My favourite warbler...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Canada Warbler

Wilsonia canadensis

I suppose I have three reasons for this delightful little warbler being my favourite.

  

1. I too am Canadian.

2. Its black necklace (on the male) is so easy to recognize.

3. Its song begins with a short, sharp chip note and continues as a rich and highly variable warble.

My favourite warbler is quite prevalent in south-eastern Canada, where I live, and is easily seen foraging in undergrowth or low branches.   It can also be seen fly-catching.   It is now late March here in southern Ontario, and I can hardly wait for this charming bird to make its spring arrival.

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BarrytheBirder

Duck populations trending downward...

                                                                          Photo by BarrytheBirder

Just released is the 2025 edition of the State of the Birds report by scientists from U.S. bird conservation groups.   The report highlights long-term population trends for America's birds.

A 2019 study published in the journal SCIENCE sounded the alarm - showing a net loss of 3 billion birds in North America in the past 50 years.   The new report shows those losses are continuing.

Notably duck populations. a bright spot in past reports with strong increases since 1970, have trended downward in recent years.   Birds are broadly popular with almost 100 million Americans being birdwatchers, including anglers and of course hunters.   

Birding activity is a large stimulator of the economy, with $270 billion in total economic output generated by birder expenditures.

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BarrytheBirder

First Great Blue Heron...

                                                                                              Photo by BarrytheBirder

A Great Blue Heron was spotted on Wednesday, March 16, 2025 at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, on the north shore of Lake Ontario.   Other sightings should follow quickly.

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BarrytheBirder

Green Herons in early April...

                                                                              Photo by BarrytheBirder

Green Herons (Butorides virescens) will arrive on the north shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in April.   They are usually solitary and are found in streams, ponds and marshes with woodland or bushy cover.   They often perch on low tree branches.   This heron is sometimes described as a very rare visitor north to much of southern Canada, although I never miss seeing one of two in local marshes each year.

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BarrytheBirder

Great Blue Herons arrive next month...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Great Blue Herons begin to migrate north to most Canadian locations in April.   Great Blues have the widest distribution  in Canada of all herons and can sometimes be seen in groups of up to 100 during migration.

Great Blue Heron range map, above, by Hinterland Who's Who

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BarrytheBirder

Merlin (Falco coloumbarius)

 

                                                                                                    Photos by Barry Wallace

A bird that I rarely get to see, the Merlin was formerly called the Pigeon Hawk.  Presumably, pigeons have always been one of its favourite birds to hunt.   It catches birds in flight, usually by a sudden burst of speed rather then by diving.   It spends its winters south of where I live in southern Ontario.

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BarrytheBirder

Big surprise...Swainson's hawk is still here!

 

                                                                                 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Just when I was convinced that last year's Swainson's Hawk had given up on winter in eastern Canada had headed way, way down into South America, the same bird showed up today, March 19th on the same street in Aurora, in southern Ontario, where it has been a regular feature for so many months.   It is one of the farthest migrating raptors in North America and should have been in Southern America this winter.   But an early winter mild spell and little snow cover must have convinced it to press on hereabouts.   It wasn't until February of this year that the weather got really cold and a lot of snow was dumped on us over a period of several weeks.   But the intrepid Swainson's hung in there.   Others near to where I live saw the bird also and took photos of it during the middle of winter.   I have decided to nickname this bird 'Intrepid'.  Below is one of the photos I took of it last fall. 

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BarrytheBirder

First bird on my life-list...

                                                                                                   Photo by BarrytheBirder

BALD EAGLE

(Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Photo: Cold Creek Conservation Area, King Township

I recently updated my bird species life-list and my lifetime total is now 4,150 species.  The first bird on my life list, is the Bald Eagle.   I don't remember the exact date, but  I paid particular notice of seeing a Bald Eagle in the summer of 1960, while taking a ferryboat ride between the city of Vancouver in British Columbia and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.   It was part of a hitch-hiking trip across Canada, between Ontario and British Columbia and back again. with my best buddy at the time, Dan Buddin.   

