Situated in the northwest corner of California, the state’s fourteenth largest county is a significantly bird-rich area that has long attracted the attention of biologists and birders. As a measure of this importance, Humboldt County now has a comprehensive breeding bird atlas (hereafter Atlas) that covers the county’s 197 breeding species in 445 pages. Although Humboldt County is easily pigeonholed as a land of continuous conifer forest and heavy logging, the picture painted by the Atlas is much more fascinating and complicated. Not only does Humboldt County sit at the crossroads of northern species (e.g., the Ruffed Grouse, Gray Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, and Varied Thrush) and southern species (e.g. the White-tailed Kite, Oak Titmouse, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher), it encompasses numerous pockets of unexpected habitats and birds. The latter category includes Mountain Bluebirds haunting high peaks on the eastern border of the county, a surprisingly vigorous population of American Redstarts along the coast, and newly discovered nesting Rufous-crowned Sparrows in the southwest.