Anthony Ciccarello

I'm a birder who has lived in North San Diego County for the last 5 year. Originally from the east coast I grew up watching colorful songbirds come to my backyard. While spending time traveling Latin America, I got back into birding, enjoying exploring what each area had to offer. Since then I've used birding as a way to enrich my travels. I'm fascinated by the variety of birds in the world and all their unique behaviors. In San Diego, I love checking out different kinds of habitats to take full advantage of the biodiversity in the county. More recently I've been working on improving my sound ID skills, connecting with more birding community events, and tracking down a few local species that have eluded me.

After finding out about the SD Birdathon during the SD Bird Festival, I've decided to participate this year. The goal is to see as many species as you can in a 24 hour period. My current plan is to target May 9th as my birding day (also a Global Big Day) and traveling around to various spots in the county. You can donate either a fixed amount or (as extra encouragement) per species identified.

While San Diego County has over 500 species of birds recognized as being seen in the area, as of march 2026, I've identified a total of 187 birds. For one day, I'm hoping to identify 50 species and I would be thrilled if I could hit 75. For context, it took me 5 days and the help of many other skilled birders to hit 78 species during the bird festival.

Occasionally, I'll post bird pictures and stories on my website which along with my ebird profile is how I keep track of my birding stories. Feel free to check out those pages for some more bird content.