Official City Bird

In 2017, we proposed candidates for a permanent Vancouver City Bird. Residents voted online and in-person and chose Anna's Hummingbird as the winner.

As the official City Bird, Anna's Hummingbird:

Symbolizes the importance of birds in our ecosystem
Continues to build awareness of birds in the city
Encourages implementation of the Vancouver Bird Strategy

Meet Anna's Hummingbird

“Classy, urbane, and stylish with the heart of a tiger” describes this recent arrival to the Vancouver scene.

With their iridescent emerald feathers and sparkling rose-pink throats, Anna’s Hummingbird are more like flying jewelry than birds, but they are also fierce defenders and enforce their turf with tenacity.

In their thrilling and athletic courtship displays, males climb up to 40 m into the air and then swoop to the ground at break-neck speed with a curious burst of noise that they produce through their tail feathers.

Their housing needs are modest and Anna’s Hummingbirds could easily live in the potted plant in any Vancouver neighbourhood.

Learn more about the official City Bird

City Bird's roles
- Engage and teach us how we can all make our city a sustainable habitat for birds
- Support Vancouver’s creative economy by inspiring artists, designers, and craftspeople
- Be an ambassador by attracting large bird conferences and events to Vancouver
- Act as ambassador spokesperson to the emerging birding market
- Increase awareness and build content around birding in Vancouver

Election process and results

The 2017 nominees for an official permanent City Bird were generated by a public process called Words for Birds. Over 1,300 Vancouverites contributed words that reflect qualities of the people who call our city home. Vancouver bird experts then matched the qualities to 4 local birds to present as candidates for the City Bird.

Some birds were not considered because they:

Already were a Vancouver City Bird
May be viewed negatively by various cultural groups
May already be a municipal, provincial or state, or country bird elsewhere
Are commonly found in other areas outside of the pacific northwest

From these 4 candidates, city of Vancouver residents voted online and in-person for the official City Bird between April 28 and May 14, 2017.

Election results

Nominee	Votes	Percentage of votes
Anna's Hummingbird	3,450	42%
Northern Flicker	2,653	32%
Varied Thrush	1,265	15%
Spotted Towhee	891	11%

Past City Birds
Northwestern Crow

Vancouver’s innovative, playful, outgoing, and social traits are all wrapped up in the Northwestern Crow. This bird was acclaimed as Vancouver’s first annual City Bird for 2014.

Cosmopolitan in cuisine and at home in all neighbourhoods, the crow has taken to joining the morning and evening commute to and from the suburbs.

Having already reigned for a year, and shocked by the recent senseless attack on Canuck the Crow, the Northwestern Crow has decided it has had enough of political life. It will focus its attention on domestic matters and support of its fellows.

Black-Capped Chickadee

The Black-Capped Chickadee was the first elected annual City Bird, winning a tight race to reign in 2015.

This can-do bird loves to explore and is always the first to find a feeder in the area. It’s a social, popular bird who:
- Lives in the forest and in our neighbourhoods
- Hides food to eat later
- Has a well-known whistled song
Its range is much broader than just Vancouver, enjoyed from coast to coast. The Chickadee has opted to leave civic politics and has set his sights for federal recognition.

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon was elected the annual City Bird for 2016 on the basis of its prowess as the avian equivalent of the stealth bomber.

It appears out of nowhere in a blinding flash to snatch unsuspecting birds from the ground or in short aerial pursuits.

Unhappy with some negative press during his reign, the Peregrine Falcon has decided the challenging aspects of being a public figure outweigh the opportunities to be of greater value to society. He will focus on his role in pigeon control, especially downtown.