Take part from Friday April 25th to Monday April 28th.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
White-crowned Sparrow. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
This coming weekend is the 7th annual City Nature Challenge in the Calgary area, organized by Matt Wallace. During this four-day event, particpants will document urban biodiversity on the iNaturalist app and website. Anyone can take part anywhere within the competition area:
The Calgary CNC area.
Although this is a fun and educational activity, and a friendly competition between hundreds of cities around the world, recording our biodiversity is critically important to the cause of conservation. As birders, many of us record our sightings on eBird, which is great for research into bird populations. But when it comes to governments and industry making changes to the environment, iNaturalist is the database that is most often used, as it provides a critical understanding of our complete biodiversity so that we can make responsible development decisions. In the first six years of the Calgary CNC, over 40,000 observations have been made. This is a great start, but we can do much more to fully document our species and to fill in the map with observations. Go to the Calgary CNC website for more information, and watch the video below:
Anyone can use the iNaturalist app on their smart phone or the iNaturalist website on their computer at any time of year to contribute to our biological knowledge. But the CNC is a great time to learn how to do this. There are many resources on the CNC website about how to use iNaturalist, how to take good identifiable photos, and how to upload your observations (you have until May 4th to upload your observations for this project, so you can use this weekend to just make as many observations as possible, and upload them later). See the detailed page about iNaturalist too.
There are many events planned for the upcoming weekend as well:
Friday April 25 – Frank Lake Bird Walk, Nose Creek Bioblitz Walk.
Saturday April 26 – Nature Walk at North Glenmore Park, Guided Photo Walk in the Weaselhead, Bragg Creek Bioblitz, Documenting Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.
Sunday April 27 – St. Patrick’s Island Nature Walk, Nose Hill Community Pollinator Walk.
Monday April 28 – The Plants of Britannia Slopes.
Please see the CNC Events page here for more information and to register for any of these events. Bring your camera and phone, learn about our natural areas, and help us reach our goal of 15,000 observations this weekend.
Canada has an unofficially “official” bird and it is the Canada Jay, also known as the Gray Jay. It was chosen after an online poll by the Canadian Geographic Magazine in 2016 but our government never formally adopted it as our national bird. The Canada Jay definitely lives in Canada, if you look at the range map of this bird it looks like someone, very poorly, highlighted our country on a map. It is in every province and territory from sea to shining sea.
Canada Jay, Wikimedia Commons: Folini CC BY-SA 3.0
If you have ever been hiking in our beautiful mountains you probably have seen the Canada Jay in the forested areas. As you walk you may have noticed some swooping shapes following you in the trees. You sit down for lunch and remark on the sweet birds watching you from the trees. Look at those expressive eyes! Its head will dart around, appearing to size you up. You may have thought you were having a special nature moment. Then you may have noticed your sandwich fly off, as I have at Chester Lake, never to be seen again. Nicknames for the Canada Jay include “camp robber” and “venison-hawk”. Now when I see one on a hike I yell as if we are under attack, “Incoming!”
A very tame Canada Jay. Photo by Dan Arndt.
The latin name of this bird is “Perisoreus canadensis”, the nod to Canada was built right into the name and it was originally called a ‘Canada Jay’. However in 1957 the American Ornithological Society changed this bird’s name to the americanized “Gray Jay”. They righted this wrong in 2018, flip flopping it back to Canada Jay at the urging of Dan Strickland, famed Algonquin Park naturalist. Another name is the anglicized ‘Whiskyjack’ which comes from the names used by Indigenous Tribes. The Whiskyjack is the star of many legends and stories passed down through generations of First Nations people.
The Canada Jay is very loyal to Canada, it sticks with us all winter. Dan Strickland was instrumental in discovering one of the strategies that helps it through the cold days. It stores food in the summer months by using sticky saliva to glue it to high tree branches. This bird also has feathers all over its body, including its nostrils, and can puff them up to make a cosy full body parka. It also helps that it will eat almost anything: seeds, insects, frogs, small mammals, trail mix, sandwiches, you name it.
