A tiny hummingbird is on the rise in Burnaby, according to local results from an annual, cross-continent census of winter birds.
Every year, citizen scientists across the continent spend a day counting and logging various species of birds. Avid birder and Burnaby resident George Clulow organizes the local count, which took place on Dec. 15.
"Although the morning was cold, damp and foggy, we managed to find most of our usual species," Clulow said in an email to the NOW.
The year's snapshot was fairly average, apart from the relatively high count of Anna's hummingbird.
The species was first spotted in Burnaby in 2008. In 2011, only two were seen during the count, but this year there were six reported. The tiny species measures about 10 centimeters in length, and the males have a bright scarlet hood. They are typically found on the West Coast of North America. In the Lower Mainland, they are mostly spotted closer to the water, but they seem to be moving inland, towards places like Burnaby.
Besides the higher number of Anna's hummingbird, the local Christmas Bird Count showed fairly typical results.
The 10-year average of species counted is 59.4, and this year 58 different types of birds were noted. The ring-necked pheasant, a non-native species that was introduced at Deer Lake, was not spotted at all this year. At the crow roost by Burnaby's Still Creek, there were 11,000 corvids counted.
Local bird count participants tallied six long-billed Dowitchers (a shorebird with a thin, pointed beak) at Burnaby Lake, and those six were the only ones spotted in the Lower Mainland this year.
The annual Christmas bird count is conducted in more than 2,000 places across Canada, the United States and other countries in the Western hemisphere, with more than 50,000 bird enthusiasts participating. Bird Studies Canada co-coordinates the count and publishes national results once all data is compiled.
For more information, visit www.bsc-eoc.org. or go to the B.C. Field Ornithologists website at bcfo.ca and click on CBC'S. To see the full results of the local count, go to Jennifer Moreau's blog.
For photos of birds spotted around Burnaby, visit Clulow's blog, at burnabybirdguy.wordpress.com.
