White-winged Crossbill

A week ago, on 20 December 2015, I had a really long day out with three friends, taking part in the annual Calgary Christmas Bird 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 tthis time of the year, it 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! The bird in this photo is a female - the males are red.

"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 this 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 below.

Species 24:

Canada Goose 200+
Mallard 100+
Raven 11
American Crow 4
Magpie 86
Rock Pigeon 38
Starling 2
Bald Eagle 1
Merlin 3
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 21
Blue Jay 2
American Robin 3
White-winged Crossbill 340
Red Crossbill 24
House Finch 134
Black-capped Chickadee 26
Red-breasted Nuthatch 18
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Common Redpoll 21
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
House Sparrow 750
Eurasian Collared Dove 63

Tony T.