Canada Jay, Photo by Dan Arndt.
With their expressive black eyes and fluffy grey feathers they are ‘deceptively cute’ according to All About Birds, which really could describe Canadians also. So to the Canada Jay: “We Stand on Guard for Thee” – if we don’t stand guard you will probably steal our sandwiches.
Featuring a presentation by Jody Allair on the state of Canada’s Birds.
The next Birds & Beers meetup is next Thursday, April 10th. This is a social get-together of birders, open to everyone. We meet at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. Doors to the big ballroom open at 5 pm. If you can, come early to socialize, eat and drink.
Jody Allair of Birds Canada.
At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by Jody Allair of Birds Canada. The topic is “The State of Canada’s Birds and actions we can take to help our feathered friends.”
Jody Allair with a Bald Eagle.
About Jody Allair:
Jody is an avid birder and naturalist who enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for the natural world. He has been birding and banding since his teens, when he began volunteering at Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO) in Southern Ontario. He is now the Director of Communications at Birds Canada where he manages the organization’s public relations and media, is the co-editor of BirdWatch Canada Magazine, producer of the Warblers Podcast and a coordinator of eBird Canada.
Over the years Jody has coordinated a variety of different bird-related projects including the Southern Ontario Bald Eagle Monitoring Program, the Ontario Nocturnal Owl Survey, Birds Canada’s Youth Education Program, and the Southern Ontario Forest Birds at Risk Program.
Jody regularly speaks about birds and conservation to audiences across Canada and has written numerous articles on birds, birding and connecting with nature. He is the monthly birding columnist for CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta, has appeared on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report, presented at Ideacity, was a featured bird expert on Season 2 of the Love Nature Television series ‘Battle of the Alphas’ and is a regular guest, and occasional guest host, on the American Birding Association podcast.
In addition to his 20+ years at Birds Canada, he has been leading birding tours with Eagle-Eye Tours since 2008.
With the spring equinox just around the corner, I’d like to give the final results of the 2024-2025 Calgary Winter Bird Count. This is a list of all species reported in the Calgary-region 80-km radius circle from December 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025.
For this count, Caroline Lambert and I just record whether or not a species is observed in the circle during the winter months. Numbers of birds are not considered, so even a single individual counts. We are trying to get an idea of long-term trends in which species are resident here in winter, which migratory species regularly overwinter, and also, for species which are rarely are seen in winter, whether there is any trend of increasing or decreasing overwintering. Keeping a winter list also might help to keep birders interested during the winter, and encourage them to get out more.
Northern Hawk Owls are uncommon winter birds that migrate here from the north, but are seen in small numbers every winter. As we will see, it was a great winter for owls of many species. Photo by Amir Said.Both NHOW photos by Amir Said, taken in Okotoks this winter. Follow Amir on Instagram here.
The final total for this year was 111 species. This is lower than each of the previous four years, but only a little below our average.
Winter Bird Species, 2017-2025
Year
Species
2017-2018
108
2018-2019
108
2019-2020
109
2020-2021
118
2021-2022
117
2022-2023
113
2023-2024
120
2024-2025
111
The average number of species recorded is 113. Note that for this year and going forward, now that the Hoary and Common Redpolls have been lumped as one species, we have lost one species. Five of the previous years had both Common and Hoary Redpoll. The cumulative total of all species recorded at least once (taking Redpoll as one species, and also discounting Pacific/Winter Wren as a species, is now 156.
The list got off to a great start, with 71 species reported in the first two days. By December 31, after some of the local Christmas Bird Counts were complete, we were at 104. This is a typical number for that date, and I expected we would have a pretty high total by the end.
A Wilson’s Snipe (105) was added on January 1 during the annual Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day count, and a Black-backed Woodpecker (106) (an uncommon resident species) in Brown-Lowery on Jan 2. American Kestrel (107) was added on January 8 (more on this below). Also on January 8 a Harris’s Sparrow (108) was found in Airdrie. This species migrates mostly well east of us, but we do see a few in the fall, and occasionally they overwinter. The bird was still being seen there in Airdrie at the end of February.
