Checklist of the Rare Birds of the Vancouver Area: Casual and Accidental Records July 1, 2013 Revised Edition by Rick Toochin Comments? Contact E-Fauna BC The following list contains records of Casual and Accidental birds recorded in the Vancouver Checklist Area. The Checklist Area covers Greater Vancouver and its vicinity from the International Boundary (but including Point Roberts, Washington) north to 49’ 35’ N (including Furry Creek), west to the middle of the Strait of Georgia and Howe Sound (including Bowen Island), east to 122’ 33’ W (Bradner Road & 288th St.) in Abbotsford, Aldergrove and Maple Ridge, but including all of Golden Ears Provincial Park. The Vancouver Checklist has a total of 413 species, 169 breeding species, 140 species seen less than once per year with 10 introduced and 9 extirpated species. Confirmed records appear first and are documented either by photographs, specimens, tape recordings or by written field notes (FN). Accepted records seen by a single observer are treated as a sight record (sr). There are 30 species on the list that are under the category of Hypothetical because they are either currently under review or haven’t fully been documented as a definitive record in the region. Below each species name is a list of records showing confirmed records then any Hypothetical records for that species. The casual and accidental records listed include historical records, including specimens, cited observations, photographed records and accepted sightings found in the literature about BC Birds. This List is a general synopsis of occurrence and should be interpreted as such. Where there are more than 20 records of a particular species, I have tried to add a little extra information. I wish to thank the hard work of the following people who compiled information over the past decades and made researching this list possible: Bill Hughes, R. Wayne Campbell, Mike Shepard, John Toochin, Wayne Weber, Brian Kautesk, Richard Cannings, Michael Force, John Dorsey, Tom Plath, Brian Self, Alexis Harrington and John Chandler. I wish to thank past and present members of Nature Vancouver (Vancouver Natural History Society), local, and out-of- town birders who have contributed sightings over the decades. These people made the creation of this document possible. I would also like to acknowledge the help of George Clulow and Eric Greenwood for without their help this document could not have been completed. A list of references and a complete list of contributors to this list are provided at the end of the document. If you have any comments, additional observations or questions please e-mail me. Bar-tailed Godwit juvenile November 10, 2005 at Blackie Spit. Photo © Rick Toochin Rare Species but Annual Species in the Vancouver Checklist Area: The following species are rare in the Vancouver Checklist Area. There is usually at least one report a year and in some years multiple sightings. There are a few species that have historically bred or still do breed locally in the Checklist Area. An asterisks mark these species *. Many of the species on this list occur in a narrow time period making them hard to find and often in a very selective habitat. These birds should always be documented when encountered, as they are rare at anytime of year in the Vancouver Checklist Area. Species List: American Black Duck* Black-legged Kittiwake Horned Lark* Redhead Sabine’s Gull Mountain Chickadee Tufted Duck Heermann’s Gull House Wren* Ruffed Grouse* Western Gull Mountain Bluebird* Yellow-billed Loon Glaucous Gull Northern Mockingbird American White Pelican Black Tern* Bohemian Waxwing Brown Pelican Pomarine Jaeger Northern Waterthrush Great Egret Long-tailed Jaeger Black and White Warbler Cattle Egret Ancient Murrelet Nashville Warbler Northern Goshawk* Eurasian Collared-Dove* American Redstart* Golden Eagle Spotted Owl* Palm Warbler Pacific Golden Plover Calliope Hummingbird American Tree Sparrow American Avocet* Lewis’ Woodpecker* Chipping Sparrow* Wandering Tattler Red-naped Sapsucker Clay-colored Sparrow Willet Three-toed Woodpecker* Vesper Sparrow* Long-billed Curlew Gyrfalcon Swamp Sparrow Hudsonian Godwit Least Flycatcher* Harris’ Sparrow Marbled Godwit Dusky Flycatcher Lazuli Bunting* Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Say’s Phoebe Rusty Blackbird Rock Sandpiper Ash-throated Flycatcher Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch Buff-breasted Sandpiper Western Kingbird* Pine Grosbeak Ruff Blue Jay White-winged Crossbill Common Redpoll American White Pelican September 3, 1999 at the Outer Pond of Iona Island, Richmond. Photo © Evelyn Whiteside Rare Birds of the Vancouver Area, July 1, 2013 Revised Edition, by Rick Toochin 2 List on Document of Accidental / Casual Species The following species are considered casual or accidental in the Vancouver Checklist Area. These species are very unusual to the region. To be considered a species of casual occurrence there have been between 2-10 records historically, often occurring at a particular time of year but they occur less than once or in some cases a few times in a ten year period. In the case of an accidental species there is often only a single record or at most a couple of records with the occurrences of a species going several decades or much longer before reoccurring. These species are considered extremely unusual in the Vancouver area and are always in need of documentation. There are a few species that have historically bred but are now extirpated from the Vancouver Checklist Area (or in other words extinct in the local region). An asterisks * followed by a [X] symbol after the birds name define which birds fall in this category. In a few cases there were species introduced to the Vancouver Checklist Area and for a time were successful. These species also have an [I] beside them marking that they were introduced to the region. In some cases there are species that are suspected to be breeding or have bred in the past in the region but to date there has been no nest found. These species have an asterisk in brackets (*) after the species name. For any casual or accidental species to be put on this list they are considered far out of range, extremely rare in the defined Vancouver Checklist Area or in a few cases the species were once easily found in our region but due to ecological changes are now almost impossible to find in the region. These birds should always be documented when encountered, as they are extremely unusual at any time of year in the Vancouver Checklist Area. Species List: Emperor Goose Temminck’s Stint Prairie Falcon Golden-winged Warbler Ross’s Goose Long-toed Stint Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Black and White Warbler Garganey White-rumped Sandpiper Alder Flycatcher Prothonotary Warbler Baikal Teal Curlew Sandpiper Least Flycatcher Tennessee Warbler King Eider Spoon-billed Sandpiper Dusky Flycatcher Virginia’s Warbler Common Eider American Woodcock Black Phoebe Mourning Warbler Smew Red Phalarope Eastern Phoebe Hooded Warbler Rock Ptarmigan Black-legged Kittiwake Ash-throated Flycatcher Northern Parula White-tailed Ptarmigan Ivory Gull Tropical Kingbird Magnolia Warbler Arctic Loon Sabine’s Gull Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Blackburnian Warbler Clark’s Grebe Black-headed Gull Loggerhead Shrike Chestnut-sided Warbler Laysan Albatross Little Gull Blue-headed Vireo Blackpoll Warbler Black-footed Albatross Ross’s Gull Philadelphia Vireo Black-throated Blue Warbler Northern Fulmar Laughing Gull Blue Jay Palm Warbler Sooty Shearwater Iceland Gull Western Scrub-Jay Hermit Warbler Short-tailed Shearwater Lesser Black-backed Gull Clark’s Nutcracker Black-throated Green Warbler Black-vented Shearwater Slaty-backed Gull Black-billed Magpie Canada Warbler Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel Arctic Tern Sky Lark Painted Redstart Leach’s Storm-Petrel Forster’s Tern Boreal Chickadee Yellow-breasted Chat Magnificent Frigatebird Elegant Tern White-breasted Nuthatch Green-tailed Towhee American White Pelican South Polar Skua Pygmy Nuthatch Clay-colored Sparrow Brown Pelican Pomarine Jaeger Rock Wren Brewer’s Sparrow Least Bittern Long-tailed Jaeger Sedge Wren Lark Sparrow Snowy Egret Cassin’s Auklet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Black-throated Sparrow White-faced Ibis Tufted Puffin Red-flanked Bluetail Sage Sparrow White-tailed Kite Oriental Turtle-Dove Northern Wheatear Lark Bunting Broad-winged Hawk Yellow-billed Cuckoo Western Bluebird Grasshopper Sparrow Swainson’s Hawk Black-billed Cuckoo Veery Baird’s Sparrow Yellow Rail Flammulated Owl Dusky Thrush Le Conte’s Sparrow Common Gallinule Northern Hawk-Owl Fieldfare Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow Lesser Sand-Plover Burrowing Owl Northern Mockingbird Rustic Bunting Snowy Plover Spotted Owl Sage Thrasher Scarlet Tanager Mountain Plover Great Gray Owl Brown Thrasher Rose-breasted Grosbeak Black-necked Stilt Boreal Owl Siberian Accentor Indigo Bunting Spotted Redshank Common Poorwill Eastern Yellow Wagtail Painted Bunting Wood Sandpiper Chimney Swift Gray Wagtail Dickcissel Upland Sandpiper White-throated Swift White Wagtail Bobolink Little Curlew Ruby-throated Hummingbird Red-throated Pipit Common Grackle Bristle-thighed Curlew Black-chinned Hummingbird Phainopepla Hooded Oriole Far Eastern Curlew Costa’s Hummingbird Chestnut-collared Longspur Baltimore Oriole Bar-tailed Godwit Acorn Woodpecker Smith’s Longspur Brambling Great Knot Williamson’s Sapsucker McCown’s Longspur Cassin’s Finch Red-necked Stint Yellow-bellied Sapsucker McKay’s Bunting Hoary Redpoll Little Stint Black-backed Woodpecker Ovenbird Lesser Goldfinch Rare Birds of the Vancouver Area, July 1, 2013 Revised Edition, by Rick Toochin 3 Species List: Emperor Goose (Chen canagica): 1. (2) adult / immature November, 1922: R.A. Cumming (immature collected: identified by K. Racey) Mouth of Fraser River 2. (2) adults March 18, 1924: R.A. Cumming (collected) off Ladner with flock of Snow Geese 3. (1) adult January 4- April 6, 1968: RWC, KK et al (photo: RBCM: 22) White Rock Pier, White Rock, Surrey 4. (1) adult March 24- April 6, 1968: GRR, ALG et al (FN) Blackie Spit, White Rock *different bird seen at same time 5. (1) adult January 12-March 16, 1969: REL, WCW, JT et al (photo) White Rock Pier, White Rock, Surrey 6.