Rewind '23: Meet the ‘birdman’ of the Okanagan

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His mother said the first words out of his mouth were “quack”.

So, in a way, Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) Park Interpreter Kalin Ocaña, has been doing birdcalls his entire life.

“I started learning to identify birds by their sounds in probably like 2014, 2015. So, [it’s] been a couple of years,” Ocaña told Kelowna10. “So, first learning to identify the sounds and then practicing some of the ones I'm hearing.”

One of the first things Ocaña looks for when calling birds is promising habitat, such as wooded areas with suitable brush for birds to hunker down in.

Once a suitable location is found, he will employ a call known as a ‘pish’, which imitates a bird’s typical ‘alarm’ call that will attract other avians to investigate the nature of the potential threat that is being alarmed.

“I call in birds for a couple of different reasons. I like to know what's around. So, either for work or just for volunteering,” he explained. “I submit my sightings to eBird, which is a large citizen science project, in order to get a better sense of what's around me, it's also fun seeing birds up close.”

Performing these calls has led him to some unique experiences, his most memorable of which was witnessing a scuffle between two owls as a result of him calling them to his location.

Ocaña said it’s an interesting way to connect with nature on a deeper level, as well as to know what specific fauna is in an area, and whether it’s a habitat that needs protection.

“If I’m guiding a walk for RDCO or something like that, if I can bring some birds down closer and people can get a look at them, that really helps them to kind of get a closer connection to those birds they might not normally see.”

Ocaña will be leading three guided birding walks at 10 am, 11 am, and 2 pm on RDCO’s Parks Day at Bertram Creek Park on July 15th.