The coastal seaport city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, features a wide variety of habitats which attract large numbers of birds. To encourage interest in local and migratory birdlife, Vancouver hosts an annual event called Vancouver’s Bird Week, with the 2014 program taking place on May 3-10. This week-long celebration offers a host of bird-related walks, talks, workshops, exhibition and lectures at various venues across Vancouver, at no cost to participants. The Roundhouse and Hillcrest community centers will host artists’ workshops for all ages, as well as art exhibitions, and the week will draw to a close on World Migratory Bird Day with a series of nature walks in Vancouver’s spectacular parks.
As part of the celebrations, members of the public are encouraged to choose from six popular Vancouver bird species to decide which will be honored as the City’s Bird for the year. This is the first time a City Bird is being selected in this way, and the winner is to be announced on May 10, the closing day of Vancouver’s Bird Week. Birds in the running for the honor of City Bird include Anna’s Hummingbird, the Black-Capped Chickadee, the Pileated Woodpecker, Varied Thrush and Northern Flicker – all beautiful birds, each with their own unique characteristics.
The Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is the largest of the City Bird candidates and is very distinctive with its black body, white stripes, flaming red crest and long, strong beak. Residing in mature forests and wooded parks, Woodpeckers are known for pecking holes in trees while searching out their preferred meal of carpenter ants. The Pileated Woodpecker makes quite large rectangular holes in trees, sometimes weakening smaller trees and causing them to break. They do not restrict their search to a particular species of tree and will search for ants and beetle larvae in both coniferous and deciduous trees, sometimes peeling long strips of bark from trees as they do so. They also forage through leaf litter on the ground and eat nuts and fruit. The woodpecker’s search for food produces a loud hammering sound that can be heard from far away. They also hammer as part of their mating ritual and to set their territorial boundaries. Certainly the Pileated Woodpecker is among the more fascinating birds living in the vicinity of Vancouver.
Picture courtesy of Nigel from Vancouver (Wikimedia Commons)
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