Calgarians can now vote for city's official bird

[btimbit]

Didn't everyone make that joke about the last mayor too? Why's this one different?

[troutman]

I tried a decoy Owl to scare the House Sparrows away, but I think you have to move it around a lot to have results.

[troutman]

My Dad had a running battle with magpies at the Ranch. Hated them.

Magpie Trap:
https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3496/$file/685-3.pdf?OpenElement

Unfortunately, the magpies’ carnivorous habit presents a problem when it preys on beneficial wildlife, inflicts injury on young livestock and spreads livestock disease. Ultimately, there may be a need for some type of control.

[djsFlames]

Pterodactyl.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by troutman

My Dad had a running battle with magpies at the Ranch. Hated them.

Magpie Trap:
https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3496/$file/685-3.pdf?OpenElement

You can catch them in a wire cage meant to trap varmints like squirrels, gophers and the like if you bait the trap with peanut butter and peanuts. I have had them in the cage I use to relocate squirrels. If I catch a magpie, I make it do penance in the trap overnight before I release it.

[81MC]

I had a magpie nest in my tree. One day, when the little ones grew up and could start doing ####, I guess one of them pissed off another larger magpie. I’m in the front yard trying to garden when suddenly this magpie turns on the other one.

####ing monster would get on top of it and push it to the ground while pecking at it. Would stop and as soon as the little one would try to fly away it would repeat. And the larger one did this crazy ####ing thing where it’s winds fanned out over the one being beat up and looks frightening as all hell. The sounds this bird was making were terrible, and I seriously was witnessing this little guy I watched grow up get beat to death by this giant #######. It was terrible man.

[topfiverecords]

Blue Jays are boring and they're always playing baseball in the park when we want to toss the football around.

[GordonBlue]

give me a magpie every day over god damned chickadees.
their chirp drives me nuts.

[Geraldsh]

I don’t live in Calgary and rarely visit so I voted for the magpie

[troutman]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Highly recommend this app for identifying birds. I use it in my back yard all the time.

https://birdnet.cornell.edu/

Shazam for birds.

[Faust]

Chickadees:

Sounds: Chickadees have a variety of sounds including ones that sound like they might be saying cheeseburger, I did-it, Hey baby and the sound for which they are named, chicka-dee-deedee-dee.

Ecosystem role: Chickadees are excellent insect and spider control, particularly during nesting. In the short time it takes to get chicks out of the nest (about 3 weeks), chickadees will need between 5000-9000 insects to feed their brood! Caterpillars, aphids and spiders make up much of this diet but they aren’t overly picky.

Fun facts: Chickadees are social birds often flocking together with other species during the winter including nuthatches and woodpeckers. They are also one of the friendliest backyard birds staying close while people are around. They learn the alarm calls of other birds and use it to their advantage to hide from incoming predators.

In the fall and winter, the brain of chickadees actually gets bigger! In order to remember where they cache thousands of seeds the part of the brain responsible for spatial memory (the hippocampus) actually grows. Studies have shown that chickadees can remember the location of seeds a month after they have cached them! Seeds are stored underneath tree bark, in tall hollow stems and clusters of pine needles and any other nooks and crannies they can find.

[Faust]

Magpies:

Sounds: Magpies have a variety of sounds including ones that sound like maaagh?! wenk-wenkwenk

Ecosystem Role: Magpies play a number of important roles in the urban ecosystem. Their most important role may be as scavengers who by eating leftover scraps prevent the spread of disease through the food chain, including to people. They also play a big role in pest control from insects to rodents.

Fun Facts: Magpies are members of the corvid family. Other members of the corvid family include crows, ravens, jays and nutcrackers. Many people know how smart crows and ravens are and like their cousins, magpies are super intelligent! Magpies have been shown to recognize faces like crows and also like crows have been known to bring gifts to those who are kind to them.

In the winter deer and moose in the city can suffer from infestations of winter ticks, that’s right there are ticks active in winter! In fact, these ticks can become so numerous on moose that they have become one of the leading causes of mortality for young moose. But there is good news when it comes to magpies! Magpies behave like birds on the savannah that follow animals around and pick bugs on them only they do it in the winter in Canada! Magpies will land on moose and pick the ticks off them while the moose go about their day. By doing this, they may help young moose make it through the winter!

While they help moose now, magpies historically would have done the same for bison on the grassland plains that used to cover Alberta. As bison declined, so too did magpies but they didn’t disappear! While the bison aren’t roaming the plains anymore, magpies have found their new home in the city becoming one of the most prolific and successful urban wildlife species!

Magpies make a large domed shaped nest of twigs. It has two entrances. This might make it easier to leave the nest because of its long tail as it does not need to turn around. Magpies will often mob owls and hawks to chase them away. This can be useful for birders to know that there might be one nearby. In the urban yard, magpies are excellent warning systems for predators including roaming cats. If you hear magpies making a fuss, check it out, you might see something new!

