Gateway drug

Tawny Fletcher tempers her exuberant invitation to beginning birders with visits to experts Kimball Garrett and Alvaro Jaramillo.

Los Angeles County: home to Hollywood, the Sunset Strip and some of the awesomest birding hotspots in the country.

“It’s partly, of course, because there are so many people here that if a bird shows up, somebody’s going to find it,” explains Garrett. “But it’s mostly because of the diversity of habitat.” We’re talking mountains, marshes, coastline, chaparral, desert, oak woodland and more, people! That’s a lot of different kinds of food and shelter that are irresistible to a lot of different kinds of birds.

Birdchat