Birders flock to Shuswap for glimpse of rare bird
Fieldfare seen in Salmon Arm only 2nd ever spotted in B.C.
Birders are converging on Salmon Arm to catch a glimpse of a rare and beautiful creature spotted during an aerial inventory on Saturday.
A fieldfare, only the second one ever seen in B.C., was among the species recorded in the town’s annual Christmas bird count.
“This is fantastic, something we call a mega-rarity,” Chris Charlesworth, a longtime Kelowna birder who went to Salmon Arm to see the fieldfare, said Monday. “The fieldfare is native to Asia and Europe, and doesn’t show up in North America very often.”
Dozens of birders from across the Interior were in Salmon Arm on Monday to look at the fieldfare, feeding alongside robins in a yard of berry-rich mountain ash trees. Charlesworth expects many more birding enthusiasts to arrive this week, some flying great distances just for the occasion.
“Yes, it’s that big a deal,” Charlesworth says, adding with a laugh: “At least for birders.”
Christmas bird counts are held in December and early January in many Okanagan communities, including Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, Peachland and Oliver-Osoyoos.
About 50 people participated in the Kelowna bird count on Saturday, cataloguing a total of 108 species, slightly more than in past years. Rarities included a winter wren, typically found east of the Rockies, and a northern mockingbird, which should be in southern Oregon.
The most common local birds are Canada geese, mallards, European starlings and American robins. While many people believe most birds migrate south during the winter, the Okanagan’s relatively mild climate draws birds, such as finches and swans, from farther north in Canada.
Peachland birder Matthias Bieber, who is helping organize that town’s Christmas bird count on Dec. 27, was among those who drove to Salmon Arm on Monday to see the fieldfare before it flies off to parts unknown.
“That’s what makes the Christmas bird counts pretty exciting — the chance to see a species you haven’t seen before,” Bieber said.
Across North America, bird populations are declining because of habitat loss, predation by house cats and window strikes in populated areas. A 2016 study by government, university and environmental agencies said numbers had declined significantly for 86 bird species during the past four decades.
As for the now-famous Salmon Arm fieldfare, Charlesworth speculates it might have been blown off course from Russia, found its way down the Alaska-B.C. coast, then flew into the Interior.
“But who really knows what happened,” Charlesworth said. “Birds are wired for migration and, sometimes, there’s a glitch in the wiring.”