Tag Archive | rare birds alberta

Green-tailed Towhee

Posted by Bob Lefebvre. All photos by Steve Dyke.

There have been quite a number of unusual birds seen in the Calgary area this year. Here is a real rarity for Alberta, a Green-tailed Towhee that was visiting a rural yard near Cremona, NW of Calgary, in late May.

This sparrow was first noticed by Steve Dyke in his yard on May 18. The bird would shelter under lilac bushes, and emerge in to the open occasionally to feed.

Green-tailed Towhees are native to northern Mexico and the southwest United States. There have been fewer than eight previous documented sightings of this species ever in Alberta. (See this link for the Official List of the Birds of Alberta. The towhee is bird #378 on the list, and it gets the code 5 Rarity rating – “finds of a lifetime.”) The last Green-tailed Towhee seen in the Calgary region was in Bowmont Park in the NW part of the city in 1996.

The bird stayed in Steve’s yard from May 18-24. Several other birders were able to see and photograph it.

Here is a range map from eBird, showing in purple all 2020 sightings of Green-tailed Towhee. (The purple square near Fort McMurray is not a mistake; there was a stray bird there last winter, from December 13, 2019 to January 21, 2020. That one was WAY out of range!)

Green-tailed Towhee eBird — 2020 sightings of Green-tailed Towhee.

A beautiful bird, and a great find for Alberta!

Rare & Notable Birds of Alberta, Fall 2016

Apr2

Here is the Alberta report of rare and notable birds for the fall of 2016, written by James Fox for the American Birding Association’s publication North American Birds. There are many photographs of rare and unusual birds. Use the scrollbar at the right edge of the document to see all fourteen pages. (Note: The scrollbar may not work on all devices. It works on a desktop with Chrome and Firefox, but not on an iPhone.)

Click to access FINAL-NAB-Fall-Report.pdf

Rare & Notable Bird Records For Alberta

Feb1

By James Fox

The American Birding Association produces a birding journal titled North American Birds. NAB is a quarterly publication consisting of thirty-four regional reports, organized in taxonomic order and produced by some of North America’s top birders. Alberta is part of the Prairie Provinces Region and we need your help. Recently a few birders, biologists and ornithologists formed a team and have taken on the role of submitting reports to the regional editors on behalf of Alberta. Our goal is to submit reports that cover the entire province and reports comprised of records that have supporting documentation such as photos, audio or video.

If you have any rare or notable bird records, please contact James Fox at fox.james.ed[at]gmail.com. Rare or notable has a few meanings; it can mean an unusual species or exceptionally high numbers or a species out of range for that given time of year. If you have seen any of the birds on this list from the Alberta Bird Record Committee, then for sure it’s a rare bird. If you’ve seen a bird but it’s not on the list and you think it might be rare, contact James.

Purple Sandpiper at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Calgary. A rarity, seen on fewer than eight occasions in Alberta (one occasion in this case). Photo by Dan Arndt.

The mission of the journal is to provide a complete overview of the changing panorama of North America’s birdlife, including outstanding records, range extensions and contractions, population dynamics, and changes in migration patterns or seasonal occurrence. The North American Birds regional network represents the tip of an iceberg whose main mass consists of North America’s largest, widest and best-established networks of field birders. The network extends to regional editors, sub-regional editors and then to many thousands of local field birders. By sending in your records to the Alberta compilers, you’ll be ensuring that Alberta’s data is part of the bigger picture and you’ll be part of the team!

Hooded Warbler, Fish Creek Park, Calgary. Reported less than eight times in Alberta. Photo by Dan Arndt.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact James Fox, NAB Alberta Compiler, fox.james.ed[at]gmail.com, 780.999.0642.

Brown Thrasher. A breeding bird in Alberta, but if seen in the winter it should be reported as a seasonal rarity. Photo by Dan Arndt.

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: June 20

Jun21

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, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca 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.

This Bird Albert was recorded on Jun 20, 2011.

JUN 15

BAND-TAILED PIGEON: reported by Carrie Mashon at a feeder at her home in Dorothy, AB. Not seen after June 15

JUN 16

SHORT-EARED OWL – Ron Kube saw one on Twp Rd 192 north of Frank Lake
VEERY – Gus Yaki and Friends of Fish Creek heard one in Weaselhead

JUN 17

BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO – POSSIBLE – reported by Terry Korolyk who saw a large dull brownish bird with a very long brownish tail moving in a deciduous tree on either Auburn Rd, Adrian Rd or 7 St visible above a gray sound barrier wall from Southland Drive just west of Blackfoot Trail.
LONG-BILLED CURLEW – south of Hwy 566 on Hwy 9 northeast of Calgary, by Corinne Griffin

The next scheduled update of the bird alert is on Thu Jun 23.

Birds Calgary

A birding blog for Calgary, Alberta and area

Tag Archive | rare birds alberta

Green-tailed Towhee

Rare & Notable Birds of Alberta, Fall 2016

Rare & Notable Bird Records For Alberta

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: June 20

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