City Smart / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California : Bird Paradise : Bird Watchers Are Flying High in Southern California, Home to Hundreds of Avian Species

Birders are a flighty bunch.

Especially when word goes out on the hot line that a hepatic tanager or a Mongolian plover has been sighted near Los Angeles.

Serious bird watchers like Nancy Pachana and Tim Kastelle of Encino will drop what they’re doing and rush off to some remote Los Angeles County mountain road or to a strawberry field outside Oxnard to take a look.

That happened the other day when the couple cut short a long-planned bird-sketching expedition at Malibu Lagoon. After spotting five species of gulls and four species of terns, they folded their scopes and beach chairs and hurried off to Carbon Canyon Park near Brea.

“We hear there’s a scissor-tailed flycatcher down there,” Pachana explained to professional wildlife artist John Schmitt, who was in charge of the outing.

No apology was necessary, replied Schmitt, of Norwalk. “A friend called to tell me a dusky warbler has been seen up at Vandenberg Air Force Base. It’s going to attract a lot of people, too.”

Despite its heavy traffic, sprawling subdivisions and growing human population, Southern California is still considered a bird paradise. And this is the time of year when birders feel they’re in paradise too.

“Fall is when birds are moving. This is the time of year when you have your greatest chance here to see birds that are out of range,” Schmitt said. He is a globe-trotter who has observed more than 800 species in a birding career that began at age 4 when he tried to rescue a blackbird that had been hit by a car outside his Long Beach home.

There are about 9,500 species of birds worldwide. Experts say about 450 species can be seen in Los Angeles County--counting migrating and “vagrant” birds that get lost and fly in by mistake.

No one keeps track of how many bird-watchers there are here, however. Audubon Society officials and other experts say there is no doubt that the number is growing. So is the quality of birds being sighted.

That’s because birders no longer have to wing it when they head outside with their binoculars.

Five “bird alert” hot lines listing when and where rare birds have been sighted are operated by Audubon groups in Southern California. At least one is updated daily.

Some bird lovers subscribe to computerized notification services that automatically dial their telephone number when there is news of an unusual sighting. The computer keeps calling until either the birder or a message machine answers.

On-line bird alert services have also been developed for bird watchers who have a computer and modem. They can print out precise directions to remote viewing spots.

A month ago, movie audio-visual specialist Jon Fisher of Arcadia left work to rush to Oxnard to see a Mongolian plover reported by a hot line. “I got there before it flew off,” he said proudly.

On Thursday, the Audubon Society’s bird hot line in Los Angeles reported unusual sightings from Camarillo to Irvine.

A black oystercatcher was visible at the Malibu Lagoon. A yellow-bellied sapsucker and a hepatic tanager were at Veterans Park in Sylmar. A pair of black-and-white warblers were at the Bette Davis Picnic Area at Victory Boulevard and Riverside Drive in Glendale. Two dozen Lawrence’s goldfinches and a cackling Canada goose were on the south shore of Quail Lake north of Santa Clarita.

Birders say there is plenty to see right outside the window if people stop to look. Most Los Angeles-area neighborhoods are filled with hummingbirds, house sparrows, spotted doves and numerous other species.

Many bird watchers keep track of the species they’ve seen. Those compilations can range from “20-minute lists” and “back-yard lists” to “life lists” that span a birder’s lifetime.

Carol Donovan’s life list includes 2,561 species. She is a jaunty New Zealander who is living in Los Feliz while she prepares for an around-the-world bird-watching trip.

“I just finished a six-year world backpacking and bird-watching adventure. I spent two years researching before I left on it. I’m spending five years researching my next trip right now. I’m leaving in the year 2000 and heading straight for Africa.”

Los Angeles can’t be beat for its variety of habitats, she said. “You have desert, ocean, mountains, offshore islands. Within 50 miles of here you have some excellent birding hot spots. I love the adventure of studying a beautiful bird in a book and then going looking for it.”

Donovan, 49, works in the Audubon Society’s bookstore in West Hollywood. Her clientele can’t be beat, she said: “You never hear a birder complaining about the problems of life.”

Most birders agree there is plenty of life out there to observe.

Sites ranging from the flatlands of the Sepulveda Basin to the rugged hills of Eaton Canyon in Pasadena are available to Nicholas Collias, a Van Nuys resident who proudly admits to being a birder “for 65, maybe 70” of his 81 years.

The favorite bird-watching spot for La Crescenta resident Robin Gaylord is in Placerita Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley. The health care administrator’s favorite sighting there has been a lazuli bunting, a blue-and-orange bird that stopped off on its way to spend the winter in Mexico.

British-born interior designer Chris Tosdevia only has to step out the front door of his Topanga Canyon home to catch an eyeful. It’s something the lifelong birder never saw in his lush native countryside.

“You have a great deal more variety of species here,” he said.

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Top Bird- Watching Spots

Every bird watcher has a favorite place. Here are several spots,compiled by Jean Brandt and Glenn Cunningham of the Audubon Society:

1. Placerita Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley (species include hawks, wrens, jays, finchs and bluebirds).

2. Big Sycamore Canyon, north of Malibu (orioles, goldfinches, flycatchers and sparrows).

3. Mission Gorge, east of San Diego (warblers, blackbirds, western kingbirds and grosbeaks).

4. McGrath State Beach near Oxnard (plovers, herons, dowitchers and gulls).

5. Ballona Creek in Culver City (cormorants, owls and migrating ducks and geese).

6. Mt. Pinos, west of Frazier Park (calliope hummingbird and the California condor).

7. San Bernardino Mountains, past Green Valley Lake (warblers, larks, tanagers and flycatchers).

8. Little Rock in the Antelope Valley (thrashers, falcons, larks, and plovers).

There are five Southern California bird alert hot lines: Los Angeles (213) 874- 1318; Orange County (714) 563- 6516; San Bernardino (909) 793- 5599; San Diego (619) 479- 3400 and Santa Barbara (805) 964- 8240.