Dick Cannings
BC Program Manager
dickcannings@shaw.ca
Telephone 250-496-4049

I was born and raised in the Okanagan Valley, in a family keenly interested in natural history. This early involvement in birds, bugs and plants led me to a university education in zoology, including a BSc degree from the University of British Columbia and a MSc from Memorial University of Newfoundland. After having lived away from the valley for the last 25 years, I have now returned to what has always been home, and work as a consulting biologist in Naramata, BC. I work part-time for Bird Studies Canada, coordinating Canadian Christmas Bird Counts, eBird Canada, and the British Columbia-Yukon Nocturnal Owl Survey.
Since 2001 I have been co-chair for birds on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and also sit on the British Columbia Environmental Appeal Board and Forest Appeals Commission. I’m also active in volunteer roles as board member on the Nature Conservancy of Canada (BC), The BC Field Ornithologists and the Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Alliance.
I was the Curator of the Cowan Vertebrate Museum at the University of British Columbia for 15 years. That position not only gave me a tremendous opportunity to learn more about my favourite subject--birds--but also gave me experience in teaching ecological field methods and natural history to university students. I still teach a field ecology course for UBC every year, held in such diverse places as Ecuador, Costa Rica, Arizona and the Yukon. My main research interest is the breeding biology of birds, particularly small owls.
I have produced regular radio items on natural history themes for CBC and taught continuing education courses on birding and nature. I’ve also led about 50 natural history tours to destinations around the world, particularly in the New World tropics.
I have written several books, including The Birds of the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia with my brothers Sydney and Robert Cannings; British Columbia: A Natural History with Sydney Cannings, The BC Roadside Naturalist, The Rockies: A Natural History and Birds of Southwestern British Columbia. British Columbia: A Natural History won several awards in 1996, including the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award for best book published in British Columbia, the Canadian Science Writers’ Book Award and the Lieutentant Governor’s Silver Medal for best book on the history of British Columbia.