Tag: Masked Booby (Page 1 of 2)

El Niño Brings Boobies to LA County

October 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

A pair of Nazca Boobies frequenting a buoy off Long Beach

El Niño Brings the Boobies to Southern California

A Super El Niño has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean in 2026. It is the strongest since record-keeping began over 75 years ago. Much discussed in the news for its impact on the weather, El Niños also have profound impacts on animal life. For west coast birders, a strong El Niño can bring warm-water birds that typically reside farther south off the coast of Mexico.  And that seems to be happening this year. In small numbers, but numbers bigger than usual, a kind of bird known as “boobies” has settled in to our area.

Boobies are long winged birds that spot fish and squid from the sky and plunge dive after them. They are bigger than the biggest gulls. They are often described as having a “4-pointed star” appearance, on account of their long wings, long beak, and tapered tail. They are more often seen from a boat than land (unless you’re in Hawaii).  Six species can be found in American waters. In order of likelihood of being found in L.A., they are: Cocos, Masked, Nazca, Red-footed, Blue-footed, and Brown (never seen in L.A.). Thanks to a crazy past month, I have now seen all five that have been recorded in Los Angeles County. 

Red-footed booby in Malibu

Red-footed Booby chilling on a pillar in Malibu

The craziness started in mid-September, when word went out that a Red-footed Booby was at Malibu Lagoon. Red-footed Boobies live in tropical waters across the globe. I’d seen them in Hawaii and unexpectedly while camping on the coast in San Luis Obispo. They are only spotted in LA every few years. This bird was found on the beach, and initial reports were that animal rescue had been called. This may be a good thing for a sick or injured bird. But birders in town thought “noooooooo!” as they feared losing the chance to see a nice rarity. The bird flew away, perhaps having gotten wind that the bird catchers were on the way. An hour or so later, someone re-found it along the Pacific Coast Highway east of Malibu. That was about 30 minutes from my house, so I decided to make a run and hope it stayed put long enough for me to get there. 

Luckily, it was under the watchful eye of a couple of birders when I drove up. The bird was sitting on a concrete pillar that had probably supported a house that burned in the Palisades Fire in January 2025. The bird was just 30 feet from the highway. Red-footed Boobies come in white and brown versions. This one was brown. It didn’t have the namesake red feet, but none of us complained. It stuck around for 15-20 minutes before it flew off again, flushed by a pair of birders who pulled their car up just where the bird was perched. 

Cocos Booby too majestical for the frame in Santa Monica Bay

I added another booby to my LA county list in early October on an LA Birders pelagic trip in Santa Monica Bay. While Santa Monica Bay doesn’t bring pelagic rarities as often as some other places, you never know what you’ll see when you’re out on a boat. This trip left from Redondo Beach, and followed Redondo Canyon out to the shipping lane. Around the mouth of the canyon, an immature Cocos Booby did a fly-by and settled in the water with some gulls. This is the most frequently seen booby species in LA. It’s actually a new species, having been split from Brown Booby in 2024. They range from Baja to Colombia and Ecuador. They didn’t start showing up in California until the 1990s, when they expanded their range north. It was long past time for me to see one of these, and I was delighted that we  encountered one on the boat ride. The warm waters have also brought some storm-petrels our way, and I added Least and Ashy Storm-Petrel to my county list.

A rare booby combo
Buoy-assisted Boobies

There was still one more booby species being spotted in the area: Nazca Booby. They are very similar to the Masked Booby, having been split from Masked in 2002. They key distinction is a pinkish tinge to the base of the bill, instead of an all-yellow bill.  They are famous for practicing obligate siblicide, a reproductive strategy where an older chick kills and eats a younger chick in every case where two eggs hatch. Their range overlaps with Cocos Booby, though they’re less likely to be seen in California waters. To see the Nazca Boobies (there were up to 4 hanging out off Long Beach), the best bet besides a private charter was a Harbor Breeze Whale Watch tour. I signed up for one on a Saturday morning (groupon discount!), and asked the captain if he’d swing by the buoys to check for boobies. He kindly obliged. We struck out on the red buoy on the way out, but struck gold at the green buoy on the way in. In addition to a pair of adult Nazca Boobies, there was an immature Cocos on the same buoy. A pod of 1,000 common dolphins, some flying fish, and a playful Humpback Whale had all the boat-riders happy.

