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California’s Bird of the Year 2026

To celebrate Audubon California’s 30th anniversary, eight remarkable birds are facing off in our Bird of the Year Tournament. 

How to Vote

You may vote once per match-up game through Audubon California's voting form HERE and once on every Bird of the Year post or Story poll shared during that game’s voting period. This includes multiple opportunities to vote through:

The Third Matchup

The third game begins Wednesday, August 19, and closes Tuesday, August 25, at 11:59 PM PT, when WESTERN SANDPIPER takes on CALIFORNIA BROWN PELICAN. 

Keep scrolling to meet all the contenders, and get the full scoop on this bracket challenge! 

 

Each bird connects us to California’s incredible habitats and to the conservation milestones, communities, and program work that have shaped our impact over the past three decades and beyond.

How the Tournament Works

Eight birds will face off in four opening-round match-ups, with the winner of each game advancing. (In total, eight birds will compete in four opening-round match-ups to determine which four advance to the semifinals.) Your vote will decide:

  • Which four birds advance to the semifinals
  • Which two make it to the final round
  • Which bird is ultimately crowned California’s Bird of the Year!
1
Tricolored Blackbird
ENIUCN Status
Guide
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.
2
California Condor
CRIUCN Status
Guide
A holdover from prehistoric times, the California Condor is one of North America's largest and most magnificent birds as well as 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 California Condors are surviving in several areas of California and in the region of the Grand Canyon.
3
Surf Scoter
LCIUCN Status
Guide
The Surf Scoter is common in winter on both coasts; on Pacific Coast, often seen around fishing piers and harbors. The male's strong head pattern earns the species the hunters' nickname of 'skunk-head coot.' When feeding, they usually spring forward and dive with the wings partly opened. Silent at most times of year.
4
Western Snowy Plover
NTIUCN Status
Guide
An inconspicuous, pale little bird, can be 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.
5
Least Bell's Vireo
LCIUCN Status
Guide
When it is glimpsed in low brushy thickets of the Midwest or Southwest, the Bell's Vireo looks totally nondescript. When it is heard, however, it is easy to recognize, singing a jumbled clinking song, as if it had a mouthful of marbles. The species has become less common in recent years in many parts of its range, partly because it is a frequent victim of Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism; many Bell's Vireo pairs succeed in raising only Brown-headed Cowbirds, not their own young.
6
Western Burrowing Owl
LCIUCN Status
Guide
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.
7
Western Sandpiper
LCIUCN Status
Guide
A close relative of the Semipalmated Sandpiper. The Western Sandpiper nests mostly in Alaska and migrates 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, the Western Sandpiper is the smallest.
8
California Brown Pelican
LCIUCN Status
Guide
An unmistakable bird of coastal waters, the Brown Pelican often flies 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, as the Brown Pelican was seriously endangered as recently as the early 1970s. Ending the use of DDT and other persistent pesticides allowed for the Brown Pelican's resurgence.
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