Bring back the bluebirds

By Louise Blight, GOERT Vertebrates at Risk group & WWF post-doctoral researcher, cetaceans and ocean noise (with contributions from GOERT staff)
Loss of native habitat and competition for remaining nest holes with non-native birds meant that nesting bluebirds disappeared from the Vancouver area in the 1970s, with the last pairs gone from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in the early 1990s.
A Brighter Future
Bring Back the Bluebirds is part of an international project to rebuild a regional population of Western Bluebirds in the Salish Sea area. “We are following the same methods we used when we re-introduced a population on San Juan Island,” explains Gary Slater of Ecostudies Institute, bluebird expert and technical project lead. “Over the next 5 years, we’ll be translocating 90 adult Western Bluebirds from a healthy population in Washington to Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.”

Photo credit: Bill Pennell

“The Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) and their project partners have been placing nestboxes in suitable habitat throughout the region and building support for bluebird recovery,” says Trudy Chatwin, Chair of GOERT’s Vertebrates at Risk working group.
Bluebirds Released on Vancouver Island!
To kick off the 5-year project, on May 8 and 10, 2012, GOERT released two pairs of Western Bluebirds at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve near Duncan, BC. Then on June 4 and 6, two families of bluebirds with their nestlings were translocated from Washington to temporary aviaries at the same site. A few days later, the nestlings became fledglings and adults and young were released. Bluebirds usually raise two broods each year, and these newly released birds have already started building their second nests at the translocation site! (See GOERT’s facebook page for updates.)
This year’s project is in a fledgling state in British Columbia, but the earlier phase has succeeded in establishing a small population at San Juan Island, Washington, with 30 birds present so far this year. We hope the Canadian project will be as successful, so that once again, people will experience the happiness of seeing nesting bluebirds in the coastal meadows of BC.