Birds of British Columbia Checklist 2021

 An updated checklist of the Birds of British Columbia 2021, prepared by Jamie Fenneman, is now available on E-Fauna BC.  Some species have been added to the list, and some species have been removed.  The latter are rare species that either require photo documentation of the sightings or review of the record has not been completed yet by the BC Rare Bird Committee.  The checklist follows bird listings provided by the Conservation Data Centre of British Columbia.

Note that detailed information articles on rare/vagrant bird species in BC are provided by Rick Toochin here.  

Spider Checklist for BC: Worth a Visit

Check out our 2020 spider checklist on E-Fauna BC.   This checklist is based on ongoing research by Royal BC Museum specialists for this faunal group.  Authored by spider experts Robb Bennett, David Blades, Gergin Blagoev, Don Buckle, Claudia Copley, Darren Copley, Charles Dondale, and Rick C. West,  the checklist expands the spider species known from BC to 893 from an original count in 1967 of 212 species.  The authors provide  localities data and general global distributions for all species and include mapping to show areas where spiders have been "reasonably well sampled" in BC.  They say:  "Many of the additions to the checklist represent the first Canadian or Nearctic records of those taxa or are undescribed species.  By early 2020, data from nearly 42 000 spider specimens had been entered into the RBCM database. Data from many specimens, however, remain unrecorded and currently (2020) the RBCM collection is estimated to house more than 100 000 specimens."

 The authors provide this summary of the results of their work:

"This 2020 version of the BC spider checklist (the fifth in the series hosted on-line by EFauna BC since 2006) presents the names, general distribution data, and specific BC localities for 893 species. This number includes a few subspecies and more than 30 undescribed species (new to science—see “*” entries in the checklist). The four preceding versions presented, respectively, 700, 729, 780, and 859 taxa (Bennett et al. 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017). On average, since 2006 about 18 species have been added annually to the BC checklist. Many of the records added in recent years are the result of barcoding of BC spider specimens by the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (Blagoev et al. 2016), a collaboration initiated in 2012. In addition to being new taxon records for BC, more than 70 are of species never before recorded in Canada (e.g., Islandiana lasalana (Chamberlin & Ivie), Porrhomma nekolai (L. Koch) or, in some instances, the Nearctic (e.g., Agyneta conigera (O. P.-Cambridge)). This incremental increase in species number shows no sign yet of slowing down and, because many regions and habitats of the province (especially along the coast and in the northern half of the province) still remain to be sampled, we believe the checklist of spiders known to occur in British Columbia will eventually exceed 1000 species. Less than 1500 spider species have been reported from Canada (Bennett et al. 2019) and a little less than 4000 species are recorded in North America (Ubick et al. 2017). With probably ⅔ of the Canadian fauna and ¼ of the North American, it is clear that BC is an important area for Nearctic spider diversity."

Since 2020, more species have been added to the checklist and will appear in the next update.

View the 2020 BC spider checklist here. 

Static Maps on E-Fauna BC

 With our new interactive mapping now added for most wildlife groups on E-Fauna BC, we are now focusing on bringing in links to the previous static research maps that researchers have provided.  These will be located below the interactive default maps.  To achieve this, we have to reprogram the atlas pages.  This will take a few weeks. 

Mapping Updates and New Maps: Hoofed Mammals, Marine Mammals

Our mapping update is now underway and we are working through each group to bring in data layers for collections and observations.  This will be ongoing for a few weeks. 

This week, new maps have been provided for marine mammals and hoofed mammals.  Until now, we had no maps for marine mammals, and no E-Fauna BC interactive maps for hoofed mammals (research maps only).  Marine mammal data is captured during a search of GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and of other databases where available, including the VertNet Consortium.  Hoofed mammal data is captured from these and others, including the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum, the BC Conservation Data Center and the Royal BC Museum (RBCM).  Note that zooming out on the interactive maps will provide a global view of distribution.   Visit the interactive maps to view the colour-coded legend.

For hoofed mammals, our interactive maps do not separate subspecies, however this information is provided in the static research range maps. 

New E-Fauna BC Maps

The  maps on E-Fauna BC are now being updated.  This includes a new presentation (new software) and new data.  Clicking on the large interactive map link on an atlas page will now call up data from GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), which includes worldwide data.  To view broader distribution data for a species, zoom out on the interactive maps.  The new interactive maps are now available for most faunal groups.  A few groups are still being completed.   The small maps on the atlas pages will be updated next.  Stay tuned for more...

New Maps on E-Flora BC: North American Distribution

Because our map software is no longer being supported, we have updated our maps on E-Flora BC with new software from ESRI.  Work on the maps is ongoing.  The presentation is slightly different now, and we now include data from GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility).  The maps on E-Fauna BC are also being redeveloped.  As before, the dots on the small maps and larger interactive maps are clickable, and you can pan the maps across North America to view a broader distribution. Zooming out on the large interactive maps will easily show users global distribution information.  Please note that sometimes distributions may not reflect current taxonomic knowledge. 

Information for Photographers

All content on E-Flora BC is covered by Canadian Copyright Law. Please note: for photographs submitted to the site, adherence to copyright law is the responsibility of the photographer. Please ensure that you own the copyright to all photos that you submit to E-Flora and E-Fauna BC for publication, and that you have the right to submit the photos to our site.