Harris’s Sparrow. A single bird was reported in the circle this winter, and not until January 8. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Calgary, 2020.
A more common sparrow around here is the White-crowned Sparrow, but they rarely overwinter. One was found in Carburn Park on January 12 (109). That is only the second time in 8 years we had one on the winter list. Somewhere in there we added Gyrfalcon (110), which is a hard species to verify since it is a sensitive species, and locations are hidden from most reports. But there were definitely eBird lists that were well within our circle.
The final species we added was actually reported earlier, in December. This was a new species for the winter list, Swamp Sparrow (111). It was seen and heard twice at the same location and reported on eBird. A sound recording of the call was included. We were waiting for a confirmation from eBird but it has not yet come. Nevertheless, Caroline was satisfied that the description and recording were legitimate.
There can sometimes be problems when trying to verify a report. Two American Kestrels had been reported earlier in December, but we were unable to verify either (both were on eBird, but eBird did not confirm them). Finally on January 8 a Kestrel was confirmed near Chiniki, at the west edge of the circle. Kestrels are occasionally known to overwinter here.
American Kestrel, photographed in September 2017 by Michael Kim. Only one Kestrel was confirmed to be in the circle this winter.
Another discrepency between our list and eBird is Purple Finch. One was reported on eBird in December, and photographs were included. Caroline and I thought it looked good, and added it to the list. But it has not yet been confirmed on eBird.
On the other hand, I recieved a report of a Great Blue Heron in Okotoks in early December, which I spent about a week verifying. I was satisfied that it was legitimate, and did add it to our list. It was not reported on eBird. Then in late January there was a Great Blue Heron reported on eBird in Okotoks, so likely the bird had been there all winter. Perhaps there aren’t too many eBirders in that area.
There were a couple of late-February unconfirmed reports – Rusty Blackbird, which we have always had in previous years, and Snow Goose, which we usually have. We had hoped to get these but they were not confirmed. In the last few days we also hoped to get the first returning California Gulls, but they didn’t arrive until March 2.
The species that we missed this year that had been seen in all previous years are Rusty Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, and Varied Thrush. A Varied Thrush was reported in the city on March 1, but that is only a week or so before their usual return date on migration, so it may not have been an overwintering bird.
Varied Thrush. We missed this for the first time this winter. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Although the total number of species was a little low, it was an unusually good year for most species of owl. We had all ten of the owls that might be expected here (the 11th, American Barn Owl, is very rarely seen in Alberta, even in the summer). Seven of these have been seen in all 8 winters, but we also had the less common Barred Owl (6th year out of 8), Long-eared Owl (4th year of 8), and Boreal Owl (3rd year of the 8). In addition, many of these were seen on multiple occasions in several different places, and several species like Great Gray Owl and Northern Hawk Owl were seen in much larger numbers than usual.
Barred Owl, photographed in northwest Calgary in February. Photo by Amir Said.
The Calgary list has only been kept since 2017-2018 (eight seasons), so it is too early to perceive many long-term trends, but I think there is one that is evident. Historically, Swans were rarely seen in the area during the winter months but Trumpeter Swans have been recorded on the winter list in each of the eight years of the count. Tundras are on the past seven lists. The numbers of overwintering swans on the Bow River are increasing, with groups of up to fifteen birds being reported this winter, and they tend to stay all winter.
Tundra Swans on the Bow River. Photo by Matt Wallace.Trumpeter Swans over the Bow River. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.
Below is a table showing how many species have been seen every year, 7/8 years, 6/8, and so on down to 1/8 years.
