@ American Avocet, Boundary Bay
@ Reifel Bird Sanctuary
To locate hotspots check out the BC Bird Trail
https://bcbirdtrail.ca/
My own list of family-friendly bird trails near Vancouver
*Boundary Bay, Delta
*Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Westham Island Delta
*Iona Regional Park/beach, near YVR
*Wilson Creek Estuary (ts'ukw'um), Sunshine Coast
* Sechelt Marsh, Sunshine Coast
*Terra Nova Park (plus many regional parks in Richmond)
*Burnaby Lake
*Colony Farm (ƛ̓éxətəm (tla-hut-um) Regional Park), Port Coquitlam
@ male and female Wood Duck
This winter I will be exploring and adding to this list, hotspots near Victoria and will add them to the list
Three potential tools for assisting with birding:
- Ebird https://ebird.org/home
Explores bird status and trends with maps, habitat charts, weekly migration animations, and more – all generated from modeled eBird data. Ebird builds on citizen science and can also keep track of your own local, regional, national, or world lists. Each regional page can provide information on top 100 birders in the area, hotspots nearby, and monthly and yearly bird sightings for the area. Ebird does not help with bird identification however, so a field guide or bird guide app are required. This next app can help with that:
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers this free bird app that can help instantly identify (by keying field markers or uploading images or sound).As of December 2022, Merlin had content for 10,000+ species and is working to constantly add or update its downloadable bird packs. When you identify a species and click “This is My Bird,” Merlin also saves your record. Once 
confirmed, the sighting tags the GPS of your smart phone and adds it to a global collective list. You can use the app in combination with ebird as they occupy different purposes. I find ebird great for capturing the species lists over time while Merlin is great for identifying either step by step across five factors (e.g. where found, size, colour…) or by explore photo lists or by sound. The sound identifier can help one know the singing and calling birds in the area, which can be helpful once you spot the species.
3. Inaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa
Inaturalist is also a citizen science tool that is not just for birds, but includes sightings of mammals, fungi, plants, reptiles, insects, molluscs, protozoans, and amphibians. If you go to the taxa pages for each you can see photos, information, and sightings records from most sighted to least sighted. The specific for birds seen show10,470 world species listing most common sighted to least spotted.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=3&view=species&rank=species,subspecies,variety&place_id=anyhttps://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=3&view=species&rank=species,subspecies,variety&place_id=any
@ Pine Siskin