Eagles on Vancouver Island...

 Photos by Dave Kemp

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle Immature

Full B.C. moon

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Barry Wallace

My first Barred Owl photos...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Hereabout then are some of the first photos I ever took of a Barred Owl, near to where I lived in King City, Ontario, just north of Toronto, Ontario.   It was on November 30 of 2018, and I published them shortly thereafter in this blog space.   

Barred Owls (Strix varia) are seen only by those who seek them out in their dark retreats, usually thick groves of trees in lowland forests.   They rest quietly during the day, coming out at night to feed on rodents, birds, frogs, and crayfish.   If disturbed, they will fly easily from one grove of trees to another.

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BarrytheBirder

Tricoloured Heron (Egretta tricolor)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Tricolored Heron

This is a bird I most familiar with in the Yucatan Peninsula area of Mexico.   They have white bellies and forenecks that contrast with mainly dark blue upperparts.   Their bills are long and slender.   The birds in these photos were very accommodating to the dozens of tourist-photographers, like me, surrounding them. 

These birds were formerly known as the Louisiana Heron.  

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BarrytheBirder

Rufous-sided Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The Rufous-sided Towhee is a long-tailed robin-sized bird, that occurs widely in forest undergrowth, woodland edges and brushy areas.   It usually feeds on ground in underbrush, foraging noisily in leaf litter by kicking backwards with both feet,   It makes low, short flights from cover to cover.

Rufous-sided Towhees breed from southern British Columbia, east to southern Maine and south to California, northern Oklahoma, eastern Louisiana and Florida.   They winter from southern British Columbia and southern Massachusetts, to lower central U.S., primarily Texas.

Males are primarily black above with a black hood, contrasting with chestnut sides and white underparts.  Females are primarily brown above. 

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BarrytheBirder

Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae)

                                                                               Photo: Bird Bliss

The Lyrebird has been described as nature's ultimate impressionist.   It will mimic a multitude of sounds from other birds, to camera shutters, chainsaws and even car alarms, among others.

Lyrebirds are either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds in the genus Menura, and the family Menuridae.

Wikipedia says they are notable for mimicking a variety of of natural and artificial sounds from their environment, and for the striking beauty of the male's huge tail, especially when fanned out in courtship display.

Lyrebirds have unique plumes of subtly coloured tailfeathers and are among Australia's best-known native birds. 

Wikipedia Photo

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BarrytheBirder

Great White Egret (Ardea alba)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

I took the two photos, above and below, at few years ago at the expansive and well-known Luther Marsh, north-west of Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.  The Luther Marsh can be a bit of a hotspot in southern Ontario each year for Great Egrets.   

This elegant wader, with the a heavy yellow bill and black legs, can be found across the extreme lower reaches of Canada in summer and fall, and in eight or nine eastern U.S. states as well as  the eastern coastline of the U.S. from southern Canada, through Florida and down to Mexico, plus the coastlines of three western coast U.S states.

Egrets populations were decimated by hunting for their white feathers back about 1900, when their recovery was due largely thanks to the Audubon Society, a newly formed birding association at the time.

This bird is widely regarded as a form of the Great Blue Heron.

    

In the two photos above and below, A Great Blue Heron and and a Great White Egret encounter each other in a small pond in Aurora, Ontario, but the meeting quickly becomes a dispute.   In this encounter, the Great Blue Heron prevailed.

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BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)

                                                                     Photos by BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawks are normally found throughout the west half of the U.S.A., as well as the southern edge of Canada's prairie provinces and the northern edge of Mexico.   The pictures featured here were taken far to the east of that normal range, in southern Ontario on the northern edge of Lake Ontario.   It was second year that the Swainson's were seen in this spot.  The first year, 2024, is was a mated pair that were seen.   In 2025, it was presumably the same mated pair that showed up, and went on to raise four young hawks of their own.     \

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BarrytheBirder

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Common Tern

The Common Tern breeds from northern Alberta, Ontario and  Newfoundland, south to the Dakotas, Great Lakes (rare) and Gulf of St. Lawrence; as well as along the Atlantic Coast south to the Carolinas.  They winter in the tropics, rarely on the Gulf Cast.

