Bird Friendly Calgary

It’s ! Get out there and take pics of all the things you can and post them to iNaturalist to support a big national community science effort! The photos don’t even have to be perfect, like this one….can you spot the bluebird?

While it looks like a giant swallow outlined in the sky, this is in fact a flock of Cackling Geese migrating in the dusk. Remember, it’s not just small songbirds that migrate under cover of darkness.

We are at the Biodiversity Festival at Habitat Station! Come say hi!

How beautiful is this mural painted by TsuuT’ina artist Nathan Meguinis for our partner weaselhead preservationsociety! A beautiful showcase of several of our native birds and the importance of healthy water for all of us ❤️

So many small actions we can take right here at home that can make a big difference towards the survival of these birds!

Light pollution reduction expert, John Barentine, looks at “Lights Out for Birds” campaigns and shows that these efforts work very well indeed. https://www.darkskyconsulting.com/blog/for-the-birds-lights-out-programs-and-the-avian-economy

So grateful to be part of this! Thank you, Feather Friendly Bird Collision Deterrent Markers, Nature Canada, the Canadian Animal Task Force and Calgary Urban Species Response Team!

Fall migration is definitely under way and unfortunately that’s keeping our partners at Calgary Urban Species Response Team busy. Did you know it’s estimated only 1% of window strikes occur at high rise buildings? The other 99% occur at residential homes and businesses. The reasons for this are varied but include the simple presence of these buildings compared to high rises but vegetation and food availability also plays into it. Most (certainly not all) strikes occur 4 floors or lower which coincides with typical tree and shrub height. Both reflection and trickery of looking like they can fly through to the other side cause birds to hit. Whether they look or not after a strike, they needed to be treated like a human head trauma victim and undergo treatment and observation for at least 3 days post strike. Brain swelling is the number one cause of death for window strike birds. This Tennessee Warbler was witnessed by a CUSRT collision monitor hitting a building and thankfully was able to be contained and taken for treatment. By the time she arrived at her destination, the bird had perked up significantly but that doesn’t mean they were ok! They still need that monitoring and treatment to ensure recovery and ability to migrate.
To prevent window strikes, effectively mark the entire outdoor surface of windows with a maximum distance of 2 inches between markings. Turn off lights at night to help keep birds from being drawn into danger and report all window strikes victims to Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation and Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society for treatment.