It was a month-long road trip and included a 2-week stay at an uncle's ranch in southern Alberta during haying season.   Dan and I humped hay bales for long hours each day, followed by a swim in an irrigation ditch on my uncle's farm, followed by a huge dinner each night.   One of the dinners was a late-night beef barbecue on the ranchlands.   Those hard-working Alberta ranchers sure could consume a lot of steaks.   I was so full after the first steak, that I ended up throwing half of my second steak, over my shoulder, into the scrubland bushes behind us.

Dan and I did take a couple of 2-day train trips through the Rocky Mountains to the west coast and back again as part of the overall hitchhiking adventure. 

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Barry the Birder

2024 Canadian Wildlife

2024 Canadian Wildlife

 Photography of the Year Competition

Terrestrial Life - Winner: KEVIN AITKEN

A Black-billed Magpie swoops in to feed on ticks buried in the fur of a Plains Bison in Grasslands National Park in Saskachewan, Canada.   Apparently, the bison kept moving its posture to accommodate the magpie's work.

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BarrytheBirder

Wild Turkeys in Ontario...

                                                                            Photos by BarrytheBirder

The photos shown here are wintertime pictures of Wild Turkeys that I have taken near my home in southern Ontario.

The Canadian province of Ontario, on one of its current websites, declares that the eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is an important part of the province's biodiversity.

It goes on to say that unregulated hunting and clearing of native forest for agriculture

caused the regional extinction of wild turkeys from Ontario in 1909.   Efforts to successfully restore them began just over 40 years ago in 1984.   Ontario experienced  a rapid expansion of the number of birds across the province and because of forestry, agriculture and milder climatic conditions, the occupied rage of wild turkeys in Ontario is now larger than the former historical range.

Twenty years ago I would occasionally see a few of these huge birds on agricultural lands around King Township, North of of Toronto.   Twenty years later, I now see 50+ turkeys in flocks on a regular basis, all over King Township.

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BarrytheBirder 

Canada Goose looking for a nesting site?

 

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Here's a photo I took of a Canada Goose occupying a hollowed-out spot in a decaying maple tree.   I couldn't help but wonder if the goose thought this high-off-the-ground spot might be a secure place to create a nest.  Unfortunately, I did not get back to check it out.

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BarrytheBirder

Trumpeter Swan...

                                                                             Photo by BarrytheBirder

What creature is as white as shimmering snow?

A bird bigger than all of earth's other swans.

Its call is its name: Trumpeter Swan.

It partners with a mate for more than 20 years.

Like me it is mostly vegetarian.

Author unknown

                                                                                     Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder 

          Photo by Pat Cromie

Above is a new bird feeder I have installed on the 3rd floor balcony of my friend Pat Cromie's apartment at Delmanor Retirement Residence in Aurora, Ontario. No sooner had I filled it up when two House sparrows showed up to feed on the mixed seeds.   The photo above was taken by Pat.   This feeder will be on the same balcony where we installed two Hummingbird feeders last year and which were discovered quickly and used by 'hummers' all last summer and fall.   Previously, Pat had no feeders or birds on her balcony, so this year should be quite busy and interesting.   

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BarrytheBirder

Brown Booby off course...

 

                                                                   Photo: Cornell Lab All About Birds

This photo of a Brown Booby has just appeared on the Cornell Lab All About Birds website, in a feature called 'Best Bird Photos 2025'.   The photo was taken by Ryan Sanderson.    The Brown Booby is normally found in the Caribbean and South Florida.   The Cornell Lab draws attention to the Booby shaking water from itself like a dog shaking its head.   Neat photo, Ryan!

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BarrytheBirder

Animalium (large format picture book)

Exotic Birds

Illustrations by Katie Scott in pen and ink and coloured digitally.

