California Bird Atlas

Core Team

Van Pierszalowski

President & Executive Director, CBA

Van's childhood was split between Cambria, CA, and Kodiak Island, AK, where he worked on his father's commercial salmon fishing boat for 8 years. After earning a degree in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, he embarked on a successful career as a songwriter and musician, appearing on TV shows like Late Night with Conan O'Brien and CBS News Sunday Morning. Now living in LA, he's fallen in love with the area's varied habitats and stunning vagrant birds, and is continually inspired by its diverse birding community. In 2023, Van completed a California Big Year, recording 503 species—becoming only the second birder to surpass 500 in a single year in the state. He is an eBird Regional Reviewer for Los Angeles County, and leads trips for several local organizations, including Los Angeles Birders and the Pasadena Audubon Society.

Science Director

Sam Safran

Sam is an ecologist with more than a decade of experience applying science to guide ecosystem management and the conservation of biodiversity. Sam specializes in leveraging participatory science data (eBird, iNaturalist), statistical models, and geospatial analysis to assess species responses to changing landscapes. He is currently completing a PhD focused on understanding bird responses to habitat restoration and urban greening in human-dominated ecosystems. Prior to graduate school, Sam worked as an Environmental Scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, where he led projects to support landscape-scale restoration, climate change adaptation, and ecological resilience across California. He holds a joint BA in Biology and Environmental Studies from Middlebury College in Vermont. Fellow eBirders—request a personalized “lifer map” from Sam here. 

Morgan Tingley

Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Science Advisory Committee Chair, CBA

Dr. Morgan Tingley is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the faculty at UCLA in 2020, after previously serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut and as a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Princeton University. His research combines original field samples with ecological “big data” to understand how large-scale anthropogenic drivers of change affect geographic distributions and community interactions of birds over short to long timespans. This is his second statewide bird atlas, having been co-PI on the second Connecticut Bird Atlas from 2018–2022. In addition to his role at UCLA, Dr. Tingley is President-Elect of the American Ornithological Society (AOS). For more information: The Tingley Lab.

Outreach Coordinator, CBA

Alecia Smith

Alecia is the Senior Communications Coordinator at Audubon California, where they lead digital communications. Based in LA, Alecia is a bird photographer and former Beach Naturalist Coordinator with Ventura Audubon’s Shorebird Recovery Program, where they spent 5 years documenting shorebirds, mentoring volunteer naturalists, and engaging local communities in coastal bird conservation. In 2021, she completed a 10,000-mile solo road trip across the U.S. to deepen their connection with birds and the people who love them, an experience that sharpened their focus on conservation storytelling.