Speaker Series: Van Pierszalowski

Building California’s First Statewide Breeding Bird Atlas

Join Van for an overview of the California Bird Atlas project, one of the most ambitious community-driven research efforts ever undertaken in the state. While 44 states have already completed a statewide breeding bird atlas, California has long been an outlier. That is now changing. The Atlas officially launched in January 2026 and will document the breeding distribution and behavior of every bird species across California during a five-year field period (2026–2030). Organized by the nonprofit California Bird Atlas in collaboration with partners statewide, including Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, this talk will explain how the project works, how birders of all experience levels can participate, and share an early status update from the first months of fieldwork.

Van Pierszalowski is the Founder and Executive Director of California Bird Atlas, the nonprofit leading California’s first statewide breeding bird atlas. He grew up between Cambria, CA and Kodiak Island, AK, where he worked on his father’s commercial salmon fishing boat for 12 years. After earning a degree in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he built a career as a songwriter and musician, appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and CBS News Sunday Morning, before pivoting to public policy and bird conservation. In 2023, he completed a California Big Year with 503 species, becoming only the second birder to surpass 500 in a single year. He is an eBird Regional Reviewer for California.

California Quail by Chris Johnson