I got really into identifying birds (and plants!) as of 2020 when they were basically the only form of free entertainment that existed outside of my house. I started realizing that making note of the birds I was seeing and hearing, what they looked like and what they were up to was making me mindful and present in a way I was rarely able to access. So I kept doing it and now I recognize and know things about them which basically makes them my favorite neighbors.
I have the Cornell Bird Merlin app on my phone which I would highly recommend if you’re at all curious about who you’re sharing your neighborhood with— you can tell it about a bird you saw and it will help you figure out what it was, and you can even Shazam a bird call, a feature I just found out about and now use constantly. So come along with me, won’t you, on my virtual bird tour.
Cooper’s Hawk
The first birds I ID’d by sound alone were a family of Cooper’s Hawks, also known as chicken hawks, please don’t ask why. These guys are fun a) because hawks are great but also b) the juveniles make a different call than the adults. Where the adults do a very honky CUK CUK CUKCUK call, the babies make these very cute if slightly haunted screeches. This year my neighborhood has a family of one adult and two juveniles, at least one of which loves to be photographed. I call her/him/them The Baby ™.
One time The Baby’s pathetic screes were so loud when I was walking around in my neighborhood talking to Amory on the phone that she literally stopped me to ask what the sound in the background could possibly be. Audible icon.
Black Phoebe
Black Phoebes are probably my pick for cutest neighborhood bird (no offense to the above Baby). For some reason they give me the impression of being the dogs of birds; they have nice little chirps and love to come land on fenceposts near you and size you up. They love to live near rivers because they use mud to build their nests in a process I’m still unclear on. My new apartment has a great view of one phoebe who spends every day jumping up and down on my neighbor’s roof, doing fuck knows what. 10 stars.
Mockingbird
I used to get so bummed out in my early birding days when I would hear an interesting new call only to find out it was one of these dumb birds doing a bird bit. But now I think it’s actually extremely impressive that their entire thing is learning and stealing other birds’ songs. At one point I got it into my head that mockingbirds could hold more songs in their heads than a first generation iPod. It turns out this is absolutely not true at all but I bet you could get a stranger to believe it if you pushed hard enough. I think it’s so funny that mockingbirds evolved perfect mimicry just because female mockingbirds seemed to like it. Almost anything any bird is doing at any given time is probably a desperate attempt to get a lady bird to pay attention to it and I find that weirdly humanizing.
House Sparrow
House sparrows are extremely common BUT they are on my faves list because they are an equal cocktail of very cute and extremely bastardly. These birds rapidly expand in every climate they’re introduced to because they’re extremely scrappy and there’s nothing they can’t adapt to, eat, or make a nest out of. They’re a top pick to survive increasing urbanization. They can and will nest in tailpipes, stormdrains, and street signs using materials like cigarette butts (they found out the menthol drives away bugs!) and feathers they pull out of other birds while those birds are still very much using them.
The Parrots
One cool thing that happens to you sometimes when you’re in Southern California is that you’ll hear a very sharp squawking and, if you look up in time, will see a bunch of olive green Red-Crowned Amazon Parrots flapping their way across the city. Every parrot here is descended from a pet someone had at one time (which is also true of pigeons, by the way!) and now they might actually be more prevalent here than their native habitat in Mexico, where the species is in decline.
Hummingbirds
I don’t think I really appreciated hummingbirds until we got a feeder that I have a perfect view of from my chosen workstation (the couch obviously). First of all, hummingbirds are extremely territorial. The only things on their to-do list all day is 1) find food 2) prevent all other hummingbirds from getting that food at any cost. Hummingbirds are so low on the pecking order (even some spiders consider them a food source) that basically the only thing they have to bully is each other. Roughly 13 times today I’ll watch an extremely suspicious-looking hummingbird look every direction while also trying to slurp some nectar, only to get dive-bombed out of nowhere by another hummingbird that was lurking somewhere in the shadows. It’s high drama and I love it. Also, do you know how hummingbirds drink nectar I bet you don’t.