Tag Archive | birds calgary blog

Birds & Beers, January 8, 2026

Jan3

Thursday’s meeting will feature a presentation by Dianne and Bob Leonhardt on Birding in Colombia.

Birds & Beers resumes on January 8th at the usual time and location – the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW, starting at 5 pm. This is an informal social get-together, so come any time after 5:00 and have dinner or a drink, and a chat with your fellow birders. Everyone is welcome!

You can arrive any time up to 7 pm, when there will be a presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt about the first half of a birding tour of Colombia they attended in January 2025.

Multi-colored Tanager
Multi-colored Tanager, La Florida, Colombia

Birding In Colombia- The First Ten Days Bob and Dianne Leonhardt   

In January of 2025, Gavin McKinnon of Meadowlark Birding Tours led a group of Calgarians on a tour of Colombia to view some of the over 1900 species of birds found in that country.  Prior to the beginning of the actual Birding Tour, John and Lorrie Anderson and ourselves traveled to the historic city of Cartagena.  The city was founded by the Spaniards in 1533 and served as the main port for the shipments of gold pillaged from South America and sent to Spain.  Today it is one of the most touristic locations in Colombia with an active nightlife.  We also located a wonderful birding location outside the city known as Agricola Camelias.  By the time the Birding tour was to begin we had already counted well over 100 species.

After four days in Cartagena, we flew to Cali, in the Western Andes, where we were met at the airport and transported to Araucana Lodge, about 29 kilometers northwest of the city.  This beautiful and modern lodge served as our home for the next six nights.  From here we did day trips to a variety of environments with a diverse assortment of colorful birds.  Several of the locations had feeding stations which provided extraordinary opportunities for viewing and photographing the birds.

The first part of the Birding Tour came to a close as we drove to Manizales in the Central Andes.  During these first ten days we viewed about 250 species.  By the end of the entire tour, which finished up in the Santa Marta area of Northern Colombia, we had counted about 560 species of birds.  A number of the photographs shown in our presentation were provided by our traveling companions, John and Lorrie Anderson.

The next Birds & Beers will be on Thursday, February 12th.

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New Field Guide to the Birds of Alberta

Dec24

Pre-order your copy of this new guide now!

David R. Scott of Lethbridge and Gavin McKinnon from Calgary have produced a beautiful new field guide to the birds of our province. This is really exciting for anyone who birds in Alberta. Bird populations and ranges are constantly changing, and our knowledge of the birds continues to increase. There have also been quite a few name changes, lumps, and splits since the last Alberta field guide was published.

Image from meadowlarkbirding.com.

The book will be published on May 12, 2026, but you can pre-order your copy now. Go to Gavin’s Meadowlark Birding Tours site here to pre-order. This will make a great gift for any birder you know!

Below is the book description:

Situated at the convergence of the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and North America’s vast boreal forest, Alberta boasts a great diversity of landscapes and habitats. From turquoise glacier lakes nestled between towering peaks, to spruce- and sphagnum-dominated muskeg, to labyrinthine badland canyons, to expansive grassland dotted with sagebrush, to islands of green space amidst sprawling cities, this province has much to offer outdoor enthusiasts, including birders! More than 300 species of birds occur every year in the province, and well over 400 have been observed at least once within its borders. This guide aims to assist those who wish to find, observe, identify, and better understand the birds around us—whether it be an American Robin nesting in a city park, a White-tailed Ptarmigan foraging in the alpine tundra, or a Turkey Vulture soaring over the badland hoodoos. With clear descriptions designed to be accessible for beginner and intermediate birders, this extensive guide is also useful for experts in the field. It comprises 305 full-page species accounts for regularly occurring species and 29 abbreviated accounts for more rarely occurring birds. With so many birds to see and hear in every region of the province, A Field Guide to the Birds of Alberta is the definitive guide for locals and visitors alike.

When you pre-order you can arrange for local pickup or drop-off in Alberta and Southern Ontario. Shipping can also be arranged.

Watch for some book launch events coming in May 2026!

Links To the Winter Birds Lists

Dec16

Quickly see what has been found in Alberta this winter, December 1 to February 28.

The Provincial list

Calgary 80-km Circle

Edmonton

The Bow Valley

Killdeer

Winter Birds Update

Dec13

The Calgary List as of December 12, 2025

Mallard

There have been some good species found in the Calgary area this year, and still many more to find. Christmas Bird Counts are taking place on December 14th in Calgary, and on several other dates until January 5 in the area. We should add some of the regulars then, and with a little luck, some more rarities.

