Best Bird in B.C. contest returns for a second year

The Wildlife Rescue Association's Best Bird in B.C. contest is back for a second year, with 32 birds and five rounds of voting.

Wildlife Rescue co-executive director Linda Bakker considers last year a "huge success," with people actively engaged in picking their favourite birds — ultimately choosing the Anna's hummingbird as last year's champion.

This year, the Wildlife Rescue team was looking at doing something different and asked its staff and volunteers to vote on what types of birds they'd like to highlight. They decided to go with a songbird sing-off, but Bakker said future contests might be about waterfowl or shorebirds.

"You can pick them based on their beautiful songs or because they're simply your favourite birds to see out there," said Bakker.

Her favourite is the Cedar Waxwing.

"Its song is different, and I've been able to care for orphaned babies when they come into our hospital," she said. "Their song is even cuter when they're babies, and what's special about them is when they are a little older. They actually feed each other, which is really, really cute to see."

The contest runs over five weeks and will include five rounds. The first round includes all 32 birds, who compete one-on-one against each other. The next round features 16 birds, and so on. The final round will be from April 15 to 21.

Bakker encourages people to vote online to keep their favourite birds in the competition each week. The first round closes on March 24.

She hopes the contest will help shine a positive light on the variety of songbird species that B.C. has to offer.

"Maybe people will start recognizing the bird songs if they listen to all the birds on our website," said Bakker, hoping people will learn about the birds that are all around them. 

"There's birds that you see around you all the time, like the American robin and the black-capped chickadee, and then also some others that you might have never seen before, like a brown creeper or an American dipper — but they're certainly all around us here in the Lower Mainland."

Melissa Hafting is an ecologist, photographer and bird guide, and also founded the B.C. Young Birders Program in 2014. She sees the contest as "a good thing."

"Since songbirds in North America are affected by climate change and many are declining, anything to celebrate their existence is a good thing," she said. 

Her favourite is the tree swallow. It needs human-made boxes to nest since there are so few natural cavities for them anymore, and she started a nest box program in the City of Richmond to help address this.

"They are declining in numbers due to climate change, deforestation and loss of habitat and pesticide use," said Hafting. "If you are aware of their existence and celebrate them, you may be more willing to protect that bird."