Before the booby bonanza of the last month, I had seen two booby species in Los Angeles. The first, in 2013, was Blue-footed Booby. They are the rarest of the boobies that have been recorded in California. They breed from Baja to the Galapagos Islands, and have glowing baby blue feet in breeding plumage. They apparently build no nest, but lay eggs on the ground. As the incubating adults poop, a wall of excrement forms around the eggs. There was an unprecedented irruption of them in September 2013, as the birds wandered up the California coast. One made it all the way to British Columbia. As many as 7 were seen on the Playa del Rey breakwater in my 5-mile radius circle. They lingered into December. One hasn’t been seen in LA since.

Blue-footed Booby, Sept. 2013
Masked Booby, Feb. 2020

The other species I had seen was Masked Booby. At the same Playa del Rey jetty, a Masked Booby showed up in February 2020, just before Covid shut the world down. It stayed for 2 weeks. With a world-wide tropical range similar to Red-footed Booby, these are the largest of all the boobies. Despite the irruption of boobies this year, no Masked Boobies have been confirmed in LA.

Least Storm-Petrel (good luck)
Least Storm-Petrel (good luck)
Back end of cargo ship
Cargo Ship close-up

Birding Ballona Creek #1: Jetties and Breakwater

May 3, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Ballona Creek: Jetties and Breakwater

This post in my guide to birding Ballona Creek covers the area of Ballona Creek where it spills into the Pacific Ocean (that is, the portion west of the Pacific Avenue bridge). The creek channel here is straight as an arrow, thanks to a 1930s channelization project. It is lined by big rock jetties on each side. For convenience, I’ve numbered the unnamed jetties in the map above. Folks sometimes refer to #2 as the middle or long jetty, and #3 as the short jetty (or the southern jetty). They’re the jetties most birders explore, since they’re easy to access from parking at or around Del Rey Lagoon. Jetty #2 and Jetty #3 have flat sidewalk surfaces you can stroll down, though the last 100 yards of #2 is uneven rock. There are far fewer reports from the northern-most jetty (#1). I rarely visit jetty #1 because the bike path doesn’t go past it, and it’s more than twice as far to drive to that side of the creek from my house as it is to drive to Del Rey Lagoon. The bike path is in red, and continues for miles south along the coast.

This section of the creek has a dedicated eBird hotspot: Ballona Creek–Creek mouth, jetties, and breakwater. A hotspot for the Pacific Avenue bridge and another for the general “Playa del Rey/Ballona area” confound things a bit. I’ve never entered a checklist for either of those two spots. If you’re on the jetties, I suggest you use the creek mouth/jetty/breakwater hotspot. 

Wandering Tattler
Black Oystercatcher

This is one of my favorite places to visit in my entire 5-mile radius. For starters, it’s got great birds. All year long (except maybe the doldrums of June), the jetties and breakwater offer excellent birding and the potential for rarities. In addition to great birds, I’ve seen green sea turtles and sea lions and whales from the jetties (a gray whale was swimming 10 feet off jetty #3 one day!). And there’s always multiple kinds of watercraft about–from fishing boats and pleasure yachts to jet skis and college rowing crews. The jetties have their share of regular fishermen, and get more casual foot traffic on the weekends. The fisherman don’t seem to bother the birds all that much, but too many strollers tends to scare the birds off.

Another advantage of the jetties is that this isn’t a birding spot that requires getting up at the crack of dawn to see the birds. The tide plays more of a role for seeing birds here than the time of day (that, and how many people are about). If you’re all alone on the jetties at dawn at a high tide, there will be fewer birds on the rocks than if you come mid-day when the tide is falling. That said, there are usually more people around after 10am, especially on weekends.

While I can’t discern anything special about the rocks on one side of a particular jetty or the other, in my experience, the jetty birds prefer the rocks along the creek (that is, the north side of jetty #3 and south side of jetty #2). Between the two, the longer middle jetty gets more birds, and most of them are on the west end of the jetty, after the flat walking surface ends. The sunlight (such as it as) is better in the mornings, when it’ll be at your back (but it’s usually obscured by the marine layer). Visibility in the afternoon, especially during the summer months, is tough with the setting sun behind the breakwater.

