San Mateo County Birding Guide by Sequoia Audubon Society - Printed on October 30, 2026

Yerba Buena Nursery and Langley Hill Rd

Spring: ••••    Summer: •••    Fall: •••    Winter: ••   

Description

Langley Hill Road is west of Skyline, 2.3 miles south of Windy Hill, opposite the Tom Fogerty Winery. When you first turn west on this road, you are paralleling the northern boundary of Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. Russian Ridge gate #7 can be accessed on foot, to your left, a few hundred feet down the road; however, there is no fully legal parking at this spot. At .6 miles one can stop briefly at the big (and often muddy) pullout on your left. From here one can bird up and down the road, at least 100 yards. There is another gate for Russian Ridge OSP here (#8), but this area of the OSP is officially closed. This spot is one of the better places in the county for a number of spring and summer species, including Hermit Warbler (migrant) Black-throated Gray Warbler, MacGillivray's Warbler (uncommon), Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, Cassin's Vireo (uncommon), Hutton's Vireo (year-round), Hairy Woodpecker (year-round), Chipping Sparrow (uncommon, all summer) and Golden-crowned Kinglet (year-round). At night both Northern Pygmy-Owls and Western Screech-Owls can be heard here.

Continue down the road to the Yerba Buena Nursery. The Nursery (open 9-5, Tuesday-Saturday) is a special place. Devoted to California native plants only, it offers a plant display garden and some outstanding birding. Due both to its location and its business, the Nursery bunches many distinct habitats together, and it is possible to get good views of the entire height of many different kinds of trees. Yerba Buena Nursery will also charm your non-birding companions: the grounds are lovely, plants are well-marked for identification, a formal tea is sometimes served (you need reservations for this activity), the staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and the surroundings are lovingly tended. If you have only two hours to bird in spring this is the place to go. Do not bird near the private residence (clearly marked as such), nor should you bird on the road here, especially in the open habitat to the west of Yerba Buena Nursery. Once you've driven down Langley Hill Road to Yerba Buena Nursery, you will know how dark and narrow the road can be, and how unexpected people walking its edges would be to drivers.

Birders are generously allowed to bird all over the nursery. Be sure to check the ponds, one above the parking lot (mostly dry on a recent 2009 visit) and the other down behind the old barn. Birds to be expected are California Quail, Red-tailed, Red-shouldered and Cooper's Hawks, Band-tailed Pigeon, Anna's and Allen's Hummingbirds, Black Phoebe, Ash-throated Flycatcher (spring-summer), Pacific-Slope Flycatcher (spring-summer), Western Wood-Pewee, Acorn, Hairy and Nuttall's Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, Hutton's and Warbling Vireos, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Oak Titmouse, Bushtit, Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Swainson's (spring and summer), Varied (winter) and Hermit Thrushes, American Robin, Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warblers (fall and winter), Orange-crowned, Wilson's and Yellow Warblers, California and Spotted Towhees, Song Sparrow, Fox and Golden-crowned Sparrows (fall-winter), Dark-eyed Junco, Black-headed Grosbeak (spring-summer), Bullock's Oriole (spring-summer), Purple and House Finches, Pine Siskin, and American and Lesser Goldfinches. Red Crossbills should be listened for in their irruptive wanderings. Most winters you can find Red-breasted Sapsuckers in the orchard across from the barn. Unusual species sighted here have included Lazuli Bunting, White-throated Sparrow, and Lawrence's Goldfinch; all three of these have been regular if rare in some years, then absent for a string of years after. Please bring these birds to the attention of your fellow birders by posting on peninsula-birding.

Look For These Birds

Rarities Seen Here

In this guide, "rarities" are defined as those species given an County Abundance Code of 4, 5, or 6.

Lawrence's Goldfinch

Directions

Langley Hill Road is located off of Skyline Boulevard (SR35), about 4.5 miles south of the intersection of SR84 and SR35. Take a right at the well-marked sign for the nursery at Langley Hill Road (unpaved). Continue to bear right at each for two miles until you see the nursery. If you stop at the pullouts earlier along the road, please remember that this is a private road, and you should confine your birding to areas near your car. Respect private property at all times.

Fees

There are no fees, per se, but birders who can afford to should stimulate the economy with a purchase at the Nursery.

Hours

The road is open 24/7, but it is a private road. Yerba Buena Nursery is only open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Hazards

When birding from the road, not only is it narrow, but cars are not expecting you, especially around dark corners. Stay alert. Ticks are present, of course. Some of the residents along the road, especially west of the nursery, are protective of their privacy; please respect this.

Google and Mapquest maps will not show this area accurately. Both services frequently misname roads, show closed or private roads more prominently than public ones, and will just get you lost.

Facilities

There is a restroom, tastefully maintained, at Yerba Buena Nursery. The shop here sells water and soda, in addition to a grab bag of gifts and a good selection of both gardening and natural history books. Given the years of encouragement and access that the nursery has afforded to birders, please consider making a purchase at their gift store. Even though the birding here is not as spectacular in winter as in spring, it is still excellent, and a fine place to visit for end-of-year holiday shopping, especially for any gardeners on your gift list.

The Thomas Fogarty Winery, east of the intersection of SR35 and Langley Hill Road, has its own charm for connoisseurs. While grape orchards tend to suppress bird diversity, the beauty of the scenery, and the interesting story of how Dr. Fogarty combined his research as a cardiovascular doctor with being a vintner, can make this an enjoyable stop. Contact them at 650-851-6777. They host weddings and other events. Their tasting room hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Designate a driver: please do not drink and drive anywhere, but the windy roads of the Skyline region are particularly unforgiving to impaired drivers, their passengers, other drivers, and the many bicyclists along this route.

Contact

Yerba Buena Nursery can be contacted by phone at 650-851-1668.

Avian Research Status

Yerba Buena Nursery is a hotspot in eBird, but dramatically (and now permamently) underpopulated with data: only nine of forty-eight calendar quadrants with sightings of seventy-one species. Keep submitting your sightings, including historic visits from the distant past, to eBird, especially for a specialty site like this one.

Yerba Buena Nursery was a major site for a thorough study of native bees of the San Francisco Bay Area. The results of that study can be found at this link.

Sequoia Audubon Society conducted six field trips to Yerba Buena Nursery and environs between 1994 and 2008.

Author: Dan Keller and Jennifer Rycenga, Uploaded: