You all recognize that this is a male, females being all brown. In the Baldwin Hills, mallards are found at the lake in Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. They are also found up and down Ballona Creek, possibly eating algae, in the filmstrip fountain at Veteran's Memorial Building, and maybe in your back yard if you have a fish pond or pool.
Photo: Tom Bentley
Tailfeathers are red above but pale on the bottom, so it's hard to tell what kind of hawk it is when they're flying overhead. Widespread throughout North and Central America.
Photo: Akkana Peck
This member of the falcon family is another bird of prey but much smaller than a hawk, about the size of a jay. Kestrels are able to hover in the air above prey they have spotted.
Photo: Jim Bailey
This swimming bird has lobed toes instead of webbed feet. Although it swims and dives, it is not a duck but a member of the rail family. Its beak is triangular like a chicken's, not flat like a duck's.
Photo: Gerald & Irmgard Carter
Member of the plover family (wading birds, also found in fields). Sexes are alike, but chicks have only one black breastband. The name comes from the sound of its call. Killdeers nest on open ground, often gravel, in an unlined slight depression. Newly hatched chicks are "precocial", born with their eyes open and ready within minutes to run after their parents and pick up food, although they cannot fly yet. (Birds that hatch blind, naked, and helpless are called "altricial.") Killdeer is one of the kinds of birds that fake wing injuries to draw predators away from their nests.
Photo: Jim Bailey
Listen
You may have seen this hummingbird or another common hummingbird, Allen's Hummingbird (below), in your yard at your feeder or flowers. Anna's is the only hummingbird with a red crown, distinguishing it from the ruby-throated hummingbird (an eastern bird). This is a male; females have grey-green heads with only a small spot of red at the throat. This is the only hummingbird commonly seen in California in winter.
Photo: Eugene Fleharty
Another common hummingbird. This is a female; males have red throats (but green crowns). Breeds in coastal California but winters in northwest Mexico.
Photo: Joseph Turner
One of the most abundand birds in North America, its name comes from its mournful "oooo oooo" call. Joddy Boyer of Perham Drive feeds these birds and reports: "I have my desk in front of one of the windows and when they are out of food, they come and watch me, just like saying "feed me". They eat about five pounds of food a day so sometimes I forget to fill the feeders and they let me know."
Photo: Robert Shantz