These photos were sent to us from Pam in Cochrane, who noticed an unusual bird at her feeders. This leucistic form of the House Finch is a very beautiful bird that is happily feeding in a flock of the normally coloured finches.
Tag Archive | calgary bird blog
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: August 30
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary?
If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
Compiled by Terry Korolyk
AUG 27
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER – 2 at Confederation park, Bill Wilson
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW – 2 as above
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD – small hummingbird with buffy flanks seen in Braeside by Katrina Lybbert and her son; thought to be a Calliope
AUG 28
WILSON’S WARBLER – 12 at Confederation Park, BW
SOLITARY SANDPIPER – 5, as above
AUG 29
BLACKPOLL WARBLER – seen by BW at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
OVENBIRD – as above
AMERICAN REDSTART – 3, as above
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH – as above
WILSON’S WARBLER – 5, as above
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER – 2, as above
TOWNSEND’S WARBLER – in Cranston subdivision, by Rick Robb
The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Mon Sep 3.
BIRD STUDY GROUP:
Bird Study Group meets 1st Wednesday of the month, 7:30pm in Room 211
of the BioSciences Building, U of C.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 7:30pm – Raptors and Friends – presented by
photographer Rob McCay
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: Aug 27
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary?
If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
Compiled by Terry Korolyk
MAGNOLIA WARBLERS have been widespread in Calgary and BLUE-HEADED
VIREOS have been reported in Confederation Park throughout this reporting period.
AUG 23
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER – 4 seen by Gus Yaki et al at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER – Confederation Park, Colin Young
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD – Confederation Park, Bill Wilson
AUG 24
HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHER – Terry Korolyk, Glenfield area of Fish Creek PP east of the Macleod Tr Bridge
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER – Bill Wilson, Confederation Park northwest Calgary
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER – as above
TOWNSEND’S WARBLER – 2, as above
AUG 25
SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER – a shorebird seen at the slough 2 kms south of Hwy 552 on 304 St south of Carseland by TK may have been a Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER – 1, in location above
STILT SANDPIPER – 300, as above
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER – 400, as above
AUG 26
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER – 3, Confederation Park, BW
CANADA WARBLER – Mallard Point, Fish Creek PP, TK and Nature Calgaryfield trip participants
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD – fem/imm; seen by above group at the Visitor’s Centre at Bow Valley Ranch in Fish Creek PP; also one seen in Confederation Park by BW
WESTERN TANAGER – female, Carburn Park, Steve Kassai
The next scheduled update of the bird alert is on Thu Aug 30.
BIRD STUDY GROUP
Bird Study Group meets 1st Wednesday of the month, 7:30 pm, Room 211,
BioSciences Building, U of C. Wednesday September 5, 7:30pm: Raptors and Friends – presented by photographer Rob McCay.
Sunday Showcase: More on Loons
Posted by Matthew Sim
Here are some more Loon shots from my camping trip; enjoy.
Migration at Hull’s Wood
Posted by Matthew Sim
Last week I rode my bike down to Hull’s Wood in Fish Creek P.P. twice to see how migration was coming along; I was not disappointed! As I rode through the woods both times, the chips of warblers and sparrows emanated from the trees and shrubs along the river. The woods were full of Yellow Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, House Wrens, Least Flycatchers and Warbling Vireos (not all of these were migrants) while several American Redstarts, Tennessee Warblers, Northern Waterthrushes and Baltimore Orioles were also present. There was also a single male Wilson’s Warbler, a single Yellow-rumped Warbler and a single Connecticut Warbler.
Least Flycatcher
Connecticut Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
This was all quite exciting but by 10:30 a.m. both days things quieted down for warblers so I went to Lafarge Meadows to check out shorebirds. Both days I found 6 species of shorebirds in Lafarge Meadows along the Bow River; Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer and Wilson’s Snipe.
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Migration is coming along well, so if you have the opportunity, get out there! There are lots of great spots in and around Calgary for migrating birds whether it be Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Confederation Park, Weed Lake, Fish Creek P.P. or your own yard, find your favorite spot for migration and sit back and enjoy the show!
Beyond the reflection: the dangers of windows
Posted by Matthew Sim
As the fall migration starts to heat up and southbound warblers, vireos, flycatchers, sparrows and more pass through Calgary, birding can become quite exciting. While for us, this is a great time to be out and about, for the birds, it is dangerous; very dangerous. Migrating passerines (perching birds), for example, have to travel long distances all while on the lookout for predators such as hawks and cats, try to get food themselves and hope they don’t get caught in an early cold-snap which could potentially kill them. And this is just the beginning, there are even more dangers; one of them which is the most lethal of them all.
