Vancouver Island - Canada's Bird Watching Haven
Year-round resident species include the Bald Eagle, Harlequin Duck, Great Blue Heron, Pigeon Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, Red-necked Phalarope and Black Oystercatcher.
Even within picturesque Telegraph Cove itself, the birds delight visitors. The eagles, herons and gulls wait to tease fishermen and profit from their catch. Rufous Hummingbirds zoom from feeder to feeder while Steller’s Jays squawk and Belted Kingfishers chatter.
The outstanding abundance and diversity of birds on Northern Vancouver Island make the area a birder's paradise. Many bird species are resident to the area. These include remarkable numbers of Bald Eagles. It is in the late summer and early fall however, that the bird life becomes truly extraordinary as winter residents return and migrating visitors alight on the Pacific Flyway. The list below gives an indication of the bird species of Northern Vancouver Island.
- Waterfowl: Bufflehead; Surf Scoter; White-winged Scoter; Harlequin Duck; Common Goldeneye; Barrow's Goldeneye; Scaup; American Wigeon; Brandt; Green-winged Teal; Northern Pintail; Trumpeter Swan; Canada Goose; Snow Goose (migrating); Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser; Hooded Merganser
- Diving Birds: Pacific Loon; Common Loon; Horned Grebe; Red-necked Grebe; Eared Grebe; Western Grebe; Double-crested Cormorant; Pelagic Cormorant.
- Seabirds: Leach's Storm Petral; Fork-tailed Storm Petrel; Sooty Shearwater; Pigeon Guillemot; Rhinoceros Auklet; Marbled Murrelet; Ancient Murrelet; Common Murre; Glaucous- winged Gull; Herring Gull; Bonaparte's Gull; California Gull; Mew Gull.
- Wading Birds: Great Blue Heron; Sandhill Crane (migrating) Greater Yellowlegs (migrating).
- Fowl: Blue Grouse; Ruffled Grouse.
- Shorebirds: Black Oystercatcher; Red-necked Phalarope; Western Sandpiper; Sanderling; Killdeer; Black Turnstone; Dunlin.
- Birds of Prey: Bald Eagle; Red-tailed Hawk; Sharp-shinned Hawk; Peregrine Falcon; Merlin; Northern Harrier.
- Passerines: Steller's Jay; Common Raven; Cedar Waxwing; Varied Thrush; Pine Siskin; Dark-eyed Junco; Gray Jay; Northern Shrike; American Dipper; Red Crossbill.
- Non-passerine Land Birds: Belted Kingfisher; Rufous Hummingbird; Red-breasted Sapsucker; Northern Flicker; Downy Woodpecker; Pileated Woodpecker, Band-tailed Pigeon.