Elevation
760 m
A short central close named for the great mimic—the state bird of five American states, though not of California.
The Great Mimic
The Northern Mockingbird is the official state bird of five American states — Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas — and was once South Carolina's as well. It is not California's: that distinction belongs to the California quail, which makes Mockingbird Place a transplant among the enclave's otherwise local birds. The name earns itself another way. A mockingbird's song is largely borrowed, and field studies have put the number of distinct song types somewhere between 43 and 203 depending on the region — Texas studies measured 14 to 150, two Florida studies estimated roughly 134 and 200 — with a male continuing to add to his repertoire for the whole of his life. It is a bird defined by accumulation rather than by one signature call, which is a fair description of the street as well.
One of the Original Names
Mockingbird Place is one of the first bird-named roads on the hill. It appears among the nineteen listed on an early Renie atlas held in the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library collection — alongside Oriole Drive, Nightingale Drive, Thrasher Avenue, Bobolink Place and Vireo Drive — decades before Blue Jay Way was added in the 1960s. The naming began in 1924 and continued street by street into that decade, so this close predates the glass-and-steel era of the enclave entirely. Whatever stands on it today sits on a parcel laid out while the hillside above the Sunset Strip was still being surveyed rather than subdivided for trophy houses.
A Short Close at the Centre
Mockingbird Place is a close rather than a through road, and that is most of its character: a handful of parcels, no cut-through traffic, and the enclave's main arteries a minute away in either direction. Streets shaped like this one hold their appeal for a reason that has little to do with architecture — privacy on a hillside is largely a function of how many cars pass your gate, and on a close the answer is almost none. The trade is the view: a central close sits below the ridge streets, so the sightline is framed rather than panoramic.
Who the Neighbours Are
The enclave's draw has been consistent for decades and it is not subtle. Residents reported over the years include Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Jodie Foster, Keanu Reeves, Herbie Hancock, Stan Lee, Larry Flynt and Christina Aguilera; Jennifer Aniston was reported to have rented in the Bird Streets for around $20,000 a month, and Dr. Dre sold his house here for $35 million. Those names attach to the cluster as a whole rather than to any one road — which is the argument for buying on a quieter street inside it. The address carries the enclave's pedigree; the close carries the privacy.
What Can Be Built Here
Anything built new here falls under the City of Los Angeles Baseline Hillside Ordinance, which governs residential construction in the city's designated Hillside Areas. Rather than one flat cap on size, the ordinance sizes a house by slope: a surveyor maps how much of the lot sits in each slope band, each band carries its own floor-area ratio, and the permitted floor area is the sum of those bands — so the steeper the parcel, the less house it yields. Height is measured as an envelope that follows the grade, stepping with the hill rather than rising from one flat plane, and grading permitted by right is capped at a share of lot size plus a fixed allowance before a discretionary review is required. This is the quiet reason a view lot above the Strip trades at a premium to its square footage: the ridge supplies the sightline, and the ordinance limits how much can be put in front of it.
More in the Enclave
- Doheny DriveThe grand western boundary of the Bird Streets—where the hillside luxury of 90069 meets the Sunset Strip below.
- Bobolink PlaceA short, tucked-away close named for one of the great long-distance migrants of the Americas.
- Marcheeta PlaceA cul-de-sac roosting just above the Bird Streets—named in 1924 alongside its feathery neighbors, and perhaps, the story goes, for someone's parakeet.
- Bluebird AvenueA lower, sun-warmed stretch named for the bird that means, everywhere in America, a kind of good fortune.
Read the history of the Bird Streets for how the enclave was named and built, browse all twenty-one streets, or see every Bird Streets home for sale and available for lease.
The Avian Feed
Residences on Mockingbird Place
No active inventory on Mockingbird Place at this moment. Check back soon or explore the full Bird Streets feed.
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