SAN DIEGO — Everybody likes to live in San Diego - especially birds. News 8's Shawn Style went to "Mt. Whoville" in Escondido and met with Ernie Cowan to talk about the birds that come to San Diego and how locals can bring them into their gardens.
"We have the most diverse bird population of any county in the United States," said Cowan who is a journalist and naturalist.
He said the numbers are astounding.
"We have about 515 species that are regularly found here or migrate here on a regular basis," said Cowan.
It's the Pacific Flyway and our landscape that make the area so desirable.
"[Birds come to San Diego] because of the diverse environment we have from ocean, lagoons, inner lakes, and woodlands, to high mountains and deserts," Cowan said.
Showing up in San Diego already this year are white-crowned sparrows with their distinctive white striped head and yellow-rumped warblers named for obvious reasons. Some of our local birds include road runners and the California quail.
Cowan keeps water on the ground for the adults and chicks as well as in fountains around his property dubbed "Mt. Whoville."
"We'll get dove, mourning dove, house finch and house wren," he said.
Cowan and his wife Kati have fledged many a nest and said attracting them is easy.
"There's three elements to attracting birds: water, food, and shelter or cover," he said.
Food and water are easy but what is cover?
"We hung our bird feeders next to the plants and we started seeing quail arrive because they needed cover," Cowan said.
Cowan also keeps his eyes open for wildlife at night.
"I have a game camera I move around and see coyotes and things that are moving around," he said.
And the water helps all of nature.
"These are nurse bees and their sole job is to take water back to the hive and cool the hive on these really hot days," Cowan said.
He knows nature will survive but it's nice to know he's helping.
"It's about this bigger cycle of nature we all live in," said Cowan.