Karl Ricker can recall only a couple of instances where a rare bird sighting has sparked excitement in the local and regional birding community, driving bird enthusiasts to the resort just to try and catch a glimpse.
“It happened about 20 years ago for a common ground dove, which was also way out of range. We saw it briefly two days in a row—as soon as he saw you he’d take off and then he’d show up again. The big Vancouver gang arrived on the third day, no luck,” Ricker recalled.
“So that was definitely the excitement bird of the half century for Whistler, ever since we lost the spotted owl in 1946.”
More recently, there were two American white pelicans, spotted by Dea Lloyd on Green Lake in April 2022, Ricker recalled.
This year, it’s all about the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher—a unique and beautiful bird with a distinctive, forked tail that fans out in flight.
First spotted by Ellen Ramsay at Green Lake last week, the bird drove dozens of birdwatchers to Whistler to try to catch a glimpse.
(Follow this link to see a video of the bird, captured by Squamish birder Chris Dale.)
Ricker said he spoke with birdwatchers from 16 different B.C. communities, as well as one from Seattle, and people from four different European countries.
It’s the 39th sighting of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in B.C., and the first this year.
“And the only place where it’s been seen more than once is Hope, B.C.,” Ricker said. “It’s been seen as far north as the Alaska Highway, near the Yukon border, and the article in [The Birds of British Columbia] says the bird is not known to hang around for longer than three days, and that’s exactly what happened with us.”
Spotted on Monday, Aug. 21, the sighting prompted a “parade” of bird enthusiasts on Tuesday that carried on into Wednesday. By Thursday, it had apparently moved on.
Ricker estimated up to 100 people came to the resort just to catch a glimpse of the rare bird.
“All the bird honchos, guys who have life lists and all that sort of stuff, they were up here big time to see it, and the ones that arrived on Thursday … they hung around all day, no luck,” Ricker said. “And another lady from Osoyoos, she stayed at the site until 6 o’ clock in the evening before she finally gave up.
“So they sold lots of gasoline and they sold lots of lunches.”
Ricker can’t say why exactly the bird chose to make an appearance in Whistler this year.
“I did know there was a bad storm in California, but I can’t prove it,” he said, adding that the bird is most typically found in southern U.S. states such as Texas.
The sighting speaks to the value of conserving critical habitat for the diverse wildlife that depend on it to survive, Lloyd said in an email.
“While a special, beautiful bird, hundreds of other local species rely on wetlands that are rapidly disappearing in B.C. due to development and imperiled by climate change,” she wrote. “It’s been hanging around in the same area that has sometimes been the subject of illegal tree and vegetation cutting by homeowners wanting to improve their view of the lake.”
