White-winged Crossbills

This photo was taken a year ago, during the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count. I've had to cancel for this year's Count, being held today, because of feeling dizzy, which is very annoying. Hope the three friends in my group have a successful, enjoyable day! It involves a whole day of walking, unlike most of the Counts I usually go on. This photo of a male White-winged Crossbill was taken on last year's Count - this male was so beautiful with a mix of dark pink, light pink and yellow mixed in with the dark brown and white plumage. The second bird is either a female or a juvenile. Several of these birds had flown down to the road and were hanging out on a few lumps of very dirty snow. Not the most attractive setting, but at least I managed to get a few photos of the birds.

On last year's Count, we did SO much walking, starting at 8:00 am, getting home around 4:00 p.m., and then I was out all evening at the potluck supper held for the many participants who covered various parts of the city.

Our first stop was at a place with a great view looking out over downtown Calgary. The sunrise colours were beautiful and the whole day gave us good weather. The Calgary Tower, which used to be the tallest building downtown, is now dwarfed by others. At this time of the year, the tower has Christmas coloured lights around the top section.

From this location, we then spent the day driving short distances and then walking round the various residential streets. There were so many White-winged Crossbills!

"A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Crossbill/id

The total overall number of species seen for the whole city last year was really good, though we haven't yet had the finalized number. The group of 4 of us that covered part of the NE had 24 species, which was also very good. Will add our small group's list in a comment box below.