Published 2014

1.   Ruby-throated Hummingbird

2.  Greater Bird-of-paradise

3.  Ruby-topaz Hummingbird (tropical South America)

4.  Rose-ringed Parakeet (West Africa to southeast Asia to Europe)

5.  Rosy-faced Lovebird (southwest Africa)

6.  Malee ring-neck Parrot (Australia)

7.  Red-breasted Toucan

8. Galah (Australia)

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BarrytheBirder

Robins arrive early in March...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder 

The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a thrush that typically arrives in Canada in early March, when daytime temperatures average 3 degrees Celsius.

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BarrytheBirder

Early spring - Vancouver Island - 12 years ago...

                                                                             Photos by Dave Kemp

        Rufous Hummingbird

I have been featuring bird photos by Dave Kemp from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in this space for many years.   I happened to be looking back at early spring blogs of mine recently and came across these fine Dave Kemp photos in a blog from March 28, 2013.   I thought I'd like to re-publish them here for your interest and pleasure.   

American Bittern

Marsh Wren

Red-winged Blackbird

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BarrytheBirder

What do Black-capped Chickadees eat?

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Black-capped Chickadees (Parus atricapillus) are quite common at backyard birdfeeders in southern Canada and in the northern United States, eating a wide assortment of seeds and nuts, including walnuts and peanuts, plus even some insect material.   They will also eat from the human hand (see above).  But as seen below, they are also to be found eagerly eating at suet feeders, especially in cold winter months.

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BarrytheBirder

Dave Kemp photos from Vancouver Island... 

   Long-tailed Duck

    Clangula hyemalis 

'Gone fishing'

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BarrytheBirder

Hybrid identity?

 

Any guesses as to what this late-winter Ontario bird mixture might be?

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BarrytheBirder

 ...now been publishing this birding blog for 18 years.

I am about to receive the 1.4 millionth hit on my BarrytheBirder blogsite.  Thanks for the response folks.  

I recently celebrated my 83rd birthday and I no longer have a drivers license, so I'm not getting out and about as much as I used to.   But I look forward to continuing to publish bird pictures and remarks about them.

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BarrytheBirder

First Hummingbird - last year...

This Macauley Library photo of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird is by Brian Kulvete

My partner Pat Cromie has informed me that the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird she recorded last year arrived on May 20 and the last 'hummer' was seen on September 5th.   It was Pat's reminder to me to get our two 3rd-floor balcony feeders ready for this springs' hummingbirds -- duly noted. 

 Early spring migrants in Ontario...

Red-winged Blackbird

I was asked this past week what the first birds were to arrive back in Ontario in the spring.  In fact, the inquirer thought maybe the Red-winged Blackbird was of the first.   Well, she was right.   The Red-winged Blackbird is one of the first.

By early to mid-march, in southern Ontario, one will also likely spot Robins, Tree Swallows, Killdeers, Song Sparrows, Grackles, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Meadowlarks and even Great Blue Herons.

Great Blue Heron

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BarrytheBirder

Interesting shot of a White-breasted Nuthatch...

 

                                                    Photo by Deborach Bifulco / Macauley Library

I was on the Cornell Lab website recently and spotted this photo above.   I'd never seen this bird in a pose such as this before, and was rather surprised at its much different appearance.

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BarrytheBirder

 Macauley Library ~ Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Sunbittern

(Eurypyga helias)

Photo by Dave Curtis

I was visiting the Macauley Library website recently and was struck by this stunning photo by Dave Curtis of a Sunbittern.

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BarrytheBirder

Bradenton, Florida Birds by Janis Parker

 

Northern Shoveler

The pictures here were taken by Florida photographer Janis Parker, using a Nikon 180-600 telephoto lens in Bradenton, Florida.   Bradenton is located in a large marshy area of Florida which is a perfect habitat for birds such as those pictured here.

Anhinga

Great Egret

Pelican

(with a lure and hook caught in its bill)

Red-shouldered Hawk

Night Heron

Purple Gallinule (Juvenile)

Green Heron

Boat-tailed Grackle

Male Breeding Anhinga

Roseate Spoonbill

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BarrytheBirder