Point Reyes Birding in Summer: A Data-Driven Field Guide
What birds are at Point Reyes in the summer months (June, July, August)? A data-driven guide to year-round residents, species present for nesting specifically, non-breeding migrants, and rare visitors. Based on real sightings.
By Vanessa Richter
Nature Writer, Blogger & Photographer
Published July 30, 2026 · Updated July 30, 2026
Point Reyes National Seashore is one of the best places in the United States to go birdwatching. The large variety of habitats, from grasslands to coastal scrub to mature forests, supports rich biodiversity, including our feathered friends. To create this guide, I combined my love for nature, photography and writing with my background in science to provide you with statistics on which birds you're most likely to observe at Point Reyes in the summer months of June, July and August: Who is just here for the breeding season, post-breeding, just passing through, year-round or a rare visitor? The guide is based on what people have actually observed here.
Top 10 most commonly observed
1California QuailCallipepla californica
562
2White-crowned SparrowZonotrichia leucophrys
479
Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis
277
4Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
244
5Western GullLarus occidentalis
191
6
Song SparrowMelospiza melodia
189
Turkey VultureCathartes aura
179
8Heermann's GullLarus heermanni
174
9
OspreyPandion haliaetus
164
10
Great EgretArdea alba
153
Most-seen nesting migrants
OspreyPandion haliaetus164
Barn SwallowHirundo rustica104
Wilson's WarblerCardellina pusilla58
Swainson's ThrushCatharus ustulatus52
Pigeon GuillemotCepphus columba41
Most-seen non-breeding migrants
Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis277
Heermann's GullLarus heermanni174
Caspian TernHydroprogne caspia119
Surf ScoterMelanitta perspicillata92
California GullLarus californicus52
Species of legal concern
Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalusState Listed - Endangered
◆ Open ranchland and grassland edges
near historic ranches
Wild TurkeyMeleagris gallopavoInvasive
24
Waterfowl4 SPECIES
◆ Sheltered water
MallardAnas platyrhynchos
29
Wood DuckAix sponsa
24
GadwallMareca strepera
23
Canada GooseBranta canadensis
7
Loons, Grebes & Pelagic Seabirds2 SPECIES
◆ Open water, from ponds to offshore
Western GrebeAechmophorus occidentalis
8
Pied-billed GrebePodilymbus podiceps
5
Pelicans & Cormorants3 SPECIES
◆ Coastal waters and rocky perches
Double-crested CormorantNannopterum auritum
62
Brandt's CormorantUrile penicillatus
45
Pelagic CormorantUrile pelagicus
27
Herons & Egrets5 SPECIES
◆ Shallow estuaries and marsh
Great Blue HeronArdea herodias★ 4
244
Great EgretArdea alba★ 10
153
Black-crowned Night HeronNycticorax nycticorax
27
Snowy EgretEgretta thula
17
Green HeronButorides virescens
5
A conservation success story
Great Blue Heron, Great Egret & Brown Pelican
Ardea herodias · Ardea alba · Pelecanus occidentalis
Today, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, and Brown Pelican are among the
most commonly seen birds at Point Reyes in summer. Yet all three were
once pushed to the brink of extinction.
In the late 1800s, heron and egret plumes were worth more than gold by
weight to the millinery trade, and hunters raided nesting colonies
across the country, wiping out hundreds of birds in days. By the 1890s,
Great Egret (Ardea alba), Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), and
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) had all been hunted to the edge
of extinction across much of the U.S. Two Boston women, Harriet Hemenway
and Minna Hall, read about the slaughter in 1896 and started organizing
tea parties to convince society women to stop wearing feathered hats.
That campaign grew into the Massachusetts Audubon Society, then the
National Audubon Society, and led to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of
1918 — one of the first federal environmental protections in U.S.
history. All three species recovered steadily afterward. In 1953, the
National Audubon Society adopted a flying Great Egret as its official
symbol, specifically because the species had come to represent
conservation success.
Brown Pelican's story is different, but shares the same root cause:
human activity nearly wiped them out. Hunting and habitat loss played a
role, but an even bigger factor was pesticide use. Brown Pelican, along
with many other fish- and meat-eating species on this list — Bald Eagle
among them — was pushed to the edge of extinction by a single chemical.
DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), a synthetic insecticide, was once
used widely. What wasn't known at the time was that it accumulates in
animals' fatty tissue. It washed into rivers and soils, where animals
came into contact with it, and through a process called
biomagnification, it concentrated in greater and greater amounts the
higher a species sat in the food chain. Birds were especially affected:
DDT in their bodies caused eggshell thinning, and shells grew so brittle
that many broke under the weight of the incubating parent. Top predators
like Bald Eagle, hawks, and Brown Pelican were hit hardest — they laid
fewer eggs than smaller birds to begin with, and their position at the
top of the food chain meant more DDT concentrated in their bodies.
