Bohemian waxwing.

Image Credit: Keith Williams via Flickr

This year’s Bird's Canada Christmas Bird Count is yielding unexpected results in the Central Okanagan as most birds migrated south despite the warmer temperatures. 

This year, Kelowna’s Bird Count committee spotted 99 different species. This number is down from last year’s count of 105 and the five-year average of 107 before that.

Chris Charlesworth, organizer of the Kelowna count, said he expected more birds to stick around.

“I think the count this year was more a story of the low numbers, like really low numbers of birds overall,” Charlesworth told iNFOnews.ca. “The bird flu is a possible culprit."

Charlesworth also suspects the 2021 heat dome had a part to play.

“Temperatures got up close to 50 degrees Celsius. And that was early June… which is smack dab in the middle of nesting season,” he said. “So, we think a lot of baby birds and eggs died (and) got fried in that heat that year, and I don't think the numbers have rebounded yet.”

READ MORE: Bird lovers now counting their feathered friends at Christmas rather than killing them

Charlesworth, along with 40 to 50 other volunteers, count local birds within the same 12 kilometre radius each year. Within that area, bird watchers spread out across at least 13 different locations to tally up the species.

“We normally break several records for high counts of birds. But this year we just didn't really. We only had two records broken and that was for a bird called the Virginia rail, which is a marsh bird. So they're loving a milder winter," Charlesworth said. "And the marsh wren, those two marshy birds had record high counts.”

Low berry crops have also made birds moves along, especially smaller species like robins and bohemian waxwings.

Since Kelowna’s bird count began in the 1960s, birds unable to adapt to an urban environment have been steadily declining.

“The habitat has been altered remarkably between now and the 1960s,” Charlesworth said. “Overall, I think I see more drops in numbers than gains.”

Kelowna's count is part of a wider initiative that takes place across the continent and started 124 years ago.

Prior to 1900, the Christmas bird hunt was a popular tradition in the United State, Charlesworth said.

“I guess conservationists decided they would try and turn it into a bird count, which is what they did in 1900,” he said.

Charlesworth himself has been organizing the count in Kelowna since the 1990s and has been taking part in the tradition since he was 10 years old. 

“I grew up in Rutland next to the Chichester Bird Sanctuary. Our house just kind of backed onto it. I was always in there when I was a kid and ran into a bird watching club there one day,” he said. “They told me I needed to join them on the Christmas bird count. That was in 1990."

The Okanagan is a special place for bird enthusiasts like Charlesworth as it is home to several species that can’t be found anywhere else in Canada, such as the pygmy nuthatch and the canyon wren.

Several counts take place across the Okanagan Valley to observe the numbers of these unique species. 

“It's like a friendly competition between each one to see... which (region) gets more birds,” Charlesworth said.

More information about the Christmas Bird Count can be found on the Birds Canada website here.

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