Currently, a gap exists in the knowledge of coastal bird migratory patterns between Alaska and southwestern British Columbia. There are bird monitoring stations in the BC Interior and on the BC South Coast, but there is no established monitoring station located anywhere on the BC coast north of Nanaimo.
Vancouver Island University (VIU) has operated a bird monitoring and banding project at Calvert Island since 2015, in partnership with the Hakai Institute.
Calvert Island, which is situated approximately 100 km north of Port Hardy on the BC Central Coast, has the potential for being an important stopover site for migratory birds using the Pacific flyway.
Detailed results of the study are available in the following publication:
Wetten, K.N., and E. Demers. 2018. A snapshot of songbird banding on Calvert Island, British Columbia. British Columbia Birds 28:21-27. [pdf]
Aerial photograph of British Columbia showing Calvert Island (red star) and the location of established bird banding stations (yellow stars). Image courtesy of Google Earth © 2015