Common Terns are medium-sized (14 1/2"), slender swallow-like tern with a blck cap and a deeply forked tail.   Their flight is swift and graceful.

They hover ands dive for small fish.

They nest  in large colonies on islands, beaches, sandbars, gravel banks, and occasionally marshes.   They lay their eggs in a simple scrape on open ground.  

They will vigorously attack predators and human intruders in their colonies, and may even strike with their bills!

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BarrytheBirder

Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers of forest and woodlands; often visiting gardens and residential areas and parks, but less often than Downy Woodpeckers.   They are found coas-to-coast across lower Canada, all of the USA and upper Mexico.

Foraging mainly on trunks and large branches of of trees, they are mainly insectivore, with over 75% of their diet consisting of larvae from wood-boring beetles, bark beetles, ants, and moths.   They also consume spiders, caterpillars, and, in winter, rely heavily on backyard suet, sunflower seeds, peanuts and tree nuts.   They forage by hammering and excavating trees to find insects.

The Hairy is approximately 50% larger than the Downy Woodpecker (9 1/4" to 6 3/4").

Hairy female

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BarrytheBirder

Why are Nighthawks (Nightjars) called goatsuckers?

 
Photo: Humans & Nature

Nighthawks are nicknamed 'goatsuckers" due to an ancient, mistaken belief that they used their small, wide-mouthed beaks to suck milk from goats at night,   This myth, which established their scientific family name Caprimulgidae (Latin for "goat-milker"), originated because these birds were often seen flying around livestock to eat the insects attracted to them.

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BarrytheBirder

Owl species in North America...19

                                                                                   Photos by Barry the Birder

Hawk Owl

                              Snowy Owl

There are 19 regularly occurring species of owls in North America (specifically Canada and the U.S.A.), ranging from the tiny Elf Owl to the large Great Grey Owl.   These birds are found across various habitats, including forests, deserts and grasslands.

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BarrytheBirder

Last birds in the field guide...

 

Eurasian Siskin

Masked Tityra

My 'New' National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, edited by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer has a section in the  back of the book entitled "Rarities from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe".   This section of the 431-page guide lists 85 species of birds.   The very last bird shown is the Eurasian Siskin (pictured above).

The Eurasian Siskin is a palearctic species with about six records from northeastern North America, but the origin of these has been questioned, with a male photographed at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon on June 23, 1983, being perhaps the most compelling.   The male is distinctive with a black forecrown and chin, olive above, and extensive yellow below.

The most striking, in appearance (for me), of the 85 listed rarities, is the Masked Tityra.   It is common from northwestern and northeastern Mexico. There is one record from south Texas park in 1990.   Males are pale gray above and whitish below with contrasting black on face, most of wings and thick subterminal tail band.   Bare skin on face and base of thick bill is pinkish red.

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BarrytheBirder

Mouning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

(Photos by BarrytheBirder)

The Mourning Dove is the most common and widespread native dove in North America, even more so than the Rock Dove (common city pigeon).   I recently wrote a blog in which I picked my top 10 favourite birds, but the Mourning Dove was not among them.   However, I have always felt an affinity for the Mourning Dove.   There is something about its soft muted colouring and its slow mournful cooing.   Also when it takes flight, its wings make a fluttering whistling noise and its voice is a slow mournful cooing: "cooowah, cooo, coo, coooo".  

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BarrytheBirder

Are Mute Swan feathers special?

                                                                    Photos by BarrytheBirder

Mute Swan featers are special due to their immense quantity (approximately 25,000), incredible insulating density, and waterproofing capabilities that protect them in cold, aquatic environments.   The pure white plumage is actually quite thin compared to others, but they are ptrotected by a thick, soft down layer underneath.   They are alsohistorically significant  as the source of "pen quills".

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BarrytheBirder

3 New Species on Christmas Bird Count...

 The Winter 2026 Edition of BIRDWATCH CANADA has recently published the results of the 125th Christmas Bird Count, which tallied 284 species.