According to Sibley Guides Bird Mortalities, window strikes (when a bird hits a window) kill between 97 and 976 million birds each year, more than any other cause of bird deaths. (http://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/). I was in my neighbor’s yard when I noticed one of these fatalities on his patio. While I had been there, a migrating Ovenbird had struck his window and had died. Though birds can crash into windows at any time of the year, window strikes tend to happen more frequently during migration as an influx of migrants come through unfamiliar territory, passing from tree to tree. As you can see in the photo below, it is quite easy for a bird to see its habitat reflected in a window and believe that it is simply another tree they are heading to; I’m sure most don’t know what hit them.
If I were a bird, I would probably fly towards these trees too.
Many bird populations are declining already due to a number of reasons and we don’t need to help them along with reflective windows when we could easily prevent window strikes occurring.
This Ovenbird had struck my neighbor’s window while I was in his yard.
A closer look at the detail on the Ovenbird’s feathers
Probably the worst part of all this is that window strikes are senseless; it’s not like natural selection where it was meant to happen, window strikes are part of our devastating side effects on nature; however, they can also be easily prevented.
There are many ways to prevent birds from striking windows. If you are having birds fly from your feeders or bird baths into windows, you can either move these bird attracting features further away (25-30 feet) from the window or closer (1-3 feet) to the window so that if the birds do hit the window at just 1-3 feet they will not be going fast enough to do any harm to themselves.
Apparently, there is also a material called CollidEscape which can reduce reflectivity and transparency on the outside but still leave the windows transparent from the inside. You can check it out here.
Here are a few more options:
- plant shade trees outside windows to break down reflections
- install snap-on window dividers
- put a hanging plant outside of the window
These are just a few of the ways you can avoid window strikes and help reduce the number of avian mortalities each year. Often, preventing window strikes can be as simple as closing the curtains or blinds when not using the windows. You can see even more solutions here.
If you have birds hitting your windows, there are many ways to stop it; help out bird populations!
Something old, something new
Posted by Matthew Sim
For the third straight year, on a camping trip to southeastern British Columbia, I watched a family of Common Loons as they went about their lives despite living on a very busy lake and getting quite a bit of disturbance from vacationing families. As we watched the parents (something old as I have seen them before) tending to their young (something new) I couldn’t quite help but be amazed at how they can continue call the lake home despite the popularity of the lake among campers.
This year, there were two young loons. You may remember from last year’s post that there was only one chick last year (last year’s post can be seen here). It was quite remarkable to watch how the adult loons worked together this year with two chicks instead of one; sometimes each parent would take care of one of the chicks while at other times, one parent would give the other a break and watch over both chicks for a while before the parents eventually switched.
Though loons can be very sensitive to disturbance, these loons seem to have adapted well to human presence. Also, there is no motorized boat traffic on their lake, so maybe they are fine with kayakers, canoes and swimmers.
Off to feed its young
Common Loons nest on small islands, muskrat lodges and sometimes on the shores of their lake if these shores are forested and undisturbed. They lay one or two (sometimes three) eggs and take turns incubating these eggs for 28-30 days before the black, downy chicks are hatched. These chicks can swim immediately and they leave the nest with their parents within 24 hours of hatching. Though they can swim, for the first 2 weeks they will often ride on their parents backs perhaps to stay warm and avoid predators. Within six to eight weeks the young will be the size of the adults but until about eight weeks, they will continue to be fed by their parents. I noticed that of the 2 chicks, one seemed to be very independent already while the other one stayed close to at least one adult. Perhaps they had hatched several days apart?
The more dependent of the two chicks being fed; or maybe it just enjoyed free food?!
By three months, mountain lakes such as this one start to get colder and eventually the loons will have to leave; by three months the young can fly. During the 4 days that I was there, the young loons attempted flying a few times, though judging by all the splashing and flopping around, they still need some more practice.
Learning to fly
I found it quite interesting to observe the loons. Often, when I would watch them from a distance, patience would pay off and they would eventually swim quite close to me, within a few feet. The young ones seemed to be especially curious and would often linger around my raft. I had a great time watching the loons and spent many hours with them up close, learning different aspects of their lives. I got plenty of photos and as these seem to tell a story better than words I will leave it at that.
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: Aug 2
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary?
If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
Compiled by Terry Korolyk
JUL 31
BLACK-HEADED GULL – seen at Pakowki Lake by Al and Helga Borgardt at 6:50 am on Hwy 885 where it crosses the NW arm of Pakowki Lake. Originally found at this location on July 20.
RED CROSSBILL – 12 seen by Terry Korolyk flying from Glenfield to Votier’s Flats in Fish Creek PPark
AUG 1
COOPER’S HAWK – seen by Gus Yaki et al on an Elbow River Survey from Stanley Park to Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary; TK also saw an immature flying over Millrise subdivision in Calgary
COMMON LOONS have sucessfully reared 2 young on Lake Bonavista in southeast Calgary this summer – reported by Peter Roxborough
The next scheduled update of the bird alert is on Mon Aug 6.
