Cold weather drives sightings for birdwatchers as Great Backyard Bird Count wraps up

Birdcount wraps up in winter chill People are scarce on the streets, but birds are braving the chill and being counted in a massive citizen project. Bill Macfarlane reports.

CALGARY, Alta. — Birdwatchers both new and experienced had a busy weekend feeding their observations to the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.

The citizen science project records bird sightings over a four day period from all over the world. By Monday afternoon Albertans had made more than 1900 birding excursions and recorded 93 different species.

“So many people looking in their backyards and city parks at their birds and counting them up and submitting them is really contributing some important long-term information that we’re learning about the population trends of these birds,” says Chris Fisher, author of Birds of Alberta.

Birdwatching has taken off since the start of the pandemic, with the Alberta Birds Facebook page jumping from roughly 20,000 members to more than 32,000 in the past year.

The cold weather has driven some species to make an appearance in Calgary. Crossbills have turned up in numbers to feed on the cones from spruce trees.

“Over the last couple of weeks white winged crossbills and red crossbills have invaded Calgary and have taken to dining on the spruce cones that are really obvious in some of our mature neighbourhoods,” Fisher says.

But the cold also presents a real challenge for many birds to survive. Chickadees weigh about as much as a couple of grapes, but are adapted to endure the deep cold. Still, it takes tremendous effort.

"Chickadees will eat up to 60 per cent of their body weight in seeds and insect eggs every single day and burn off the entirety of that fuel overnight, just to keep warm," says Fisher.

If you recorded bird observations between Friday Feb 12 and Monday Feb. 15, submit them to the Great Backyard Bird Count website until March 1.

The project wants to know the location, date and species of any observations.