Birds of Greater Vancouver
by Richard J. Cannings
Strategically located along the West Coast at the mouth of a great river, Vancouver is a magnet to birds and birders alike. About 371 species have been seen in the area, 250 of them occurring annually. The Fraser delta is a globally significant migration stopover and wintering ground for waterfowl and shorebirds, and is clearly the centrepiece of any birding exploration in the Vancouver area. The towering mountains along the North Shore add a diversity of forest habitats right up to the subalpine meadows at their peaks. And few other cities in the world, if any, can boast of so many eagle nests within their boundaries.
Backyard Birds As in many North American cities, the birds of urban Vancouver are dominated by a triumvirate of new immigrants--the Rock Dove or common pigeon, the starling and the House Sparrow. All three were brought over to our continent from Europe, where they had evolved in urban and agricultural settings for thousands of years. But Vancouver has its distinctive birds as well. Another immigrant, the Crested Myna, was brought over from China at the turn of the century and prospered in Vancouver until the starling arrived in the 1950s. The jaunty black birds with their punky crests and big white wing patches are becoming a rare sight, but Vancouver is still the only place in North America where they can be seen. Another relatively new arrival is the House Finch, a common sight at backyard feeders, where the males’ red plumage and cheery song brighten the cloudy days. These finches moved north from California on their own, following the opening of the coastal forests north.
Perhaps the most conspicuous bird of suburban Vancouver is the Northwestern Crow, a coastal relative of its larger Interior cousin, the American Crow. Crows are opportunistic and omnivorous feeders, and have greatly profited from the switch from intertidal buffet to suburban gardens and garbage. In fall and winter crows assemble in large flocks every evening before going to roost. Easily the most amazing gathering in the province takes place every day near the Willingdon exit on Highway 1 in Burnaby, where about 5,000 to 8,000 crows blacken the buildings and ground as dusk falls.
A Year of Birds Winter The old saying has it that rainy days are good for ducks, and Vancouver birders should take that to heart. Vancouver is simply one of the best places anywhere to watch wintering waterfowl. Thousands of graceful Western Grebes float amid the freighters on English Bay, diving occasionally for a meal of small fish. Rafts of big black Surf Scoters, easy to identify with their heavy, garish pink and yellow bills and white head patches, dive to pull mussels from the bottoms of rocky bays. Handsome Barrow’s Goldeneyes, the males with white crescents on their black heads, dive alongside the scoters for smaller mussels. Flocks of American Wigeon carpet grassy parks, grazing the grass like miniature geese. Perhaps the best place to watch ducks at close range is Stanley Park, where freshwater species crowd into Lost Lagoon and sea ducks are plentiful around the seawall.
For a complete wildlife spectacle, however, you can’t top Boundary Bay and the Fraser delta. Tens of thousands of ducks, mostly pintail and wigeon, gather there in winter to feast on the food provided by its rich, muddy shallows. Tight necks of Dunlin, a type of sandpiper, perhaps 100,000 in all on the delta, flash white and silver against the dark winter clouds. And of course there are the Snow Geese at Reifel Refuge (see below). Almost 50,000 of these winter-white birds descend on the Fraser delta to gorge on sedges and other vegetation, flying in from Wrangel island off the coast of eastern Siberia. They arrive in October, shift south to the Skagit delta in midwinter, then return in early spring to refuel before lifting off into the blue April sky for the flight north.
The highlight of the birding winter is the Christmas Bird Count, when hundreds of brave souls actually volunteer to go out into the rain all day to tally the avifauna. Local counts are centred in Vancouver, Ladner, White Rock and Pitt Meadows. The mild weather gives these counts the highest species lists of any in Canada, except for the strong competition from Victoria, of course. For more information call the Federation of B.C. Naturalists (737-3057).
Spring Spring in Greater Vancouver means a gradual end to the winter rains, and birders’ thoughts turn from ducks to songbirds. Given a bright day in late February, local songbirds such as robins, Bewick’s and Winter wrens, Song Sparrows and House Finches are inspired to tune up and start singing. The lengthening days also bring in the first insect eaters from the south; Tree and Violet-green swallows appear on the Fraser delta in late February, signalling the first spring arrivals from south of the Rio Grande.
