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Canadian Birds Exclusive to BC
It is at this time of year a small but growing number of people sit back and think about all the birds they saw over the last year. They pull out their records and count their year list of species seen.
A great many birders are inveterate listers - a list for the back yard; a list for the city, for the province, the country and, of course, the life list. For Canada, a good list is considered 350 bird species. To achieve this, a person needs to travel the country. Because some birds are only found in certain parts of Canada.
For instance, there 69 Canadian birds that can only be found in British Columbia. So for a Canadian birder to see them, they must come to British Columbia. Okay, a few can be found in the mountains of SW Alberta. But they are more abundant and easily seen in BC. Most of them can be found along the south coast. But 14 of them that can only be found in the interior of the province.
For you convenience, I have listed them for you in an Excel file, along with some notes about when good times to find them are, and some hints about habitat etc. canadian_birds_exclusive_to_bc
There are a number of books that can help you find the regional specialties. Birds of the Okanagan Valley by Dick Cannings is a good one. Another good one is The Birder’s Guide to Vancouver Island by Keith Taylor. He also wrote The Birder’s guide to British Columbia. All are available at Chapters.Indigo.ca.
Sandy McRuer