The Gulf of California is important for nesting seabirds (Anderson 1983), but the low productivity of the southern portion causes the abundance of seabirds to decrease with latitude (Cody et al. 1983, Carmona et al. 1994). Perhaps for this reason there have been few recent ornithological studies of this area. San José Island, north of La Paz Bay, is one of the areas for which very few records exist (Grinnell 1928, Wilbur 1987, Velarde and Anderson 1993). This paper presents a preliminary list of waterbirds breeding in the southernmost portion of San José Island and on three smaller adjacent islands.