Community Science

Community science has existed as a core component of the Los Angeles Audubon Society since its founding. After all, birding is at heart a community volunteer activity, with long-standing events like the Christmas Bird Count drawing thousands of participants each year. We continue to build on that history with our snowy plover beach monitoring program, Breeding Bird Atlas, and participation in iNaturalist & eBird.

“Organizing & supporting volunteers of all ages in scientific monitoring of our fragile urban ecosystems.”

Breeding Bird Atlas

by Larry W. Allen, Kimball L. Garrett, and Mark C. Wimer. Foreword by Michael C. Long; Contribution on Pleistocene avifauna by Daniel A. Guthrie

Building on five years of volunteer surveying across the county, the Breeding Bird Atlas is an encyclopedic description of all of all birds ever nesting in Los Angeles County. It is a must-have for anyone interested in the region's ecology and wanting to learn about bird nesting and breeding habits.

This 660-page hardcover compendium addresses 228 species found with evidence of breeding during the 1995–1999 Atlas survey period plus 18 additional historical, island-breeding, and post-Atlas breeding species. Our Atlas findings are based on over 28,000 records provided by over 300 volunteer observers contributing more than 10,000 hours of field effort. The authors have supplemented this information by consulting extensive ornithological and paleontological literature, extracting data from over 5600 egg-set records, and analyzing trend data from eight county BBS routes and eight county CBC circles in the attempt to provide as comprehensive a picture of Los Angeles County’s breeding avifauna as possible.

Pricing:

California addresses: $67.07 (incl. shipping/handling + tax)

All other contiguous United States addresses: $61.95 (including shipping/handling)

Click here to purchase

Western Snowy Plover Conservation

Along with other local Audubon chapters, we coordinate monitoring of the wintering (and now nesting) Western Snowy Plovers along the coast.

California Least Tern Conservation

The breeding colony of California Least Terns is also under close watch. Contact us for volunteer opportunities.

Get Social: iNaturalist, eBird, & California Birds

One of the best ways to contribute to understanding of nature and its conservation is to document natural history observations. Birders are encouraged to submit observations on eBird.org , iNaturalist.org, and californiabirds.org takes records of all groups, and helps with identification of those mystery species.