You may have heard about how ravens and crows will follow packs of wolves and let them know when potential prey or carrion they could scavenge is nearby. Well, something similar can be found on the prairies and in the city with coyotes and magpies. If you see magpies flying along somewhat close to the ground in our natural areas, look down, you might see a coyote trotting along beneath them!

[Faust]

Blue Jays:

Sounds: Jay-Jay-Jay, fee-der-de-lurp, queedle-queedle-queedle

Ecosystem Role: Insect and pest control, disease control through scavenging and seed dispersal. Blue Jays cache seeds, primarily in the fall and winter and those they do not eat have been spread away from their natal area to grow.

Fun Facts: With a strong connection to oak forests, Blue Jays did not historically live in Alberta. Over the last 40 years sightings have increased and Blue Jays can now be seen breeding and living year-round in the province. What has caused their expansion is up for debate but their adaptability to urban living and landscape changes that made movement along riparian corridors easier have been suggested.

Blue Jays are excellent mimics, copying other birds including hawks and other predators. Sometimes, they use these sounds to scare other birds off feeders so they can have exclusive access. Not only can they mimic other birds but they have been known to imitate people and cats as well!

Like the Northern Flicker, Blue Jays use ants for parasite control. They will bathe in ants to release the ants' defensive chemical, formic acid. This happens to act as a great deterrent for mites and other parasites.

Blue Jays are social birds with strong bonds to their mate and extended family.

[Faust]

Northern Flicker:

Sounds: Flick-Flick-Flick, wick-wick-wick or a high-pitched pew, pew

Ecosystem Role: Flickers are prolific anteaters consuming up to 5000 a day during the summer! With this, they help control ant populations. Their love of insects can also help prevent disease in trees where they eat the larvae of potentially damaging insects before they cause trouble. Flickers create cavities in trees for nesting which can be used by other animals as well including owls, bufflehead and goldeneye ducks, other cavity nesting songbirds and mammals.

Fun Facts: Flickers are members of the woodpecker family but unlike other woodpeckers, flickers are often found on the ground eating since ants are their favorite!

The Northern Flicker was once thought to be two separate species, the Red-shafted and the Yellow-shafted Flicker. The Red-shafted sub-species males have red "mustaches" malar stripes while the Yellow-shafted have black malar stripes. It is thought that the glaciers of the ice age separated the flicker into two separate areas long enough that they developed different markings including the malar stripes. With the retreat of the glaciers their two separate populations are now coming together and because they can successfully mate with each other they are now called the Northern Flicker.

Flickers don’t just eat ants, they also use them for grooming. While enjoying a snack, flickers can be seen almost bathing in ants. These ants will release their defense, formic acid which actually acts as an antiparasitic, helping ward off mites and other parasites!

Flickers and woodpeckers often get a bad rap for drilling holes in house siding. There are two reasons they might do this:

1. To create a nest cavity. If natural nesting sites are in short supply, woodpeckers may turn to homes to raise their brood. Providing them with an artificial nest box can solves this problem!

2. The second reason woodpeckers peck at houses is to get insects. In this case, they are doing you a favor! If you notice woodpeckers going at wood siding, it might be a good idea to take a closer look. They may be finding a problem before it gets too big!

In the spring males can be heard drumming on trees in our natural areas to let everyone know where their territory but they have discovered that light standards work really well too! If you hear a rapid tapping outside your window, take a look, it might be a flicker trying to bring in the ladies!

[Faust]

Red-breasted Nuthatch:

Sounds: ni-ni-ni, yank-yank-yank

Ecosystem Role: Important insect eater, particularly for spruce budworm. Nuthatches can be seen sticking their beaks under bark to get at insects and in years when spruce budworm is high, nuthatches can be seen picking them off in large numbers, preventing trees from getting too damaged.

Fun Facts: Nuthatches can be distinguished from other birds by their upside down posture on trees.

Nuthatch migration depends on food availability. If there is lots of food, the birds won’t migrate but if food is scarce, they will shift their range in the winter. This is known as irruption. Snowy owls are another irruptive species which can be found in great numbers around Calgary some years and barely any the next.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are small but mighty. During nesting season they can be seen chasing off larger birds, aggressively defending their territory.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a cavity nester. It can make its own nest or will use a cavity previously made by a woodpecker or a bird box. They often will smear sticky sap or resin around the outside of their nest hole to which may help ward off pests like ants.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are one of two nuthatch species in Alberta. The other is the slightly larger white-breasted nuthatch. The calls are similar but the white-breasted has an almost entirely white front compared to the red-breast and black eye streaks of the red-breasted.

[zuluking]

Northern Flicker, people! Stop promoting those scavenging, annoying, flying vermin called magpies.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

The issue is, I'm trying to think of the last time I actually saw a Northern Flicker in the city.

[timun]

Come to my house and listen to one of the stupid ####ers peck at the rain cap on my furnace flue at 6:30 am...

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

The issue is, I'm trying to think of the last time I actually saw a Northern Flicker in the city.

I see them several times a week. We have a suet feeder outside the kitchen window. They come all winter.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I see them several times a week. We have a suet feeder outside the kitchen window. They come all winter.

Try this guy's solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htMzCjJt2xA