Three species were new to the all-time 'CBC' list, including...

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird in Ontario

Photo: Brian Kulvete/ Macauley Library

Sage Thrasher in Saskatchewan

Photo: Bolsa Chica Land Trust

Steller's Sea Eagle in Newfoundland

Photo Source: Birdfoot

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BarrytheBirder

Snowy Owls on the Ravenshoe Sideroad......

Wikipedia photo

 I have tried all winter to get photos of Snowy Owls on the Ravenshoe Sideroad, south of Keswick, Ontario, with no success.   It is a perennial favourite spot with many birders in York Region to see "Snowies".   I recently net another birder on the Ravenshoe Sideroad who said he had not seen a Snowy there this winter also.

Below are photos of 'Snowies' I havwe photographed there in previous years...

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BarrytheBirder

Overall favourite birds of mine...

                                                                    Photos by Barry the Birder

Trumpeter Swan

I happened to be going through one of my field guides (National Geographic Society- Second Edition) recently and casually noted how many birds were my personal favorites.   I went back to the start of the guide and thumbed through the entire 464-page book.   I found myself picking 12 personal favourites:

1. Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator)

2. Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensus)

3. Common Loon (Gavia immer)

4. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

5. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

6. Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

7. Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

8. Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus)

9. Belted Kingfisher (Mega cerylealcyon)

10. Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

11. Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)

12. Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)

Great Horned Owl

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BarrytheBirder

Old Farmer's Almanac - birds of the month...

 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The Old Farmer's Almanac stated that certain bird species with their unique characteristics, were chosen to represent the 12 birth months of the year.  In colder northern regions, some associate December, my birth month, with hardy winter visitors like the Snow Buntings (one of my personal favourites), a species celebrated for its resilience and ability to thrive in extreme conditions.  But with its vivid red plumage standing out against bare branches and winter snow, the Northern Cardinal is a powerful symbol of vitality, warmth and loyalty.

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BarrytheBirder

Nature Canada - March, 2026 - Gadwall

Photo by Daniel Petterson / Macauley Library

Gadwall (Anas Strepera)

Gadwalls are found in southern Canada, across the U.S. and Mexico.   They are fairly common in the west, less common in the east.   Their widespread breeding range appears to be expanding eastward.   Males are mostly gray, with white belly, black tail coverts, pale chestnut on wings.

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BarrytheBirder

Common Loon (Gavia immer) should be Canada's officially designated bird

Photo by Christian Hagenlocher / Macauley Library

The Common Loon was adopted as the Official Bird of the Canadian Province of Ontario in 1994.   It was also designated the State Bird of Minnesota in 1961.   In my humble opinion, it should also be the 'Official Bird' of Canada.

It is found across Canada from British to Columbia to Newfoundland and north to parts of some the arctic islands in the breeding season.   It is found across the U.S.A in migration.   It is also found along the western North American coastlines from Alaska to Mexico and on the eastern North American coastlines from Labrador  to Mexico.

It is an extremely attractive and large bird - length 32' (81 cm).

If for no other reason, however, it is the call of the Common Loon that makes it my choice as Canada's national bird.   There is no other wild bird call like the Common Loon's inimitable loud yodel; the call that has mesmerized me, and countless others, on so many canoe trips in Ontario's Algonquin Park and elsewhere.

Their is no current national bird in Canada.   

In 2015, Canadian Geographic magazine announced a project to select a national bird for Canada.   Readers voted in an online poll for their favourite bird.   The top five selections were  the Common Loon and the Canada Jay, Snowy Owl, Canada Goose and Black-capped Chickadee.

The project's announced winner was the small, plain looking Canada Jay, a bird whose territory does not cover as much of Canada as the Common Loon.   Its organizers hoped for the Canadian government to formally recognize the choice, but the Department of Canadian Heritage said no new official symbol proposals were being considered at the time.   Eleven years later, there is still no officially designated Canadian national bird.

Hope springs in my heart eternally for the Common Loon!

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BarrytheBirder