The star of the show so far is the Northern Mockingbird in the city – only the second one since this count started in 2017. The bird is still here and being seen regulary in Rotary Park near Centre Street and Memorial Drive.

A Peregrine Falcon seen on December 3rd in Downtown Calgary was the first one we’ve had. These birds nest downtown and one is quite late in departing. I don’t know if it’s still around.

A Mourning Dove seen along the Bow River in Cranston Meadows was the 4th in 9 years.

It’s been a really good year for Short-eared Owls east of the city, and there have been a few Long-eared Owl sightings as well. Snowy Owl sightings have been concentrated NE of the city in the Irricana/Beiseker area. We added a Prairie Falcon and a Northern Harrier in that region as well.

Gyrfalcon, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Wild Turkey, and Sharp-tailed Grouse have each been reported on Facebook groups, or directly to me.

The Alberta province-wide list has some rarities in its 114 species. In addition to the Mockingbird (reported for the third time in the last ten years), there was also a recent Barn Owl in central Alberta (2nd in ten years) and a Double-crested Cormorant near Stavely, just outside of the Calgary circle (6 of the last 10 years).

On December 12th, the Calgary list was at 89 species. Our eight-year average is 113, and the high count was 120. Here are some species that are usually found that haven’t yet been reported:

Greater Scaup (seen 8/8 previous years; often seen at Carburn Park in the winter), Northern Hawk-Owl (8/8), Harris’s Sparrow (6/8), Varied Thrush (7/8), and Common Grackle (7/8). Some regulars that we don’t have yet that are usually found in the foothills west of the city are Northern Pygmy-Owl, Barred Owl, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Steller’s Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, and American Dipper. Dippers are usually seen in the city as well, on the Elbow River or Fish Creek.

Good luck finding these elusive winter birds! Here is a link to the lists.

Peak Birding – The Great Horned Owl

Dec7

By Cathy Warwick

Great Horned Owl
A beautiful Great Horned Owl. Photo by Diane Stinson.

A few weeks ago I was leaving my house to start my walk to work and I saw a cloud of Magpies squawking wildly around a spruce tree. I ran over and was delighted to see a large Great Horned Owl! It was a lighter color than I had seen before, almost white. Its large yellow eyes looked at me wearily. The Magpies were relentlessly hassling it, flying at it and generally freaking out. I managed to get a fairly decent picture of it with my phone, and also yelled at a stranger “An Owl is in this tree!”, as one should given the special circumstances. If I saw an owl nesting I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I could tell this one was moving on soon.

The Magpies know the owl is a skilled predator that is a threat to their very lives, they don’t want it to get comfortable in our neighbourhood. Owls have very sharp beaks, crushing claws, night vision, great hearing and near silent flight, they must be terrifying to other birds. Whereas we humans just notice their super fluffy feathers and luminous, intelligent eyes. “Don’t be mean” we mutter to the Magpies and Crows harassing them. 

Great Horned Owl
Great Horned Owls will often roost near the trunk of a spruce tree during the non-breeding months, where they can be very hard to see. Photo by Dan Arndt.

Owls eat rodents, hares, skunks and other mammals. With their swiveling head, which can turn nearly 180 degrees in either direction, no small mammal is safe. They’ve even been known to go after house cats. I would love to see one hunting, I wouldn’t hear it though. There are numerous videos on the internet of an owl flying with a sound detector nearby, they are virtually silent. They have specialized feathers that break up the sound, a subject of much study by scientists.

If you see a very large owl it is probably one of three in Calgary: Snowy, Great Grey or Great Horned. The Great Horned Owl is the most common and is distinct because of its prominent ‘horns’ which are part of a ‘V’ coming down to its beak. Although the Long Eared owl also has feather tufts protruding from the top of its head, those owls are much harder to find in the city. Obviously the same person didn’t name these owls, one taking their tufts for horns and the other for ears. It is difficult to identify owls by colour (other than the Snowy of course), for instance the Great Horned can vary from a light colour to a tawny brown colour. 

Nesting for the Great Horned is in February. The mating pair will usually steal another bird’s nest, they aren’t the apex of the birding world without some perks! After laying the eggs the female will diligently keep the nest warm for about 30 days. It probably requires a lot of energy – warming eggs through those long cold nights. Once the fluffy little owlets hatch they will stay around the nest until fall. If you know where an Owl is nesting, keep it to yourself and give them a chance to make it through their long nesting cycle.

An older Owlet, showing the last thing many mammals see. Photos by Diane Stinson.

