Keeping Count of Cats and Birds in Vancouver: SCBC Research Update
Notes from the field | End of July 2020
Greater Vancouver Urban Landbird Count
By Harold Eyster, Greater Vancouver Urban Landbird Count Researcher
285 point counts later, and I’ve finally finished resurveying all the bird surveys conducted by Stephanie Melles in the late 90s. However, I’ll continue to visit sites established in the 60s and 70s throughout the next year, to understand how different birds use these areas in different seasons.
Top Bird Species
Many people ask what birds I usually see during these surveys. Probably the most common species are American Crows and Black-capped Chickadees. These species occur in almost all of the habitats across the region.
However, many species have specific habitat preferences, just like you might have specific food preferences.
Species like this Black-throated Gray Warbler, feast on small insects that they find high in cedar and fir trees. Thus, I usually only see them in big parks, like Pacific Spirit Regional Park.
Other species, like this White-crowned Sparrow, don’t like dark forests but prefer bright, open areas where they are often seen foraging on the ground. If you live in a more open area, you might see these dancing through the shrubbery. However, don’t be confused by the name. Although the adults have brilliant white crowns, the juvenile birds, which are common right now, have tan-coloured stripes.
Bird Highlights
I have seen a few species much more often than I expected. For example, I’ve counted many Merlins—small, magically fast falcons that course through neighbourhoods.
Circling high above the city, I often see Black Swifts wheeling through the air and catching flying insects. But I was perplexed the first time I saw them in Vancouver — these swifts nest on high cliffs or behind waterfalls (they are known to nest in Squamish and Whistler), so what are they doing in Vancouver?
Research using geolocators has shown that Black Swifts travel about 160 km/day to forage – quite the commute! They are declining across Canada, and have been designated as Endangered, but perhaps Greater Vancouver can provide important habitat for this species.
The next time you’re outside, look up, and you might spot this endangered visitor from out of town.
Bird sketches prepared by Harold Eyster.
Vancouver Cat Count
By Jaylen Bastos, Vancouver Cat Count Researcher
With Phase 1 of our schedule nesting completion, we are now in the process of sorting and uploading all of the images we collected these past 3 weeks!
We have already captured over 62,000 photos across 36 different locations around Vancouver. Here are the most exciting updates:
- Trail cameras are picking up a lot of great images of outdoor cats! One camera had over 2000 images of just cats. Below are some of the images from a single camera;
- While our focus is on pet cats, our cameras have also captured a variety of other wildlife including skunks, rats, crows, raccoons and even a coyote!
Phase two begins at the end of this week and we are so excited to see what the next wave of images tells us! If you are curious about the pet cat activity in your community or if you simply want to have a better understanding of what animals are doing when you aren’t watching, please contact us. We are still looking for volunteers to host our cameras in residential areas in Vancouver! Learn more…
Stay Connected!
More information about these projects is on our Cats and Birds Research Projects page.
Follow our Facebook Cats and Birds Page and Twitter for research updates and findings.
