Category: Species Profile
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Species Profile — Western Painted Turtle
The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) lives in relatively slow-moving fresh waters, with a large range across North America; in fact, it is the continent’s most widespread native turtle. During the last ice age, four subspecies evolved based on their regional distribution. The western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii) can be found in British Columbia and…
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Species Profile — Virginia Rail
The Virginia Rail: a small, secretive bird of North American wetlands that inhabits southern British Columbia during the summer breeding months. Despite its rather compact body, the Virginia Rail (and other Rail species) have the highest ratio of leg muscles to flight muscles of any bird. Perhaps more fascinating is its creation of “dummy nests”,…
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Species Profile — Great Blue Heron
Given how common they are around wetlands, it only makes sense to learn a bit about them. That way, the next time someone points one out, you’ll be able to rattle off a few fun facts and earn the title of Heron Expert—because really, who doesn’t want that? In British Columbia, two subspecies of Great…
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Species Profile — American White Pelican
Every last member of our wetlands team voted for this shot of an American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) to feature as our Photo of the Week. The bird certainly makes a striking impression both frozen in an image and when spotted in person. It was taken at the Scout Island Nature Centre in Williams Lake, BC this July by Tania…
BCWF Watershed Team 