating to South America.
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