Least Tern Playa del Rey California
Least Tern
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruddy Turnstone
Peregrine Falcon
Belding’s Savannah Sparrow

On the Rocks

Generally, the further out you get on the jetties, especially jetty #2, the more birds you’ll see. There are a good number of usual jetty suspects feeding on the rocks: Willets, Turnstones (Ruddy and Black), Surfbirds, Sandpipers (Least are more numerous than Western), and Sanderlings are all present year-round, except for a vanishing act they play during June. Black Oystercatchers are resident in small numbers all year, either on jetty #2 or the breakwater. Wandering Tattlers are uncommon but possible any month, except for late April and early May when migrants move through, and June, when they vanish like the others. A small number of Belding’s Savannah Sparrow, an endangered subspecies of Savannah Sparrow that breeds in salt marsh, can occasionally be spotted (almost always alone, and on jetty #2). From time to time, a Black Phoebe will hang out on the jetties. American Oystercatchers get reported, though I’m convinced most of them are Black xAmerican hybrid birds. Despite all the good rocks, only rarely does someone report a Rock Wren. And it’s been almost a decade since a Burrowing Owl spent a couple of weeks on jetty #2.

The approximately 2,000 foot wide breakwater is close enough to the jetties to ID birds with binoculars. It’s often dominated by cormorants. The majority are Brandt’s Cormorants, with some Double-crested and Pelagic mixed in. If there isn’t a feeding frenzy going on nearby,  you might see up to 5,000 cormorants standing on the breakwater. If the wind is blowing the surf onto the breakwater, the cormorants move en masse onto the jetties, and a slow approach will allow for some excellent close-ups. Brown pelicans, gulls, pigeons, and Snowy Egret make up the rest of the birds you’re likely to spot on the breakwater. With patience and luck, you can sometimes pick some rarities out on the breakwater. In September 2013, Blue-footed Boobies showed up. As many a 9 were reported, and the last one stayed until December. In February 2020, a Masked Booby made the breakwater home for 2 weeks. A Common Murre shows up every few years.

Blue-footed Booby playa del Rey California
Blue-footed Booby
Masked Booby Playa del Rey California
Masked Booby

In the Air

Despite all the action on the rocks, you’ve got to keep your eyes on the skies, too, as there’s usually plenty of action. Gulls are most numerous, and mob the fishing boats as they return to harbor. Western Gulls are present in the biggest numbers, all year round. The beautiful Heerman’s Gulls (both white-headed adults and chocolate juveniles) are here nearly year-round, but in sporadic numbers. Ring-billed Gulls dwindle in the summer, but are common in the winter. Bonaparte’s Gulls, Short-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Iceland Gull, and Glaucous-winged Gulls are strictly winter birds. Only two reports (1975 and 2009) of Glaucous Gull suggest they don’t prefer the area. There aren’t any reports yet of Lesser Black-backed Gull here, but their rising numbers in L.A. County suggest that one will soon be found here. Careful observers can knock themselves out trying to ID the hybrid gulls as well.

Bonaparte’s Gull
Brown Pelican
Forster’s Tern
Western Sandpiper

The screeching of terns is constant background noise around the jetties. Look for Royal Tern in the winter, Elegant, Caspian, and Least Tern in the summer, and Forster’s by happenstance anytime (another species I think is overreported). Standing on the end of jetty #2 and looking out past the breakwater, you’ll sometimes see Parasitic Jaegers chasing after terns. Osprey like to perch on the breakwater towers, and Peregrine Falcons occasionally make runs along the creek in winter. Belted Kingfisher sometimes move from the lagoon to the bridge, but rarely venture out to the jetties.

Sanderling bath time
Surfbird

On the Water 

There are plenty of birds on the water, as well. Moving about between the jetties and the breakwater you can see a bunch of stuff. Loons can be found from November to May (Pacific, Common, and Red-throated, with Pacific being the least common in my experience). Eared Grebe’s typically outnumber Horned Grebes, and Western Grebes far outnumber Clark’s. Pied-billed Grebes tend to stay upstream of the bridge. A Red-necked Grebe is possible inside the breakwater, but quite rare. Surf Scoters often mass along Dockweiler Beach, and small groups can be found feeding between the breakwater and the jetties. Bufflehead in winter are the most numerous duck, with Lesser Scaup and Red-breasted Merganser common in smaller numbers, and Long-tailed Ducks a winter rarity. The rest of the ducks tend to stay in the lagoon or up the creek.

Surf Scoter
Surf Scoter
Red-throated Loon

 

Vesper Sparrow
Red-necked Grebe Ballona Creek California
Red-necked Grebe
Black-legged Kittiwake Ballona Creek California
Black-legged Kittiwake
Ancient Murrelet

 

Jetty #2 – flat at the beginning
Rocky and poop-stained at the end
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