Frequency of Overwintering Species
Number of Years Seen
Number of Species
8 out of 8 years
86
7/8
9
6/8
8
5/8
7
4/8
3
3/8
6
2/8
10
1/8
27
It’s an interesting and smooth distribution. There are are a large number of bird species (86) that are either year-round residents like House Sparrows and Black-billed Magpies, winter migrants that are not here in summer but are on their normal winter ranges, like Pine Grosbeak and Northern Shrike, and species that always overwinter here in decent numbers, north of their usual winter range, like American Robin and White-throated Sparrow.
Then there are 5/8, 6/8 and 7/8 species, which usually overwinter or are in low numbers so that they are difficult to find, and finally, there are quite a few species that would be considered unusual finds in the winter – the 4/8 years down to 1/8.
Once again, here is a link to the list, and from there you can navigate to all of the Alberta Winter lists and see what has been found in the Bow Valley, Edmonton region, and in the entire province.
Register now for these two southern Alberta May Species Counts.
Spring is almost here, so it’s time to prepare now for the Alberta May Species Counts, which take place in May, when many migrating birds are back or passing through. Two long-running counts are the Brooks-Lake Newell Count in the SE part of the province, and the Milk River-Writing-on-Stone Count in the far south of Alberta.
Common Nighthawk in the Brooks area. Photo by Dan Arndt.
Many birders from Calgary, Edmonton, and other parts of the province travel to these counts, so it’s important to make accomodation arrangements ahead of time. Here is the information about the counts from the organizers:
We are pleased to announce that our two SE Alberta May Species counts will take place on the following dates:
Brooks – Lake Newell Bird Count: Sat. May 17 and Sun. May 18
Milk River – Writing-on-Stone Bird Count: Sat. May 24 and Sun. May 25
Looking for accommodation for the Brooks-Lake Newell and Milk River-Writing-on-Stone Bird Counts? The Brooks Heritage Inn and Suites, where we will hold our Brooks count meetings, is offering a discount rate of $125 per night for count recipients. To book, call 403-362-8688 and mention you are a bird count participant.
See brochure (below) for hotels in the Milk River area.
All of the campsites reserved for bird count participants have been allotted. Tillebrook Provincial Park general reservations for the nights of Friday May 16 through the May long weekend and Writing-on-Stone campsite reservations for May Friday May 23 through the count weekend are open. To book: shop.albertaparks.ca, 1-877-537-2757.
Note: a non-refundable fee of $15 per person will be charged to all Brooks participants to help cover the rental of the meeting room.
A reminder to plan to attend the pre-count meetings on the Fridays before each count. The 2025 Brooks WOS Bird Counts Brochure contains more information on the schedule for each weekend. Read/download the brochure here or see below.
Registration for the Brooks-Lake Newell and Milk River-Writing-on-Stone Bird Counts will open on March 1. A link to the registration form will be emailed starting March 1. If you wish to register for either or both of the counts please contact Donna first so we can get you on the email list to receive the link! Registration is open until May 1st.
We look forward to seeing you — and thousands of migrating birds — at the end of May!
Last spring I volunteered to help clean up the Wetlands just east of Elliston Park, in the Forest Lawn area. It was organized by Nature Calgary. I also “volun-told” my teenage son Finn that he was helping. What could be better than a bit of birding with another purpose layered on top! We showed up on a sunny May day and were given capacious black garbage bags and a map of an area to clean. Our area was a large field that basically looked like a bunch of nothingness. Wetlands are like that, to our human eyes there is nothing there, not true! To a bird it is a great place to feed, breed and live.
There are many ponds in the 68 Street wetlands east of Elliston Lake. It is a great birding spot once the ice is off in April.
Making a circuit around our large area we slowly filled our garbage bags with Tim Hortons cups. We got to a stand of trees and stopped, these trees were, unfortunately, filled with garbage, big garbage. Our black bags suddenly appeared tiny. A dumpster truck was needed in that area. I toyed with the idea of putting a diaper genie in my bag, or carrying out a car windshield. Instead we backed away slowly and made our way to the pond.
The secret to getting teens birding is to plonk them down in a big field with a garbage bag and binoculars. There are only two options, birds or garbage. Finn suddenly became interested in looking at the birds through the binoculars. In the pond we saw a large group of American Avocet, the ballerinas of the bird world. These dainty and elegant wading birds were dipping their long thin bills in the pond, waving them side to side to catch small invertebrates.
Two Black-necked Stilt (left) and one American Avocet (right), 68 Street Wetlands. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar, April 22, 2018.
The American Avocet is fairly unmistakeable to identify: they have a rusty coloured head, black and white wings and a long upturned bill. They stride through the water on very long legs.
The Avocets’ pond was lined with a surprising amount of electronics equipment, probably something to do with the electronics recycling facility just south of their wetland. It felt good to untangle extension cords from the bushes and gather up all the small appliances.
Avocets lay their eggs out in the open, which doesn’t seem wise but they seem to know what they’re doing, their species has the best conservation rating of ‘Low Risk’. Their chicks leave the nest at only one day old, at that point they can walk, swim and even dive. Oh to have it as easy as an Avocet parent.
American Avocet with young, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Avocets nest in east Calgary wetlands.
Finn and I walked back along the road, collecting what appeared to be auto parts along the way. Either they fell off a truck or the city trucks are actively falling apart as they drive. Our bags were completely full either way. I focused on all the wire, seeing that as more harmful than pipes.
At the parking lot we delivered our completely full garbage bags to an already large pile. Somehow it still felt like we had missed so much, but at least the Avocet pond was a bit better. Our inaugural Wetlands clean up was celebrated with a Chinese Food feast. We plan on doing the exact same this year! Maybe Finn can learn how to drive a dump truck to make a dent in the pile by those trees. That would probably cost me three orders of Ginger Beef instead of the usual two.
Down by the river in Sandy Beach there lives a couple of Townsend’s Solitaire. The Solitaire belongs to the Thrush family and so it’s no surprise that it looks very similar to a Robin. Same size, same grey body, good posture and big black eyes. It is just missing the big red belly, an easy giveaway. If you take a closer look you will also see that the Solitaires’ eyes have an elegant white ring around them.
The Townsend’s Solitaire has a sleeker, more sophisticated appearance than the Robin. Look at that careful white eyeliner and those tasteful wing stripes. Don’t let its dapper appearance fool you however, it’s ready to fight for those Juniper Berries! (Photo from wikimedia commons, no restrictions.)
These Sandy Beach birds must have found a good patch of Juniper Berries and set up shop around them. The Solitaire loves Juniper Berries, especially in the winter. According to “All About Birds” a Solitaire will eat between 42,000 to 84,000 berries a winter. I’m not sure how they came up with those numbers but at the very least we know it’s a heck of a lot of Juniper berries! They very aggressively defend their berries from all other birds, including Robins and other Solitaires.
Part of their defense is singing their beautiful song. I’m not sure if the ones in Sandy Beach have little competition or what but, unhappily, they are very quiet. This is too bad because the Townsend’s Solitaire has one of the most beautiful bird songs around. If you tried to bring to mind a beautiful birdsong, it would probably sound like this bird. It’s a lot like a Robin but more complex and varied. Maybe if I started conspicuously eating their Juniper Berries they will start singing. It would be worth the bitter taste to hear them.
This photo shows the hint of orange you can sometimes see in the wing bar area. Photo by Dan Arndt.
The ‘Solitaire’ in its name refers to its solitary nature. It’s not sharing those Junipers with a flock of other birds. They prefer to stick it out alone or in a pair. When they nest it is usually in a sheltered hollow on a cliff side. The female bird will use pine needles to build the nest and then line it with grasses and bark, making it soft for the 3 to 5 babies she will have. According to the internet the babies are speckled and rather cute. Of course I’ve never seen a nest or a Townsend Solitaire chick with my own eyes, it’s hard enough to see the adults!
