The last time I saw a Brown Creeper I was cross-country skiing at Confederation Park and had stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath. I was near a stand of Spruce trees and noticed a piece of the bark was moving. Of course it wasn’t the bark – it was a tiny brown bird moving up the tree. The Brown Creeper is not a well-known bird largely because they lay low, extremely low. They are elusive and mysterious but when you see one its behaviour and look is unmistakable. If you decide to add it to your Life List and go out looking for one, good luck! You’re going to need it. Another strategy is to read this article to familiarize yourself with the Brown Creeper for the day you see one, then you can point to it and yell “a Brown Creeper!”
Brown Creeper. From Wildreturn at Wikimedia.com
First of all they are tiny, their body is about the length of a thumb, add to that their long brown tail. Secondly they have amazing camouflage, they have brown feathers on the top of their body, perfectly suited to hide against a spruce tree. Their underside is a white colour, this countershading camouflages them when flying. Their stealth colouring is only undone by their song, a high pitched tssst sound. That’s where you come in with your phone at the ready, the Merlin Bird ID app open. It can identify a Brown Creeper and then you can look for it by its song.
If you get a good enough look you will see its curved bill, perfect for digging in the bark where other birds can’t get to. It eats the insects, their eggs and pupae, hidden in the bark. In photos you can see its relatively long feet, which help it hang on to the bark as it creeps upward in a spiral. Once they have checked out a tree they will fly to the base of the next and start up that one. I wonder if the nuthatch, going down and the creeper, going up, have ever bumped their little heads together. What an adorable mishap that would be.
A colourful Creeper photographed in Elliston Park, January 23, 2017. Photo by Bree Tucker.
The Brown Creeper needs live trees to forage on and dead and dying trees to nest in, they use the whole forest lifecycle (allaboutbirds.com). The English traditional park of rolling green lawns with large trees studding it is horrible for wildlife. In our city it’s nice we have some Creeper friendly ‘messy parks’ like Weaslehead and Fish Creek.
A well-camouflaged Brown Creeper, Bebo Grove, Calgary, January 15, 2015. Photo by Dan Arndt.
Hopefully five years from now when you actually see a Brown Creeper on a tree you can recall the name of it. Maybe the fact that it is ‘creeping’ up the tree will twig your memory and you can yell out its name. Your advanced birding badge will be on its way if you succeed.
If you are walking around Calgary and hear a bird singing its heart out in a long trilling song, it is most likely a House Finch. These small birds are identified by their brown bodies, heavy beaks and the red colour on the male. It’s hard to believe that these now ubiquitous birds were fairly rare in Calgary, until as recently as the 1990’s! In theory most of us can remember a time when there were no House Finches around. In practice I barely remember the 90’s. Look at a group of birds at any feeder now and you will probably see some. The females have a striped body, and I find if you look for the stripes you can tell them apart from the House Sparrow fairly readily.
Male House Finch (left) showing off his reddish rump, with a sleepy female House Finch. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
The House Finches origins start in the Southwestern US and Mexico. In the 1940’s someone tried to rebrand them as a ‘Hollywood Finch’ and sold them to pet stores in New York. In what way are they symbols of Hollywood I’m not sure, it was a different time back then. The Migratory Bird act came into effect, and all of a sudden pet store owners had illegal birds in their store. What do you do with a bird you don’t want? You open the window and let it fly away! If that bird is a tough and hardy finch, it will spread across North America.
The House Finch is prone to an eye disease called Mycoplasmal Conjunctivitis. If you see one with red puffy eyes don’t bother running out with tiny little cucumber slices, that bird is too far gone. According to Project FeederWatch you should take down your feeder for a couple days and then wash it. This will stop the spread of the disease to other House Finches.
These birds are fairly strict vegetarians, they fill up on seeds, buds, roots and foliage. Their colour is believed to be related to how well they are fed, if you see an orange male it could be that he isn’t getting all the nutrients he needs. Studies show the females choose the redder males. The male House Finch is responsible for feeding the young so it’s important to choose one that is a good provider. According to allaboutbirds, during courtship the male mimics regurgitating food to the female, showing off how good a feeder he is! These are monogamous birds, and very social, so really what you are seeing around the feeder are just a bunch of couples hanging out together.
This House Finch is pretty orange. Photo by Pat Bumstead.And here is a very yellow male. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
What I love about them is their song that seems so out of place on a cold day. Listen for a “zzz” buzzing sound that is part of the up and down warble and it sure to be a House Finch. You can look for the singer and you will see a little brownish bird way up in the heights of a tree singing, perhaps lamenting its ancestors’ move from Mexico. Or perhaps it’s trying to win back its Hollywood moniker with a winning solo.
More about the House Finch on All About Birds, including audio.
Help migrating songbirds by keeping our night skies dark.
