Exploring the Birds of Canada

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis). Illustration by F.C. Hennessey. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

Did someone say Spring?!

In Ottawa, we start to see the Canada Geese returning to their summer nesting grounds around this time of year. Large flocks of them fly overhead in the same v-shaped formations we saw months ago when they left in the late fall.​

Various subspecies of the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis). Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

Aren’t migratory birds fascinating? Along with so many other Canadian bird species.

Birds of Canada by Percy Algernon Taverner remains one of the best accounts of the kinds of birds that occur in Canada. And the first thirty-six pages holds just the right amount of information to open the science of ornithology to bird lovers, yet still enough information to satisfy research needs.​

The pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator). Illustration by Allan Brooks. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

Further on, the book is beautifully illustrated with the works of Allan Brooks, a distinguished bird artist, and there is an abundance of illustrations imbedded throughout, contributing visual explanations. A well-illustrated book was still a rarer occurrence in 1934 when this title was published. This was undoubtedly a key factor in its popularity at the time.​

The upland plover or sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda). Illustration by Allan Brooks. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

Percy Algernon Taverner compiled over 330 publications about birds, but Birds of Canada was amongst his three best-sellers. Thanks to the Canadian Museum of Nature Library, you can read a copy of Birds of Canada on BHL.​

The rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus). Illustration by Allan Brooks. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

Taverner built from scratch the Ornithology department of the National Museum of Canada (now Canadian Museum of Nature). Fast forward from then to now (1911 to 2018), a public Bird Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Victoria Memorial Museum Building in downtown Ottawa is the largest and most modern bird gallery in Canada with nearly 500 specimens of Canadian birds.​

Percy Algernon Taverner.

In 2015, Percy Taverner Park was named in his honour. This park is at Woodbine Place, in Ottawa Ontario, where three imaginative bike racks border the entrance to the park. They are stylized Northern Cardinals and reputed to be Percy Taverner’s favourite birds.​

Bike racks stylized as Northern Cardinals at the entrance to Percy Taverner Park. Image source: Old Ottawa South Community Association.​

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

For a thoughtfully and nicely written biography, A Life with Birds: Percy A. Taverner, Canadian Ornithologist, 1875-1947 by John L. Cranmer-Byng, a special issue of the Canadian Field-Naturalist, 1996, volume 110, number 1, is also available to read on BHL.

The hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus or Leuconotopicus villosus). Taxonomy varies by taxonomic authority. Illustration by Allan Brooks. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

In the words of Taverner himself, “ornithology is one of the problems of nature that may be successfully attacked from so many points of view and in so many ways that there is interesting and valuable work for all to accomplish according to individual taste or opportunity”.​

Quote from the introduction of Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.

The eastern screech owl (Megascops asio). Illustration by Allan Brooks. Birds of Canada (1934) by Percy Algernon Taverner. Digitized in BHL by Canadian Museum of Nature Library.