I’m not sure if I’ll see the Owl around my house again, the Magpies are a very dominant force on our street. They seem really smug about it, if they had fingers they would be snapping them like the Jets from West Side Story. Meanwhile the owl has moved on, although they don’t migrate they can travel far for food, or to get away from Magpie gangs.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! May you all see an owl this season.

A very young Great Horned Owlet. Isn’t it the cutest?! Photo by Diane Stinson.

Winter Bird Lists, 2025-2026

Dec5

Tracking the winter birds of Alberta from December 1 to February 28.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

It’s time for winter birding, and I will be helping to track the species seen in the Calgary area once again. Caroline Lambert provides a lot of assistance with the Calgary list, and also maintains the Bow Valley list.

-throated Sparrow
A White-throated Sparrow below the feeder in my yard, SE Calgary, 2 December 2025. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Caroline also maintains a website with up-to-date and historical data for each of the four lists. Here is more information on the lists, from Caroline:

Link to The Winter Bird Lists.

Calgary: 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 email list, albertabird@groups.io (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 this email list, 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! This is the list Caroline maintains, so you can send reports of sightings to her.

Provincial list: Andy Ross is again taking care of the Alberta-wide list. Andy will collect sightings from the usual sources (eBird, Albertabird, the other winter lists, WhatsApp, etc.). 

The Edmonton list as shown on the albertawinterbirds.org site is kept by Vivek Dabral. Birds that are listed on the Edmonton list must be reported to the Edmonton Nature Club discussion group (ENCnaturetalk@groups.io) by an Edmonton Nature Club member. If you are in Edmonton and are interested in the club, more information can be found at edmontonnatureclub.org.

If you post your sightings to eBird it will be added to the appropriate list (except for the Edmonton one). If you see a significant species that has not already been found, you can report it as above, or email to birdscalgary@gmail.com.

Most of the common winter birds are found on December 1st or shortly thereafter. This year, we had 63 species on the first day in the Calgary circle. As of December 4th, we are at 75 species. Our average for the winter is 113, so there are still lots of birds to find!

Notable birds include a Spotted Towhee which was found on December 1st in Redwood Meadows (and had been there for a while). It is only the second Calgary winter record in the nine years of the count. If you are building your own winter list, you might want to head to Carburn Park for the Harlequin Duck, which has only been reported there, and for some uncommon ducks. Wilson’s Snipe has only been reported from Douglasbank Park. Brown-Lowery Park has again produced an American Three-toed Woodpecker, and is a good place to try for Black-backed Woodpecker as well (not seen yet).

As of December 4th, the list totals are: Alberta 97, Calgary 75, Edmonton 43, Bow Valley 32.

I’ll do an update with more sightings and missing targets in a week or so. Good winter birding!

Count Birds in Your Yard For the Christmas Bird Count!

Nov30

Spend 30 minutes counting birds on December 14th for the Calgary CBC.

We always like to have as many birders as possible go out in the field on Count Day, and this is how we get the majority of our birds and species. But field teams operate mostly in parks in the city (though we do have some diligent counters who drive residential back alleys!), and there are large areas of the city that are not covered in this way . That’s where the Feeder Watchers come in.

As a Feeder Watcher, you simply count the birds you see in or from your yard on Count Day. We ask that you spend at least 30 minutes counting in total, though you can spend much more time if you wish. Every year our Feeder Watchers see a good number of species, including usually one or two that are not found by the field teams. So they are an important part of the Count, and they do help to fill in the gaps in our coverage.

We can really use more people to watch at their feeders this year. If you have participated in the past, you still have to register this year to be included.

Register here!

Below is an animated look at the tracks of the field teams in 2024. As Matt Wallace says in this Instagram post, it only includes 190 out of the 218 eBird tracks of field teams, which accounts for some of the large gaps in coverage. But look at all the residential spaces in between the tracks! There are a lot of birds in those areas, and we’d like to count them. (If this doesn’t play on your device, try this link: Instagram.)

In addition, the field teams are all located within the Count Circle, which has a 24-km diameter. We want to cover that circle as fully as possible. But over the years the city has expanded beyond the boundaries of the circle, leaving many willing backyard observers outside the Count. We have started to include observations by Feeder Watchers who are in the city but outside of the circle as part of our Community Christmas Bird Count. Those observations cannot be counted in the official Audubon count, but we feel that it is important to do this to get a more complete picture of the winter birds in our city, and to involve as many people as possible.

Please fill out the registration form if you’d like to take part, either as a Feeder Watcher inside or outside the city, or as part of a field team.

Bonus Read: Below is a link to a recent article about the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in the Calgary Journal which includes an interview with CBC organizer Matt Wallace.

