Calgarians can now vote for city's official bird

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by SebC

Chickadees are the most annoying bird on this list. Shut up, I'm trying to sleep!

But they call out "cheesburger!", how can you not love that?

[nik-]

I want the option to vote for a Hail Seeding Plane as Calgary's official bird.

[Cheese]

Magpies all the way....they even have a stronger Right Wing, perfect!

[calf]

Magpies are clever, resourceful and intelligent.

They also hold irrational grudges for a long time, and squawk incessantly over trivial matters.

Magpies are Calgary's bird.

[Stud_McCool]

Lol nut hatch

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What are the ones where they seem to live 100s in a tree, chirping away, but are virtually invisible?

House Sparrows? Not native, and have spread throughout the world. The worst.

[troutman]

Local birds I like more:

Bohemian Waxwing
House Finch
Merlin
Kestrel
Tree Swallow

Calgary Bird Counts:
https://naturecalgary.com/birding/bird-counts/

https://birdscalgary.com/birdyyc2020/

https://birdscalgary.com/calgary-chr...final-results/

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

This thread is just making me want to fire up Wingspan on Steam. Anyone else play?

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by troutman

Local birds I like more:

Bohemian Waxwing
House Finch
Merlin
Kestrel
Tree Swallow

Calgary Bird Counts:
https://naturecalgary.com/birding/bird-counts/

https://birdscalgary.com/birdyyc2020/

https://birdscalgary.com/calgary-chr...final-results/

We're pretty close to Fish Creek so get lots of bird action. Nursed a waxwing back to health after it hit our window. Watched a Merlin take down and eat a pigeon in our back yard. See the House Finch quite often. I will look for a Tree Swallow and Kestrel. I don't recall seeing either of those yet. There's a male ring-necked pheasant that's been wintering in our yard for the past 5 years. This spring a female is hanging around with him. Wondering if we'll see chicks.

Have nothing against magpies, but they eat our dog's crap which is disgusting and messy. I can't vote for a ####eater. Chickadee's and Nuthatches are friendly. I associate Blue Jays with Toronto for obvious reasons. Northern Flickers I find very cool. Went with them.

[troutman]

My favorite board game:

https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/

[octothorp]

Northern Flickers have my vote.

All of these birds have a wide range and are common in a lot of cities. But there's a special relationship between Flickers and Calgary: they're one of the few cities where they're here year-round (though far less common over winter), and the ranges of the red- and yellow-shafted variants overlap, so we get both variants as well as occasionally hybrids - birds with colour-markings of both types.

It's tough to photograph these hybrids, because the red moustache is easiest to see when it's resting, and the yellow tail-shafts are easiest to see when it's in flight, but I had this visitor to my backyard last fall, who gave a great display of both colour-markings:

https://i.imgur.com/GuH58O7.mp4

[redforever]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Northern Flickers have my vote.

All of these birds have a wide range and are common in a lot of cities. But there's a special relationship between Flickers and Calgary: they're one of the few cities where they're here year-round (though far less common over winter), and the ranges of the red- and yellow-shafted variants overlap, so we get both variants as well as occasionally hybrids - birds with colour-markings of both types.

It's tough to photograph these hybrids, because the red moustache is easiest to see when it's resting, and the yellow tail-shafts are easiest to see when it's in flight, but I had this visitor to my backyard last fall, who gave a great display of both colour-markings:

https://i.imgur.com/GuH58O7.mp4

Lots of flickers in Killarney, the red shafted. That would be my second vote after the chickadee.

At this time of year, if you hear a loud rat-a-tat-tat banging in very quick succession, on metal furnace or chimney flues, that will be the male flicker calling for a mate. This one is using a metal slide for his purposes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ2wIOcO7aE

This one was really annoying the homeowner but the homeowner found a solution.

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

Actually his solution works not too bad for magpies eating all the suet out of suet baskets. However, the best solution to deter magpies from eating all the suet before other birds get to it is buying one of these suet feeders. I have found that a magpie will not hang upside down to eat. It will still try to get the suet from this type of feeder but it does so by jumping up off the ground and trying to dislodge some suet with his beak as it jumps. I bought these at Canadian Tire...not sure if they still stock them. Chickadees, nuthatches, even sparrows will easily eat by hanging upside down. Suet is very important for very small birds in winter, especially during very cold snaps.

https://www.amazon.ca/Natures-Way-Bi...94231881&psc=1

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by troutman

My favorite board game:

https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/

Look two posts up... if you have the PC version I'll play you. You'll probably murder me, because I'm not actually any good, but still.

[JohnnyB]

Magpies are so much better than the crows here in Vancouver. They are also the only bird on that list that I associate with Calgary at all.

Actually, I also think magpies are a pretty good looking bird.

[Wormius]

Crows are pretty smart too. They’re loud as hell though.

[JohnnyB]

Crows are certainly smart, and it's cool how they form massive flocks that commute into and out of the city daily, but the noise they make is pretty grating and the fact that they're all black contributes to the general darkness of Vancouver winters. I would take magpies over crows any day.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Why birds? why not an official dog?

Having an official bird is a requirement for being certified as a bird-friendly city. Not sure if there is any real benefit to being certified, but as a bird lover I do like the city taking a few steps to being more bird-friendly.

[topfiverecords]

The obvious choice is the one with a patch of red over a blue bird.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by troutman

House Sparrows? Not native, and have spread throughout the world. The worst.

I am not sure. They seem to congregate together in trees, chirp a lot, and they're really well camoflaged. They'll all take off at the same time and fly in a group.

That said, I have seen the occasional grouse or pheasant family waddling around from yard to yard. Those are kind of cute.

[troutman]

The gulls that beg for fries at Peter's Drive-In.