Spring migration is well under way, but as far as songbirds go, it will really pick up steam for the month of May. Songbirds migrate at night, and they can become disoriented by artificial light. This can cause them to be drawn off their normal path and into a more dangerous urban area, where they may collide with windows and other human structures, or be taken by predators.
Sparrows, warblers, and other songbirds will soon be moving through the city in large numbers. Lincoln’s Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler. Photos by Bob Lefebvre.
In 2021, Calgary became one of Canada’s first certified Nature Canada Bird Friendly Cities. Bird Friendly Calgary is the local organization whose mission is to highlight and mitigate threats that have contributed to a decline in bird populations of an estimated three billion over the last fifty years. As part of these efforts, Bird Friendly Calgary has a “Lights Out” initiative they would like to pass on to the local birding community. It is asking for everyone to turn off all unnecessary lights between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM during the migration periods of spring and fall. For spring they are targeting April 1st to June 15th with special emphasis on the month of May.
Please try to keep your houses and yards as dark as is safe at these times.
Lighted office towers are also a great threat to migrating birds and bats, and a huge number die or are injured each year in collisions with office buildings across North America. The Calgary Urban Species Response Team is active during migration in searching for such birds and bats in the downtown core, and trying to rescue any injured ones. The hope is that they can find out where the major problem areas are, and find ways to mitigate the loss of bird and bat life. See their site to find out more about this problem and the great work they are doing.
In 1992, Peter Sherrington and Des Allen serendipitously discovered that large numbers of Golden Eagles and other raptors were migrating along a corridor on the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Kananaskis. Prior to this it was thought that not many Golden Eagles migrated. Peter and a group of volunteers began observing and recording the migrating birds. Over the next ten years they observed over 80,000 Golden Eagles (plus over 16,000 other raptors from 17 other species) passing through the corridor.
Observers at Hay Meadow, Kananaskis, Alberta. Photo by Caroline Lambert
The Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation, a non-profit organization, was set up with the goal of increasing knowledge of Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle and other raptor migrations in Western Canada. For over thirty years the foundation has organized spring and fall migrant watches at three sites in the foothills.
The Hay Meadows site with Mount Lorette in the background. Photo by Caroline lambert
Caroline Lambert, one of the Principal Observers, is appealing for new volunteers to join the team of observers. Anyone can join the observers at the sites to help – it’s a very interesting place to visit and I encourage anyone with any interest to get in touch with the foundation and see where and when to go – but they also have a need to recruit more volunteers who can commit to observing for full days at regular times.
Golden Eagle, photographed by Caroline Lambert
Here is Caroline’s description of what is involved, and the rewards of taking part in this important project.
It’s a deep connection to nature like no other. Going to the same place regularly and staying there for a full day allows the birds and other animals to come to you, and over time you witness how the season changes, oh so gradually. That’s what it’s like at the semiannual eagle migration count in Kananaskis. A casual visitor, coming for a few hours at the peak of migration, will see just a snapshot of this. They might witness a few dozen eagles flying by, maybe a Red-tailed Hawk or Northern Goshawk, the usual chickadees, nuthatches, maybe the American Dipper. If they’re lucky, they might see some elk, or a moose, or deer grazing in the meadow. But the long-time observers have seen just about everything the area has to offer. Eighteen different species of raptor have been seen at the site, mostly eagles, but also Turkey Vultures, Ospreys, harriers, five different species of hawk, five species of falcons, and the three accipiters, with Northern Goshawk an almost daily occurrence. While cougar sightings have been admittedly very rare, most of us have seen all the other mammals in the area, including wolves and lynxes.
The eagle count at Kananaskis, run by the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation, has been running for over 30 years, and many of the older observers are no longer able to help out. We’re looking for dedicated people to help fill our ranks. We appreciate everyone who shows up with a pair of binoculars to help spot birds, but what we need most are people who will commit to a regular schedule, first as an Assistant Observer, and later as a Principal Observer. The Assistant Observer only needs to be able to spot birds and describe to the Principal where the birds are so the Principal can ID them, but the Principal Observer needs to be able to identify all the raptors that fly by. It takes some time to acquire the skills to do that – usually our Principal Observers start out as Assistant Observers and learn on the job, which is the best way to learn – out in the field, with an experienced person at your side. This isn’t for everyone as you need to be out at the site all day (mid-morning until sunset for assistants, sunrise to sunset for principals), constantly scanning the skies, and the weather can be a challenge, but for those who do this regularly, the rewards that keep us coming back and looking forward to the next season are there – the sighting of a wolf, or a Gyrfalcon, or one of those glorious days when hundreds of eagles fly by. We smile when the dipper comes by, almost every day, dipping as dippers do, and often singing. We marvel at the bluebirds, robins, and Varied Thrushes that show up in mid-March when it still seems too cold for them. It keeps us coming back season after season – not just for what we witness, but knowing that we are contributing to our knowledge of raptor demographics, especially eagles, as citizen scientists.
Even if you can’t help out, then donations to help compensate observers for expenses would be much appreciated.
