Bringing back the bluebirds to the Cowichan Valley

Love is in the air at the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve in Duncan. Mating pairs of western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) are making a new home in the Cowichan Valley for the first time since the species disappeared from Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in the 1990s. The beautiful blue songbirds were a once common sight on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Known as harbingers of spring, their song would be heard as the weather turned warm and the vibrant wildflowers began to bloom in Garry oak meadows and woodlands. No nesting pairs of western bluebirds have been documented on Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands since 1995. The bluebirds’ decline was probably due to a combination of loss of Garry oak habitat, removal of standing dead trees that provide cavities for nesting, competition for nest holes with introduced species such as European starlings and English house sparrows as well as the reduction of insect prey due to pesticides.

Source:
Nature Conservancy of Canada, March 2013
http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/british-columbia/our-w…