Rufous Hummingbirds buzz in from their Mexican wintering grounds in early March, following the pink blooms of salmonberries and wild currants north. A few more species trickle in as the March sun dries out the ground, but the main waves of migrants don’t appear until late April. Many pass overhead unseen in the night, but a heavy spring rain will bring them down. Queen Elizabeth Park can be dripping with noisy and colorful birds after a night of rain in late April or early May.
Most of the wintering waterfowl disappear in the middle of April--goldeneyes, grebes and loons to lakes in the Interior, wigeon, pintail and geese up the coast to Alaska. They are replaced by wheeling flocks of sandpipers and plovers passing through in the hundreds of thousands, using the rich delta as a pit stop on their incredible journey from South America to the Arctic.
By the time the hot days of late May settle in, most of the excitement has died down, The bays and mudflats are almost entirely barren of ducks, geese and shorebirds, the tropical migrants gone from backyard gardens, and juvenile robins and starlings are taking over local lawns.
Summer With the winter and spring birds gone, June is a quiet month for Vancouver birders. In fact only about half of the species seen in Vancouver stick around to nest here. This is the songbird month, the best time to relearn all those warbler, flycatcher and sparrow songs forgotten in the winter rains. Long June days mean early June mornings, but you are amply rewarded for getting up and out by 5 A.M. With a Stirring dawn chorus from local forested parks as male birds carol out to attract mates. Perhaps the best local sites for a dawn walk are Minnekhada Park in Port Coquitlam and Campbell Valley Park in Langley. Both have a rich variety of coniferous and deciduous forests mixed with wetlands.
By early July the dawn is silent again as birds turn their thoughts from courtship to feeding hungry young. Luckily for birders the first adult sandpipers return from the Arctic in July, still in breeding dress but looking a little worn from all that flying. Their young come through in August, millions of them going all the way to South America on genetic guidance alone. One of the best sites in North America for close-up shorebird watching is the Iona Island sewage lagoons just north of Vancouver International Airport. If you position yourself upwind from the muck, the smell is quite tolerable and the birding is always great!
Midsummer is the best time to explore the high mountain trails of Whistler, Garibaldi and other local areas to see alpine specialties such as ptarmigan, Horned Larks, Gray-crowned Posy Pinches and Pine Grosbeaks.
Autumn As the shorebird migration winds down around Labor Day, the songbird movement reaches a crescendo. Hundreds of tiny birds flit through the woodlands, meadows and backyards of the southern coast. Unfortunately, for the birdwatcher, they are a drabber lot than those that went through in May, garbed in olives, browns and greys. They are quieter in voice as well; their loud, distinctive spring songs replaced by quiet chirps that are difficult to locate and identify. Unlike spring migration, when birds throng in the green, warm lowlands, most of the fall migration happens on mountain ridges, where bountiful berries and bugs help fuel the southward trip. Mountain winds also give a great boost to soaring birds, so local ridges such as Grouse Mountain and Cypress and Mount Seymour Provincial Parks are good spots to watch for southbound hawks and eagles. Groups of Turkey Vultures tilt lazily over Point Roberts, waiting for a tail wind to blow them south. In late September the first waterfowl begin to return from the Interior, and by October all the local bays have their quota of ducks, grebes and loons.
Birds in the Future Vancouver is truly a great city in which to enjoy birds of all types. But the disappearance and fragmentation of forests and meadows threaten birds here just as it does elsewhere in the modern world. Lowland forests and meadows are feeling the greatest effects of urban development, and several bird species such as ruffed grouse, meadowlarks, mourning doves and screech owls are becoming harder to find every year. Large urban parks such as Stanley Park and Pacific Spirit Park are wonderful oases of wildlife, but we need to preserve more natural lands to ensure that our birds will always be there for our children to watch. Ordinary citizens can easily help the local birds by following simple rules such as keeping your cats indoors (pet cats are one of the top causes of death in songbirds) and putting your dog on a leash when visiting local parks where waterfowl gather. And, on a positive note, a backyard feeding station can provide hours of enjoyment and an opportunity to appreciate our bird neighbors even more. If you have any questions about birds, try calling the Vancouver Natural History Society’s birding hotline at 737-9910.
