Product Description

This pocket-sized photographic guide features stunning full-page color photographs of the over 300 birds that live in the Los Angeles area (within 50 miles of downtown Los Angeles including Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties), along with their descriptions, the basics of bird watching, and a regional checklist. It is the perfect guide for beginning bird watchers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435983 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
Kimball Garrett, a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, is the Ornithology Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, past President of Western Field Ornithologists, member of California Bird Records Committee, and co-editor of the Southern California regional reports for North American Birds. With Jon Dunn co-authored Birds of Southern California, Status and Dsitribution and Peterson Field Guide to Warblers. Jon Dunn grew up in the Los Angeles area and is a bird tour leader for WINGS, chief consultant to the National Geographics Field Guide to the Birds of North America, host/writer for the Advanced Birding Video Series. Serves as a member of the California Bird Records Committee, the American Birding Association Checklist Committee, and the American Ornithologists Union Committee on Classification and Nomenclature. Bob Morse has seen over 830 species of birds in the United States, written/published 10 books, and regularly lectures on the joys of bird watching. He lives in south Puget Sound (Olympia) and has birded for over 40 years in the greater Puget Sound area.

Customer Reviews

Birds of the Los Angeles Region
First, I am not a bird watcher. I don't go out of my way to see birds and I'm not enthusiastic about sighting them. I just sit by my window and lately there have been many different birds in my garden. This isn't surprising because it's autumn and they're passing through.

I never could find my way around a Petersen guide or other birds books I've seen, but Birds of the Los Angeles Region is organized so I can find what I just saw and the pictures make it recognizable. It also makes it easy to find the birds that will be in my microclimate, not all over Southern California. The descriptions give me all the information I want.

Now I know I've had a junco living in the garden for a couple of weeks. I'd heard of juncos, but had no clue about what they were. My favorites were some yellow warblers. I didn't even know there were yellow warblers before this book. It stays on my desk by the window so I don't have to go out of my way to get acquainted with whoever is visiting today.

This book has added a small pleasure my life. Whatever brings a small pleasure is a happy gift.

Has Helped Me Out Several Times
This is one of several bird books I purchased after I hung several feeders around my property. I was previously unsure how to identify several species of birds that came every day. I like the fact that this book has a section in the beginning that has pictures of the most common birds in the Los Angeles area and the corresponding page number to read about them in more detail. Every bird that has come to my feeders has been found in this section. I now check there before perusing the rest of the book. The other books I purchased have more detail for each bird, but this book has an overall larger assortment of birds to read about. Overall, I'm happy I bought it and would definitely recommend it to anyone living in the greater L.A. area that enjoys bird watching.

A Perfect Companion
I've never been a bird watcher but while walking through a local park, a young boy and his grandmother were gazing up in a large tree and being curious, I stopped to see what they were looking at. To my amazement, only about 10 feet over our heads, was a beautiful hawk, just sitting there. He, or she, for I never found out, allowed us to ooo and ahh over him until we tired and left. It intrigued me, what kind of hawk was that? Or was it a hawk. All I knew is a few birds that it wasn't. On later walks I started noticing other birds and wanted to know more about them. I looked at bird books in the bookstore but they were filled with birds I'd never see here in the Los Angeles area. Then I saw an ad for this little book and was so pleased when I got it. I've identified many of the birds and now that I'm aware of all the birds that live here, I am thrilled to be able to look them up. The book is compact and easy to carry in my car in the handy door pocket where I can grab it quickly. It's not too heavy to stick in a backpack or even a large pocket and I often take it with me on my walks.
It's reasonably priced and handy as all get out and a perfect introduciton to more ambitious bird watching further on.
It's a great gift for friends and family. Adults as well as children can use and enjoy it. You can't go wrong.