Best Yard Bird?

[graeme45]

In light of Gord's shrike and Mike's bathing Pygmy-Owl, it got me thinking about what everyone's best yard bird might be?

Back when I lived in East Van, I had a Merlin in my front yard.  That was pretty cool.  When I lived in a Kits apartment we had Caspian Tern and Killdeer fly over.  Here in Promontory, a Bald Eagle perched atop one of our trees briefly.  

[nickinthegarden]

When I lived in New Westminster I had a family of 4 Pileated Woodpeckers land on a power pole beside my garden. Dad seemed to be teaching the young ones how to look for grubs. He dug a pretty good hole in the pole, they did not stay long and the pole got replaced a few weeks later. This was before I got interested in photographing birds I regret I did not get photos of them.

[kestrel]

A few years ago, my dad and I saw a Northern saw-whet owl while backing the car into the driveway. It was pouring rain, and the bird was sheltering in a big Douglas fir.

[ed]

When I lived in Abbotsford I had a Palm warbler walking around my backyard feeder. I also had a Burrowing Owl hang around my backyard for 2 weeks before it showed up at the Automall.

[Chris]

Good suggestion!

In Chilliwack, my best yardbird was a Goshawk. In Fort St John my yard isn't great for birds but I had a Say's Phoebe and a Rusty Blackbird. The blackbird was a flyover.

[paulos]

My best yard bird in Ryder Lake was a male Williamson’s Sapsucker.

In Creston I’m right in town with barely a yard, but it’s nice to see the Blue Jays and Merlins that breed nearby.

[Randy]

This is a great thread!

"Best" is an interesting term. My favourite was a family of barred owls that bred at my place in the summer of 2019. I was able to watch the young ones grow weekly!

My "best" as in least likely sighting is probably Tennessee Warbler from a couple months ago.

I've been fortunate to have some decent species. Here are some of my other favourites/honourable mentions:

Cassin's vireo
Whimbrel - had a small group fly over in 2019
Solitary sandpiper - spent some time on my pond, great looks
Virginia rail
Sora - calling only
Lazuli bunting
Least flycatcher - heard only
Calliope hummingbird
Eurasian wigeon

[Harrier]

My best so far are a Lesser goldfinch and a White-throated sparrow. I'm actually pretty impressed by the variety that we get in our suburban backyard in Sardis. I'm up to 65 species in the 3 years we've lived at this house.

[birderbert]

I selected 2 birds, both of them LIFERS at the time, which visited only once in 15 years!

Nashville Warbler
Nashville Warbler M9s by BirderBert, on Flickr

Townsend's Solitaire
Townsend's Solitaire 4s by BirderBert, on Flickr

[murraybrown]

Some good birds have been reported here folks. We moved to our 50x100 ft. strata lot here in Agassiz in 2007. I started my yard list right away and within a fairly short time had 50 species that I had ID'd from within the boundary of the yard. Most were fly overs that were easy to identify, like gulls, geese, ducks, etc. but a surprisingly large number were birds actually seen in the branches or on the ground.
Then it started to slow down and it seemed that most of the sightings were repeats. So the other morning my 83 rd tick turned out to be a flock of Snow Geese which I saw for the first time flying low over the house.
Some of the less common birds that come to mind are: Gyrfalcon, Northern Shrike, American Tree Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Calliope Hummingbird, Cassin's Finch, Townsend's Solitaire, Bohemian Waxwing and about 73 others. It actually surprises me as to how many there are from the relatively bare urban environment in which we live.


Murray Brown

Agassiz

[Gord]

I'd have to say the big flock of Brant that flew over was one of our surprises at our current place. At an old rental house years ago I had a Glaucous Gull land on the roof with a flock of other gulls.