The Scientific names of Birds
Recently, some birding friends and I were in the mountains listening to the strange song of the Varied Thrush. While its song may not always be described as beautiful, its plumage is definitely gorgeous and we thought its name did not do justice to its beauty. One topic brought us onto the next and soon we were discussing Latin names. While many birders tend to overlook the scientific names of birds, these titles can be quite interesting though I know I certainly had trouble digesting all the taxonomy and etymology! If you enjoy wrapping your heads around this, read on! If you’re like me though, it may seem simply too much!
I was looking in the Federation of Alberta Naturalists ‘Field Guide to Alberta Birds’ (1998) when I noticed that the authors had the etymology (study of the origin of names) of the birds scientific names translated. However, before we get to etymology, let’s look at taxonomy (the classification of species).
All birds are in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia), the Chordata Phylum (with a backbone), and the Class Aves (birds). This is where the similarities stop though and the birds separate into their respective Orders such as Falconiformes (hawks and eagles) and Passeriformes (Passerines). Then, species are divided down into Families for example Parulidae (Wood-Warblers.) After the Families come the subdivisions of Genus and Species. These last two are used in the bird’s scientific name as binomial nomenclature, which describes the species of living organism. For example, a Red-breasted Nuthatch is Sitta canadensis. The word ‘Sitta‘ is the nuthatches genus and ‘canadensis’ is the name that specifically describes the Red-breasted Nuthatch. With the name Sitta canadensis, scientists everywhere know that you are talking about the Red-breasted Nuthatch. This is where the classification of species ends and we can look at the origin of the species’ binomial nomenclature and the etymology of the name.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch’s scientific name is Sitta candensis
Etymology, the origin of words can be fascinating. I found that some of the scientific names of birds were quite interesting, for example the Red-necked Grebe. This grebe’s genus name is Podiceps which is Latin and means “rump foot”, referring to the posterior position of the grebe’s feet. Its species name, grisegena, is also Latin and can be translated to “gray cheek”. Thus when we look at the whole scientific name and try to make sense of it, we might come out with something like “gray-cheeked rump foot”, which in itself, can be quite descriptive of the Red-necked Grebe.
Yep, the Red-necked Grebe definitely has a gray cheek!
Here are a few more bird names and their meanings.
Black-crowned Night Heron- Nycticorax nycticorax– nyctos: “night” and corax: “a crow”. Basically, a night crow!
Gadwall- Anas strepera– Anas: “a duck” and strepera: “noisy”. A noisy duck? Names like this really make me look at the species again as I never really thought of the Gadwall as a noisy duck.
Barrow’s Goldeneye- Bucephala islandica– Bous: “bull”, kephale: “head” and islandica: “of Iceland”. Giving us… “Bull-head of Iceland”. Interesting.
Bald Eagle- Haliaeetus leucocephalus– halos: “the sea”, aetos: “eagle”, leucocephalus- leukos: “white” and cephalus: “head”. White-headed Sea Eagle sounds descriptive!
Least Sandpiper- Calidris minutilla– Calidris: ” a gray speckled sandpiper”, minutilla: “very small”. Very small gray speckled sandpiper is right- these guys only weigh 24 grams.
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher- Empidonax flaviventris– Empidonax: “King of the gnats”, flaviventris: “yellow-bellied”. What a name! Yellow-bellied King of the gnats!
Tennessee Warbler- Vermivora peregrina– Vermivora- vermis: “worm”, voro: “eater”, peregrina: “to wander”. Wandering worm-eater perhaps?
Lark Sparrow- Chondestes grammacus– Chondestes: “grain eater”, grammacus: “striped”. Striped grain eater.
Lots of cool names in this book to look at though I must admit that some don’t seem to make much sense. I also find that I learn a lot about species when I know their Latin names as then it might tell me more, for example how Gadwall’s Latin name means noisy duck. Then you’ve got the neat names such as Empidonax meaning ‘King of the gnats’! Very interesting and worthwhile to know the scientific names!
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: July 30
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary?
If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
Compiled by Terry Korolyk
July 26:
–SAY’S PHOEBE, Fish Creek Prov. Prk., near bridge #9, by Matthew Simm.
July 27:
–RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD(f) and young on nest, Votier’s Flats, FCPP, by MS.
July 28 and July 29:
–WESTERN SANDPIPER(1), slough along Hwy.560, just W.of Hwy.24, by Terry Korolyk.
–SEMI-PALMATED PLOVER(1), same location as above, by TK, and two seen there on July 29 by Andrew Slater’
–BLACK-HEADED GULL, adult,seen first on July 20 at Pakowki Lake, on the causeway through the NW arm of the Lake, and then flying towards main Lake, Jukka Jantunen (photos taken). Seen there the next morning(July 21) and July 23. Likely Alberta’s first record. Last reported by Ken and Chris Havard on July 29.
–AMERICAN BITTERN, Calgary Zoo private ranch, by Dwight Knapik.
–PEREGRINE FALCON, west end Weed lake off Twp.Rd. 240, by AS.
Next report of the Rare Bird Alert Thursday Aug 2.