Calgary Journal link

Registration link for the Calgary Christmas Bird Count

Nov30

Here is a link to the form to fill out to register to join the count, or even if you just want more information:

Register Here for the 2025 Calgary CBC.

Trumpeter Swan

Birds & Beers, November 13, 2025

Nov7

Featuring a presentation on the wildlife of Southern Africa by Calvin van der Merwe

Next Thursday, November 13th, is our next Birds & Beers event in Calgary. We meet at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW, from 5 to 9 pm. Here is a message from Calvin van der Merwe, who will be presenting about the wildlife of Southern Africa:

Hello Calgary Birding Community. My name is Calvin van der Merwe, and my presentation is about birds and wildlife in Southern Africa. I grew up in Pretoria, studied in Cape Town, and have now found myself in the Alberta Wilderness. From the myriad of habitats in Northern Namibia, to the pans and rolling hills of the Kalahari Desert, to the endemics of the Cape and the forested and grassed extents of the Drakensberg escarpment, the tropical north-eastern coastline and it’s impressive wetland systems, to the Kruger National Park and the remote corners of Limpopo. If you enjoy incredible habitat, species diversity, exploration, and the array of other animals Southern Africa has to offer, this is the presentation for you. Here’s a Cape Parrot to whet the appetite.

Cape Parrot
Cape Parrot. Photo by Calvin van der Merwe.

The doors at the big ballroom will open for us at 5 pm. Come early to visit and have dinner and a drink. Or you can arrive any time before 7 pm when the presentation will begin. Everyone is welcome!

Note: There is no Birds & Beers meeting in December. We will resume in January.

2025 Calgary Christmas Bird Count

Nov3

Register now to take part on Sunday December 14th!

One of the Field Teams at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary during the 2024 CBC. Photo by Paul Dang.

The 74th annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count (CBC YYC) will take place on Sunday, December 14, 2025. Here is a message from Coordinator Matt Wallace:

As you may know, Calgary hosts one of the largest CBCs in Alberta and Western Canada. In 2024, we had a total of 141 field participants and 163 feeder watchers, documenting 71 species and counting 39,446 individual birds. It’s a big job that takes an army of people to ensure its success each year. We hope you’ll join us again this season—no matter your experience or birding skills. Each one of you plays an important role, and the data we collect helps us understand long-term trends in our winter birds.

We’ve set up a Google Form that we kindly ask everyone to fill out so we have your most up-to-date information for analysis and team assignments. Please share the registration form widely with your network of neighbours, friends, family, and colleagues. Register Here. Once you submit your registration you will receive an acknowledgement email from us, followed by further instructions in mid-November.

A quick note: This year, I am seeking a “shadow” assistant (or assistants) to work with our organizing team. I plan to hand off the CBC Coordinator role to an inspired member of our community for the 2026 Calgary event, as I may be relocating in the new year. Finding a suitable successor will help ensure the continued success and legacy of this long-running event.

Sharp-shinned Hawk
A Sharp-shinned Hawk from the 2024 Count. Photo by Ken Pride.

Birds Canada has also launched a pilot project encouraging CBC circles to have Community Engagement Leaders (CELs). Calgary has been ahead of the curve in this regard—this has essentially been my role in recent years, while Lara Fitzpatrick has handled much of the data analysis for our circle. Bob Lefebvre is another key member of our team, overseeing feeder watcher outreach and following up on notable or unusual bird reports.

Birds Canada: The CEL roles are defined as:

  • Participant recruitment and community outreach
  • Helping manage sector/section/zone assignments and coordination
  • Onboarding new participants and facilitating mentoring
  • Coordinating communications with participants

This pretty much sums up what we are looking for in the “Shadow Assistant” Role with this person leading the charge next year. If you’re interested in taking on the coordinator role, there’s an option on the registration form where you can indicate your interest and provide a few details. We’ll be in touch right away to include you in this year’s planning. We encourage anyone with an interest to apply!

Bald Eagle
A Bald eagle from the 2024 Count. Photo by Andrew Hart.

Please watch for more information in November, including data submission instructions and templates.

A quick reminder that our CBC is open to anyone with an interest in the outdoors including experienced birders, novices, and the public. We try to accommodate all abilities and ages to grow and support our community, so please let us know if you need any assistance or have any requests using the comment section of the form.

Gadwall, from the 2024 Count. Photo by Andrew hart.

Register for the Calgary CBC here: https://forms.gle/pcAU6tH7Vcfk63sV9

Thank you very much for your attention—we’re looking forward to connecting with you all for our big count day!