Here is a very young Townsend’s Solitaire that Bob Lefebvre and Dan Arndt found on the Livingstone Ranch Golf Course west of the city on June 6, 2015. It likely fledged that day. Photo by Dan Arndt.
So take a walk down in Sandy Beach, on the west side of the bridge in the trees, to find them and add them to your life list. They like to perch at the top of trees, where they can better protect their Juniper crop.
Most people know that a flock of crows is called a “Murder of Crows” – it’s probably the most popular collective noun for birds. Did you know a flock of Ravens is called an “Unkindness of Ravens”? Still not very cheery, but better than murder. Perhaps some songbirds got together and made these up, they are very apt for their experience of Crows and Ravens. These big black birds love eating eggs from nests.
Common Ravens mate for life and are often seen in pairs. Here, the one on the left is grooming the head feathers of its mate on the right. Photographed in Banff National Park in October 2019 by Bob Lefebvre.
If you have ever seen a Raven up close you may agree with me when I say they are the more impressive of the two birds. If you want to get a close look at one, take out a sandwich in a ski hill parking lot, the Ravens will come flying in! I always remark on how big they are up close, every time. Their black feathers are so impeccably black they almost bend the light around them. Then they have impressive fluffy neck feathers and a massive black beak. Their intelligent eyes pierce into yours and for a second you may consider throwing the sandwich at them while you make your getaway. I once saw a Raven take a grocery bag of food right out of the back of a truck. As it was flying away I saw there was a box of cereal in its bag, unsurprisingly it had chosen wisely. Ravens are well known for being one of the more intelligent birds.
A close up of a Common Raven’s ruffled neck feathers, huge bill, and intelligent eyes. Dario Taraborelli, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A Crow is an interesting bird also, smaller than a Raven but also intelligent. They have smaller beaks and smoother feathers. They also tend to flock together more than Ravens. If you have been to Burnaby, BC, which is a known evening roost for Crows, you will see huge flocks, all cawing relentlessly. They are so loud you need to raise your own voice to be heard. I’m not sure what the point of all the cawing is, the first caw sounds exactly like the 1000th, it’s some kind of Crow conversation. Crows have very sophisticated social relationships, which is a big reason for their success as a species.
An American Crow. Up close, the neck feathers say Crow. Photo by Diane Stinson
A big black bird is flying in the air above your neighbourhood, which is it ? A Crow or a Raven? Here is a handy guide to help out:
Wing movement: a Raven glides and a Crow flaps
Tail shape: a Raven has a large wedge shaped tail, a Crow has a flat fan
Number of them: a Raven is alone or in a pair, Crows tend to flock together
Vocalization: Crows caw and Ravens croak, gurgle, squawk, rattle
Size: Ravens are bigger, which isn’t very helpful when there is a faraway bird against a blue sky!
A pair of American Crows by the river. Smooth feathers indicates Crow. Photo by Diane Stinson.
The birds didn’t seem to get this memo however, and you may see a large bird, solo, flapping its heart out. If you see the bird do a barrel roll or somersault then it is a Raven, they are the more acrobatic fliers. It looks like a lot of fun and they should do it more often, then we would know what they were and wouldn’t be forced to call it a ‘Craven’.
“Domino” – This beautiful Raven with some white features was spotted at Lake Louise ski hill on November, 25, 2024. This is an abnormal pigmentation (leucism). Photo: Fiona Waters.
Keeping track of bird species in the winter months, from December 1 to February 28.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre, 2 December 2024.
Once again I will be assisting Caroline Lambert with tracking all bird species recorded in the Calgary Count Circle in the winter months. I have been doing this for Calgary for a few years, and Caroline tracks the Bow Valley list. There is also an Edmonton List, and a Provincial one that has been going for many years.
The Calgary list got off to a great start, with the highest December 1 species count yet – 65! Many birders challenge themselves to keep a winter list and I think quite a few people went out on Sunday to get a good start to their winter birding. All 65 species were ones we get every winter, although in some years it takes quite a while to find some of these! We are more than halfway to our usual species total in one day, but it gets much harder to add species from here.
