Red-whiskered Bulbuls in Los Angeles

Red-whiskered Bulbuls--birds from afar.

Pycnonotus jocosus L. (photos by JP Donahue)

April 1, 2011

Two Red-whiskered Bulbuls announced their arrival in our yard with a loud-ish series of melodious notes that stood out among the other more common calls and chitterings from our native California Towhees, White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, House Finches, Northern Mockingbirds, and Western Scrub-Jays.  They perched in our Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis), looked around, preened a bit, and flew off--maybe looking for likely nesting sites.

They aren't native to the U.S. but live in India, Southern China, south to Hong Kong and Indochina. Having been imported into North America as cage birds, they do what is natural and given the chance, fly the coop or cage or aviary and once free, climate allowing, settle down. They have found Los Angeles, as well as Hawaii, and Florida to be to their liking. They are established enough to be in National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

We first ran across them in L.A. area while strolling around the Huntington Library. The tale we heard from our ornithologist friends was that a pair escaped from the L.A.  Zoo and immediately set up housekeeping. Being prolific breeders, there were soon baby Bulbuls about.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul is an aristocrat in the taxonomic realm. Its name was sanctified and made inviolable by Linnaeus when he described the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, 1758.  As is often the case, it is named  for its rather inconspicuous red whisker mark just by the eye, as opposed to its more prominent red vent (the area under the tail). A related species in the same genus is called the Red-vented Bulbul--however it was described later in 1766.

If you want to see them, the Huntington is a sure bet. So take your binoculars to the lovely gardens of the Huntington and experience a bit of Asia.