Birds

Exhibitions

Girls looking in a drawer at a fossil as a couple in background looks at birds in case

Exhibition | NHM

Hall of Birds

Get up close with hundreds of species of birds in the Ralph W. Schreiber Hall of Birds.

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A group of birds make use of the feeds at the Museum's bird watching platform

Wildlife Viewing

Take a break and watch some of the animals that visit our Nature Gardens.

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A swallowtail butterfly on purple verbena

Welcome wildlife to your garden

Some tips and tricks.

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Events

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Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

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daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

Stories

A woman in a maroon ball cap holds a bright red-headed and yellow bird

Fly the Bird Migration Super Highway at Bear Divide Banding Station

Discover the spectacle and the science happening at Bear Divide Banding Station

Bobwhite, a brown quail-like bird with small black and white accents, on the ground

Scientists and Engineers Measure How Birds Send Heat into Space for the First Time

A new study from scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, UCLA, Indiana University, and Cal State University, Dominguez Hills reveals the hidden reflectance of bird feathers through the prism of light, heat, and color

A yellowish-green Sapayoa bird on a branch in a tropical forest

One Tropical Bird's History Through the Lens of Lice

NHM's new Ornithology Collections Manager, Juliana Soto-Patiño, discovers the evolutionary origins of the mysterious Sapayoa aenigma through its parasitic louse

Blue, green, and yellow border around skulls and a hummingbird

Dinosaur Discussions

The Evolution of the Bird Brain and the Origins of Flight with Dr. Amy Balanoff

A paradise tanager looks directly into a camera with its green head cocked, visible red spot on its back, and stunningly bright blue breast.

Hidden black and white feathers are the secret behind songbirds' dazzling colors

Colorful songbirds like tanagers use a painterly technique to make their colors pop

Vintage illustration of various feathers and specimen skins of birds

How Bird Feathers Work

A brief look at the structure of feathers—and what they mean to birds

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Wild LA: Introduction to Camping at NHM

The Camp Out at NHM is a night filled with camping activities, nature, and fun-- all hosted in the museum Nature Gardens! These first-time campers will explore the gardens on a night hike and meet museum scientists who study bats, bugs, and other wildlife. They will also share L.A. nature stories while we roast marshmallows over the campfire. Co-hosted with community partners.

Red-tailed Hawk in Cedar Creek smoke - 2 cropped(

Project Phoenix: Investigating Bird Responses to Smoke

This groundbreaking community science project seeks to understand how wildfire smoke is impacting birds.

A Guide to:
Birds of Los Angeles

Backyard Birding

Guía de NHMLAC Para la Observación de Aves

La Guía de NHMLAC Para la Observación de Aves alrededor de Los Ángeles.

News & Press

How Birds Send Heat into Space Measured for the First Time: A New Study Reveals Hidden Reflectance of Bird Feathers Through the Prism of Light, Heat, and Color

Scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, UCLA, Indiana University, and Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, flock together to measure the reflectance of mid-infrared in bird feathers for the first time.

Vibrant songbirds share a technique with painters: using white and black (feathers) to make their colors pop, NHM scientist finds

The exceptionally rare fossil skull of a new bird species from the Age of Dinosaurs reveals that avian skulls achieved their recognizably modern shape using archaic structures—an unexpected but stunning example of parallel evolution—while also unearthing a missing link in the long evolutionary history of the bird brain.