First Canadian Record of Taiga Flycatcher

On Christmas Day Ethan Moon found a mega rare Taiga Flycatcher at Sunset Beach Park in Vancouver. 

I was lucky to see it with over 60 birders on Boxing Day! 

It is the first record for Canada and only the second record for mainland North America. The other record outside of Alaska was in 2006 near Winters, California. The California bird was only seen by ten people or so, therefore many will want to come see this bird!

Global News have interviewed for this rarity and the local paper.

Many Canadians across Canada and Americans across the US are coming up to see the bird and have contacted me for details as I run the BC RBA website.

Today many from Washington State, Kelowna, Penticton and Vancouver Island saw it.

It is exciting to see a Canada first and be living in an area of such a mega rare ABA find for listers.

I’ve seen many of these birds in Thailand but seeing one like this up close in Vancouver, BC is just crazy!

The old world flycatcher likes to hop and forage at the base of trees and even is gleaning off the tree bark at times. I heard it vocalize as well which was cool. This is a hardy bird that even though it winters in warm places in Asia it can still withstand very cold temperatures. It is likely that it will successfully overwinter as long as it can find food and be seen by many in North America.

The only places with multiple records are in offshore islands of Alaska like Gambell, St. Paul, Adak and Attu.

The only other very similar bird to this species is the Red-breasted Flycatcher but we can eliminate it by the dark mandible and dark upper tail coverts.

The bird appears to be a 1st year female due to the white throat which is suggestive of a female. 

This was BC bird 464 for me and 270 for my 2025 Metro Van Year List.

Congrats to Ethan Moon on a phenomenal find!

Taiga Flycatcher in Vancouver - Photos: Melissa Hafting

Birders twitching the Taiga Flycatcher - Photo: Griffin Duckworth

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