It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait, it’s another bird.
The southern tip of Vancouver Island and nearby Gulf Islands, officially the Capital Regional District of B.C., recently claimed the title of “Birding Capital of Canada.” With 423 bird species identified, it surpassed last year’s leader, Essex County, Ont., by a dozen birds.
The title was declared by Rocky Point Bird Observatory, a bird-banding organization in Victoria that safely catches, tests, bands, and releases birds to collect data on health and migration patterns, which bolsters conservation efforts. They made this proclamation on April 28, at which point they were safely ahead of their closest competition, Essex County (411), Halifax (409), Norfolk, Ont. (406), and Vancouver (405).
In total, 13 new species were added to the tally of species sighted in the CRD. Seven were confirmed from records dating back to the late 1800s, and the remaining six were first found in 2024. Of these, the sage thrasher, red-headed woodpecker, citrine wagtail, scarlet tanager, and Temminck’s stint were found by recreational birders.
The sixth and final newbie, the Mississippi kite, was caught and identified by Rocky Point in Victoria. The Mississippi kite, a small, grey-blue bird of prey, “wasn’t just new for the capital, it was a new bird for all of British Columbia,” says Liam Ragan, a board director with Rocky Point. “Even cooler, there had been a Mississippi kite seen in central Alaska a couple months prior which was moulting two of its primary feathers. The one we had was replacing the exact same feathers, meaning we can, with near certainty, say it was the same bird.”
It’s no wonder that Rocky Point played a part in adding to the region’s catalogue of birds this year—their facilities can catch upwards of several hundred birds each day.
“Diversity of habitat brings a lot of different species here,” says Ragan. The CRD includes old-growth forest, rocky shoreline, sandy beaches and meadows, along with islands and farmland. “It’s a great migration stopover point.” Although, Ragan explains, the stopover isn’t always intentional. “When birds from Asia migrate the wrong direction or get lost in storms, they’ll often end up here because they keep following the open sea until they find land.”
Apart from being ecologically rich and ideally located, the CRD also ranks highly among birding destinations in Canada because of the strong birding community. Without a large group of dedicated birders, even a hotspot region for birds may not have an accurate, current species count.
“When we declared the CRD the ‘Birding Capital of Canada,’ we weren’t trying to say we’re the best,” says Ragan. Rather, the contrary—Rocky Point hopes to encourage other Canadians to start counting birds in their region. “If, for example, Newfoundlanders saw this and said, ‘You know what? We think we can take it to them,’ we would love that. At the end of the day, it’s about the birds themselves. It’s about conservation.”
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