South Okanagan Grasslands Provincial Park in Canada’s Great Basin BCR. © A.M. Bezener
Home to well over 200 species of landbirds, British Columbia (BC) is Canada’s most biologically diverse region, supporting many regional, national and globally significant species, populations, and ecosystems. British Columbia is responsible for 27 nationally at risk and more than 50 steeply declining landbird species. BC is home to 20 PIF continental Watch List birds and 12 PIF continental Common Species in Steep Decline.
Like our birds and habitats, we are bridging partnerships and forging new links north to south along our western landscapes and west to east across the boreal forest. Our current priorities are grasslands, riparian habitats and low elevation mature forests, habitats that are facing the most urgent threats.
Lewis’s Woodpecker with berries at nesting hole © Rick Howie
We are tackling broader conservation challenges causing significant bird mortality through research, education and outreach to reduce cat predation and window collisions and building public participation in city bird celebrations, bird festivals, and school programs.
In addition to expanding Breeding Bird Surveys in the province, we are addressing monitoring gaps through new technologies like automated recording units in western boreal forests, migration monitoring, new “birding with a purpose” initiatives to promote ebird, FLAP mapper, and decision support tools to report landbird conservation status.
Our habitat partners are helping to map available bird habitats across elevations during different seasons to target future conservation, while our science partners are investigating connectivity of western migrants between breeding and non-breeding habitats, contaminant loading on priority species, ecological consequences of changing environmental conditions, connectivity of nesting and foraging resources for cavity nesters and critical habitat needs for at risk species.
Devin de Zwaan University of British Columbia https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Devin_De_Zwaan Twitter: @DevindeZwaan Interested in birds and conservation and want to help? We are looking for sightings of colour banded Horned Larks during Autumn & Spring migration, as well as the winter. You too can help track the movement of alpine Horned Larks by birding in strategic locations […]
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Krista De Groot, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada. After witnessing bird window collisions at offices of the Pacific Wildlife Research Centre in Delta, British Columbia, staff with the Canadian Wildlife Service were interested in collecting standardized data to better understand the extent of the issue. Following recommended protocols for collision monitoring, staff […]
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David Bradley, Bird Studies Canada As North America’s largest shorebird, the Long-billed Curlew is a stunning emblem of the western grasslands, with its gliding displays and haunting flight call reaching out across the plains in the spring. Despite the attractiveness of this species to the public, the curlew is declining across virtually its entire […]
Read more »A note from Partners in Flight British Columbia Our research is a tri-national collaboration among Environment and Climate Change Canada, University of British Columbia, Klamath Bird Observatory (OR, USA), San Pancho Bird Observatory (Nayarit, MX), University of Gaudalajara, and Tierra del Aves Bird Observatory (Veracruz, MX) to examine the full life cycle aspects of two riparian bird species in […]
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