The George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary The Reifel Refuge, as it is commonly called by birders, is located at the mouth of the Fraser River west of Ladner. It is one of the best local sites for birding, especially for the beginner, since many of its feathered residents are tame enough to get very close looks. Reifel is worth a visit any time of year. Its ponds are full of ducks and shorebirds in early spring, and the diverse shrubs and trees pull in migrant songbirds from kilometres around. Summer is quieter, with most of the waterfowl gone except for the ubiquitous mallards and geese and their families, but birders scan the muddy shores for errant Siberian sandpipers in July and August. The high point of the Reifel year is the Snow Goose festival in early November when thousands of geese carpet the fields and sat marshes. Midwinter is waterfowl season, but two species of roosting night birds often steal the show--tiny Northern Saw-whet Owls are often found sleeping in the fir trees and this is the only place in the province to see Black-crowned Night-Herons. Call 946-6980 for more information about the sanctuary.
Gulls Although they are often scorned by the general public as “garbage geese” or worse and lumped in the generic term “sea gulls”, gulls are rightfully considered a fascinating group. Their affinity for garbage has certainly made them a successful bunch in the urban world. Besides cleaning up on garbage, they also eat huge quantities of insects, especially craneflies, termites and ants. Eight species of gulls commonly frequent the Vancouver area, most of them only in winter. The 1995 Christmas bird counts in Greater Vancouver tallied almost 45,000 gulls, making them one of the more populous types of birds in the area.
The grey and white adults look superficially similar, but can be identified by a combination of wingtip color, leg color and bill pattern. They take two to four years to get this adult plumage, though, and identification of the mottled brown and grey young birds is usually tackled only by more experienced birders.
The common, big gull that nests on local cliffs and buildings is the Glaucous-winged Gull. Its wingtips are usually grey, pretty much the same shade as its back, and it has the standard yellow bill with red spot. It is the gull of the Pacific Coast from Washington to Alaska, replaced from Oregon south by the darker Western Gull. The two species interbreed in colonies along the Washington coast, and the hybrid offspring with their dark grey wingtips are a major headache for Vancouver birders intent on identifying every gull they see. Glaucous-wings invade city gardens and garbage dumps for food and scavenge on the beaches for anything that looks appetizing. They steal the catches of diving birds and will also kill and eat ducklings. One aggressive individual in Jericho Park even took to stalking and killing pigeons! Most of our local Glaucous-wings nest on Mandarte Island near Sydney, from which they make daily forays to the bog landfill in Delta. The Glaucous-winged Gull is the only gull that is common year-round in the Vancouver area.
Another common gull is the Ring-billed Gull, a medium-sized species with yellow legs, black wingtips and a black ring around its bill. Ring-bills nest in the British Columbia Interior and on the prairies, but a lot of nonbreeding birds hang out on Vancouver beaches in summer, and more are spending the winter there each year. Ring-bills eat a lot of mice and rodents while on their prairie breeding grounds, but Vancouver birds seem more partial to french fries and insects. The Mew Gull is similar to the Ring-billed, but has a plain yellow bill and is present only in winter. It tends to avoid dumps, flocking instead on local playing fields, beaches and farms. A few Mew Gulls nest on coastal lakes in British Columbia, but most spend the summer in the vast northern taiga of Western Canada. The third local gull species with greenish-yellow legs is the California Gull, which is most common in spring and fall. It is a bit larger than the Mew Gull and has a black and red spot on its bill. Most California Gulls breed on the prairies and winter in California.
There are two local gulls with pink legs and black wingtips, the Thayer’s Gull and the Herring Gull. The Thayer’s is slightly smaller and has dark eyes, while the Herring has lemon-yellow eyes. Thayer’s Gulls nest on islands in the Canadian Arctic and winter along the Pacific Coast. Herring Gulls mainly nest on lakes throughout Canada and spend the winter in open interior waters or on the Atlantic Coast; they are outnumbered about ten to one by Thayer’s in the Vancouver area.
The smallest gull of Vancouver is the Bonaparte’s Gull, a handsome, black-headed bird with white wing flashes and a dancing flight pattern. Named after Charles Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon and a well-known 19th century American ornithologist, they are very common along beaches in spring and fall while on their way to nesting lakes in the northern interior. Huge flocks can usually be seen around Mud Bay and in Active Pass in spring, where they feed on shrimp-like crustaceans. In late summer they are particularly attracted to termite swarms over log-covered beaches. Young birds and winter adults lack the distinctive black hood, keeping only a grey smudge behind their eyes.
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