The second bird I saw when I looked out my front window on December 1st – Eurasian Collared-Dove. I only had my phone handy so the picture is very poor. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
The winter birding season starts Sunday, Dec 1. As in previous years, various lists of winter birds seen in certain areas in Alberta will be maintained from Dec 1 to end of February. Alberta has some really good winter birds – there are just not many of them! And each year there are surprises. Links to all of the lists, with area maps, can be found at albertawinterbirds.org.
Calgary: this will be compiled again by Bob Lefebvre. The count area is the 80km radius count circle centred on Calgary, the same one used for the May species count. It is preferred that sightings during this count period and in the count area be reported to the Albertabird site (keeping in mind that certain sensitive species should not be openly reported), but we will also include species reported to eBird and elsewhere, if we can find them.
Bow Valley: this area includes both the Bow River and Kananaskis River watersheds, as far east as the Stoney Nakoda casino and Seebe Dam. Most sightings for this area are taken from the Bow Valley Birding Facebook group, but we will record sightings reported on Albertabird, eBird, Christmas Bird Counts, rumours on the street, etc. The Bow Valley has the lowest species count of any area, so we’ll accept any reputable report!
Provincial list: Andy Ross is again taking care of the Alberta-wide list. The list has been cleaned up, simplified for easier reading, and sorted to the most recent taxonomic order (following the Clement’s/eBird taxonomy). Andy will collect sightings from the usual sources (eBird, Albertabird, the other winter lists, the Alberta Birds Facebook group, etc.).
The Edmonton list as shown on the albertawinterbirds.org site is not the official one; I simply copy their list from the Edmonton Nature Club’s groups.io discussion group. The links are there mostly to have one jumping off spot to find all the winter list info should anyone be interested.
No! Of course moulting is not revolting, it is a natural part in the seasonal cycle of being a duck. No need to be embarrassed and hide away. Wait a second, maybe there is a need, since they can’t fly anymore to get away from predators!
Did you know many ducks moult once a year, in late summer or early fall? This means they shed most of their primary feathers all at once to grow new ones. The process can take about 20-30 days and during that period they lay low since they become flightless. If you have ever seen a pile of feathers and thought a coyote had lunch, it may not be so. The duck feathers can come off quickly and dramatically.
Not only do they become flightless, they become difficult to identify. Their beautiful and colourful plumage becomes a beige-gray bore before moulting begins. Typically this is in the summer months. This outfit is called their ‘eclipse plumage’ and it isn’t a favourite of birders. The term eclipse refers to the boring plumage darkening their usual colours. If you do an internet search for any type of waterfowl the pictures will show them in their breeding plumage, striking and unmistakable. Meanwhile you are peering through the binoculars at a beige lump wondering why birding is so difficult. We’ve all been there. At that point you can start looking for eye rings and tail shapes, which gets challenging. Or you also have the option of saying ‘oh a duck’ and watching them paddle around a bit.
A photo by Diane Stinson showing a Mallard that is moulting. Mallards are easy to identify at this stage of moulting.
I was surprised to learn that the Blue Jay moults all its head feathers at once. I have never seen that out in the wild and I suspect it’s because they hide away during this phase. It is such a radical difference from their usual spiky crown, They look like a tiny vulture with bugged out eyes. It only lasts for a week but you get the feeling if any bird were vain, it would be the Blue Jay. It’s amazing how much shape and bulk the feathers give birds, look at the difference between the two pictures of the Blue Jay, it’s hard to believe it’s even the same bird.
Blue Jay: Before on left (moulting) and After (beautiful crown feathers are grown in) Photos: Diane Stinson.
The larger birds and waterfowl are more inconvenienced by their moult season than smaller birds. Their feathers take longer to grow in. They often moult right before migration to have a nice strong set of new feathers to take them south. I imagine they are in the air now with their new outfits, ready to party in Mexico.