The spring 2022 eagle migration count starts on March 1 and runs until April 22. Detailed information, including location and how to get there and how to donate, can be found on the website at eaglewatch.ca.
Hope you see you out there.
Caroline Lambert, Canmore
Bald Eagles at Hay Meadows, Kananaskis, Alberta. Bald Eagles are the second-most frequently observed raptors. Photo by Caroline LambertNorthern Goshawk at Hay Meadows, Kananaskis, Alberta. Photo by Caroline Lambert
Please check out the website – it’s full of fascinating observation records and a history of the counts. And even if you can’t get out to the sites yourself, you can support the project with a donation, or purchase a lifetime membership for just $20!
Photographer and filmmaker Rick Andrews has produced a wonderful wildlife documentary about some of our local birds. Avian Summer has fantastic high-resolution video of birds that migrate into Southern Alberta each spring, where they come to find a mate and raise the next generation, before migrating south again in the fall. Watch the trailer below.
Avian Summer by Rick Andrews – trailer.
The full film is available to rent or purchase on the Vimeo platform. The cost is $8 for a three-day rental, and $25 to buy. You can watch it on your phone, tablet, or computer. (I played it on my phone and streamed it to our TV, and it looked fantastic.) Proceeds from Avian Summer will benefit the Growing the Grassroots Endowment Fund in support of nature-based interpretive programming at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre in Lethbridge.
I really enjoyed this thirty-seven minute film. It focuses mostly on waterfowl, raptors, herons, and cranes, and a few songbirds. There are a lot of great sequences of birds raising their young.
Rick Andrews is a conservation wildlife photographer and filmmaker from Southern Alberta. He has many other excellent films available for free on Vimeo, so be sure to check them out. (It is free to sign up on Vimeo.) Rick’s collection of films showcases resident wildlife in Southern Alberta, including the full-length documentary Wildlife of the Oldman River Valley (2018), as well as several documentary shorts including Great Horned Owls (2020), Country Club Marmots (2019), and Lethbridge Wild Turkeys (2018).
Here is the poster from the film’s online premier, which was on June 25. The question & answer session with Rick is available to view on the Helen Schuler Nature Center Facebook page here.
Check out these excellent productions, and help support conservation in southern Alberta.
Beryl Isaacs has been watching a pair of Tree Swallows that nested in McKenzie Lake in SE Calgary. The nest hole was in an old post in her neighbour’s yard. All photos by Beryl Isaacs.
There were four baby Tree Swallows in the nest on July 4, 2018.
Baby Tree Swallows waiting to be fed.
The young Swallows are almost ready to fledge.
A House Sparrow at the nest hole.
As the swallows fledged, one begged for food from the House Sparrow.
The House Sparrow attacked the young swallow, but no damage was done.
The House Sparrow, judging by its plumage and the yellow gape at the corner of its mouth, is a recently fledged bird itself. Adult House Sparrows sometimes kill young birds of other species if they get the chance.
Beryl was lucky to see Tree Swallows successfully nest in the city. Since House Sparrows and Tree Swallows are about the same size, they use the same size of nest holes. Aggressive House Sparrows usually harass Tree Swallows that try to nest in backyard boxes or nest holes. Tree Swallows are far more successful when nesting in city parks or outside the city, away from House Sparrows, which are almost always found near human structures.
Parent Tree Swallow feeding a fledged bird.
Still feeding during the fledging process.
By the end of the day the young swallows had all fledged and were not seen again at the nest.
Have you had any birds nest in your yard this year? Share your photos here [birdscalgary(at)gmail.com].
The Wild Bird Store is one of the few places in Calgary where you can buy good quality bird seed, feeders, and houses, and the only store that specializes in products for birders. Recently they have moved to a new location, and this Saturday, October 21, they will have an all-day 20th anniversary and grand re-opening event at their new location, 5901-3 Street SE (on 58 Avenue, three blocks west of Blackfoot Trail).
Besides the savings for backyard birders, there will be several interesting presentations throughout the day that should interest all local birders: Chris Fisher’s All-Star Critters, Myrna Pearman on Bird Feeding Behavior, and Gus Yaki on Attracting Birds to Your Backyard. At the end, Gus will also do a presentation on the ten-day walk he led this spring from the Saskatchewan border to Writing-On-Stone Provincial park.
The Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society will also be there (with live birds of prey), as will the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation. So there will be plenty going on to interest birders of all ages!
The new Wild Bird Store is located at 5901-3 Street SE.
Tony LePrieur took these great photos of a huge Brown-headed Cowbird fledgling being fed by its foster parent, a male Yellow Warbler.
Brown-headed Cowbird being fed by a Yellow Warbler, Calgary, July 8, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
The warbler is off to find more food for its demanding foster child.
Brown-headed Cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and often the other species does not recognize the difference and raises the young cowbird. For more photos of cowbirds with some other host species see these posts:
