Checklist of the Rare Birds of the Vancouver Area: Casual and Accidental Records January 1, 2014: 2nd Revised Edition by Rick Toochin, Paul Levesque, and Jamie Fenneman 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 414 species, 169 breeding species, 141 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, Bruce MacDonald, Wayne Weber, Brian Kautesk, Richard Cannings, Michael Force, Doug Kragh, 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. It was also critical having the late Brian Kautesk’s field journals and copies of the Iona Island sightings log books from 1970 to the present where many credible observations have been made over the decades. A huge thenk-you to George Clulow and Tom Plath for giving me access to all the Vancouver Natural History Society’s digital archival bird record information. 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. 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 any time 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 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 2 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 Long-toed Stint Alder Flycatcher Tennessee Warbler Ross’s Goose White-rumped Sandpiper Least Flycatcher Virginia’s Warbler Garganey Curlew Sandpiper Dusky Flycatcher Mourning Warbler Baikal Teal Spoon-billed Sandpiper Black Phoebe Hooded Warbler King Eider American Woodcock Eastern Phoebe Northern Parula Common Eider Red Phalarope Ash-throated Flycatcher Magnolia Warbler Smew Black-legged Kittiwake Tropical Kingbird Blackburnian Warbler Rock Ptarmigan Ivory Gull Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Chestnut-sided Warbler White-tailed Ptarmigan Sabine’s Gull Loggerhead Shrike Blackpoll Warbler Arctic Loon Black-headed Gull Blue-headed Vireo Black-throated Blue Warbler Clark’s Grebe Little Gull Philadelphia Vireo Palm Warbler Laysan Albatross Ross’s Gull Blue Jay Hermit Warbler Black-footed Albatross Laughing Gull Western Scrub-Jay Black-throated Green Northern Fulmar Iceland Gull Clark’s Nutcracker Warbler Sooty Shearwater Lesser Black-backed Gull Black-billed Magpie Canada Warbler Short-tailed Shearwater Slaty-backed Gull Sky Lark Painted Redstart Black-vented Shearwater Arctic Tern Boreal Chickadee Yellow-breasted Chat Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel Forster’s Tern White-breasted Nuthatch Green-tailed Towhee Leach’s Storm-Petrel Elegant Tern Pygmy Nuthatch Clay-colored Sparrow Magnificent Frigatebird South Polar Skua Rock Wren Brewer’s Sparrow American White Pelican Pomarine Jaeger Sedge Wren Lark Sparrow Brown Pelican Long-tailed Jaeger Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Black-throated Sparrow Least Bittern Cassin’s Auklet Red-flanked Bluetail Sage Sparrow Snowy Egret Tufted Puffin Northern Wheatear Lark Bunting White-faced Ibis Oriental Turtle-Dove Western Bluebird Grasshopper Sparrow White-tailed Kite Yellow-billed Cuckoo Veery Baird’s Sparrow Broad-winged Hawk Black-billed Cuckoo Dusky Thrush Le Conte’s Sparrow Swainson’s Hawk Flammulated Owl Fieldfare Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Yellow Rail Northern Hawk-Owl Northern Mockingbird Sparrow Common Gallinule Burrowing Owl Sage Thrasher Rustic Bunting Lesser Sand-Plover Spotted Owl Brown Thrasher Scarlet Tanager Snowy Plover Great Gray Owl Siberian Accentor Rose-breasted Grosbeak Mountain Plover Boreal Owl Eastern Yellow Wagtail Indigo Bunting Black-necked Stilt Common Poorwill Gray Wagtail Painted Bunting Spotted Redshank Chimney Swift White Wagtail Dickcissel Wood Sandpiper White-throated Swift Red-throated Pipit Bobolink Upland Sandpiper Ruby-throated Hummingbird Phainopepla Common Grackle Little Curlew Black-chinned Hummingbird Chestnut-collared Longspur Hooded Oriole Bristle-thighed Curlew Costa’s Hummingbird Smith’s Longspur Baltimore Oriole Far Eastern Curlew Acorn Woodpecker McCown’s Longspur Brambling Bar-tailed Godwit Williamson’s Sapsucker McKay’s Bunting Cassin’s Finch Great Knot Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Ovenbird Hoary Redpoll Red-necked Stint Black-backed Woodpecker Golden-winged Warbler Lesser Goldfinch Little Stint Prairie