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's 1962 book on eggshell thinning and
bird declines, brought the problem to public attention. Carson had
worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It still took nearly
another decade for the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and the
Endangered Species Act (1973) to follow — the latter requiring a
recovery plan and legal protection for every listed species. DDT itself
was banned in 1972.
Thanks to that ban and the protections that followed, Brown Pelican and
other affected species were able to recover. In 2009, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service removed Brown Pelican from the federal endangered
species list, and the California Fish and Game Commission removed it
from the state list the same year. Bald Eagle was declared recovered at
the federal level in 2007, but is still listed as endangered in
California.
WHAT WORKED
Grassroots activism, public awareness, and the legal protection that
followed are what turned this around: Boston socialites boycotting
feathered hats, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring drawing the
public's attention to the environmental impact of DDT, then the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act for herons and egrets, and the DDT ban and
Endangered Species Act for pelicans and eagles. Today, organizations
like Audubon Canyon Ranch and Point Blue Conservation Science monitor
these species and protect the habitat they depend on.
The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) is a
small shorebird about the size of a sparrow with gray legs, a short
black beak, pale gray-brown upperparts, and snowy white underparts. In
1993, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the western snowy
plover as federally threatened due to a significant decline in the
last century. The driving factors for the decline are habitat loss and
habitat degradation due to beach development and invasive dune plants
along with human disturbance and predation. Snowy plovers are easily
startled by unleashed dogs, vehicles, and even flying kites. If that
happens, they may abandon their nest, leaving the eggs unprotected and
quickly lost to predators, buried in sand, or simply left unhatched.
At Point Reyes, biologists and volunteers track nests and chick
survival. While the 2026 breeding season is still in full swing, the
2025 data is hopeful: by the end of the season they had logged the
second highest count of plover fledglings in over 30 years of
monitoring. What's more, they found 56 plover nests, which is the
highest count since annual monitoring began in 1997 (though still not
as high as several counts from the 1980s). And all that despite a wind
storm in May destroying many nests — thankfully, snowy plovers can
nest multiple times in a breeding season, and they were able to bounce
back.
How can you help
According to the National Audubon Society
◆Keep dogs on a leash in plover nesting areas
◆Avoid flying kites near nesting sites
◆Walk around marked nesting areas, not through them
This is the guide's most varied category, covering several different
patterns for why these species are at Point Reyes in summer, sharing that
they all breed elsewhere. Brown Pelican and Heermann's Gull arrive once
breeding wraps up at colonies to the south (Channel Islands and Mexico for
the pelican, Mexico for the gull), joined by non-breeding-age pelicans
that skip nesting entirely. Shorebirds like Semipalmated Plover, and
pelagic travelers like Sooty Shearwater — mid-way through one of the
longest migrations of any bird — are already passing through by midsummer.
Surf Scoter's non-breeding immatures skip the Arctic trip and oversummer
here. Harlequin Duck males arrive early too, leaving incubation duties for
molting grounds on our coast ahead of females and young. A few, like Pine
Siskin, wander in irruptively rather than on a fixed schedule.
Waterfowl9 SPECIES
◆ Sheltered water
Surf ScoterMelanitta perspicillata
92
BrantBranta bernicla
11
Red-breasted MerganserMergus serrator
6
Harlequin DuckHistrionicus histrionicus
5
Common MerganserMergus merganser
2
Long-tailed DuckClangula hyemalis·Northern PintailAnas acuta·White-winged ScoterMelanitta deglandi·Black ScoterMelanitta americana
Blue GrosbeakPasserina caerulea·Indigo BuntingPasserina cyanea
1
Finches4 SPECIES
◆ Open woodland and scrub,
especially near seed-bearing plants
Pine SiskinSpinus pinus
33
Red CrossbillLoxia curvirostra
6
Lawrence's GoldfinchSpinus lawrencei
1
RedpollAcanthis flammea
2
Help track these birds
This guide is backed by iNaturalist sightings. iNaturalist is a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting people to nature and advancing biodiversity science and conservation. On their platform (app or website), you can log species (animals, plants, fungi) that you spot and contribute to the database.
Bird categorization in this guide also draws on eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's global sighting database. Not sure what you're looking at? Cornell's free Merlin Bird ID app identifies birds from a photo, a sound recording, or a few simple questions — and every sighting logged on eBird helps train it to recognize more species.
Explore the wild landscapes of Point Reyes National Seashore, from hiking along rugged cliffs and spotting tule elk and elephant seals—both once believed extinct—to observing migrating whales. This guide covers the best hikes, wildlife highlights, seasonal tips, and top places to stay for an unforgettable visit.
Explore the wild landscapes of Point Reyes National Seashore, from hiking along rugged cliffs and spotting tule elk and elephant seals—both once believed extinct—to observing migrating whales. This guide covers the best hikes, wildlife highlights, seasonal tips, and top places to stay for an unforgettable visit.