Michael San Miguel, prominent birder and conservationist, dies at 70

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Michael San Miguel, an ardent conservationist known for his accomplishments in Southern California field ornithology and bird banding, died late Wednesday while conducting a spotted owl survey in the San Gabriel Mountains. He was 70.

San Miguel was traversing a steep canyon along the West Fork of the San Gabriel River when he slipped and fell about 100 feet, said his son, Michael Jr.

Word of the accident spread quickly throughout the Southern California birding community, which regarded the longtime Arcadia resident as a role model and mentor.

‘Mike was a decent individual, a tireless conservationist, a local natural history guru and exemplary family man,’ said environmental consultant Dan Cooper. ‘He especially loved getting new people into birding and field research.’

In a letter to friends and colleagues, Kimball L. Garrett, manager of the ornithology collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, described San Miguel as ‘an extraordinary connoisseur of rare birds’ who embarked on ‘trips all over California to chase them.’

‘On my countless wonderful trips in the field with Mike, the conversation would inevitably turn, and pretty quickly, to the inexorable loss of bird habitats as urban areas continued to grow and consume the places we enjoyed going,’ Garrett recalled. ‘I would gripe and curse and feel generally pessimistic about everything, but Mike had a different and much more effective approach – he got involved.

‘If he enjoyed birding in an area, he felt it was his responsibility to work as hard as he could to make sure it was preserved or restored for birds and birders.’

Instead of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be forwarded to Western Field Ornithologists.

A full obituary will follow at www.latimes.com/obits.

-- Louis Sahagun