David Scott

I took far too many photos of this confiding Ruby-crowned Kinglet. But, given how uncooperative these birds typically are, when you've got a good one, you take a life's-worth of photos, 'cause it may never happen again!

#birds #birdphotography

Great Egrets are rare in #Alberta, so they're always noteworthy when they turn up here. This bird, however, has earned special recognition, as it nested with a Great Blue Heron this past summer, producing four hybrid young!

#birds #birdphotography

I was happy to connect with a few of my favourite gulls today. I can never get enough of Sabine's Gulls' boldly patterned wings and yellow-tipped bills!

#birds #birdphotography

A Rufous Hummingbird fluffed up for a cool mountain morning.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

Typically, "armchair lifers" or "armchair ticks" refer to new species you can add to your list because a taxonomic authority has split a species into two or more new species, and you've seen two or more of those in the past. But getting life birds while seated works too, I suppose!

I'm enjoying that most commenters here are recalling occasions when they actually got a life bird while seated in a chair!

Last night, a north wind brought in some boreal migrants, like this sprightly Canada Warbler!

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

I don't often see Pine Grosbeaks during the summer months. Though, when I look this dishevelled, I try not be be seen. Perhaps grosbeaks are the same?

#birds

The fall songbird migration is on! A morning stroll in a local park turned up several birds passing through, including Western Tanager, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, and this Tennessee Warbler.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

A flyer for the book Bird Brains and Behavior: A Synthesis, written by Georg F. Striedter and Andrew N. Iwaniuk and published by MIT Press.

For everyone in Canada, I will be on Daybreak Alberta this Sunday morning talking about our new book on bird brains and behaviour.

It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social

#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪

Lots of fledgling robins out and about, learning the ropes of being a bird.

#birds #Alberta

Nondescript female and young Red-winged Blackbirds are often mistaken for other birds, such as sparrows. Identification is made somewhat easier, however, when they perch on cattails in wetland habitat!

#birds #birdphotography

It's estimated that 97% of the world's White-throated Sparrows breed in Canada. Is that why they sing "Oh-Sweet-Canada-Canada"? Americans may be more likely to render their song "Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody," but they're wrong, of course. ;)

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

I spotted a warbler ferrying insects to a thicket. Figuring I'd see a wee warbler, I peered into the vegetation, only to find this voracious behemoth—a cowbird chick. The way it spied me from its concealed perch, it was almost as if it knew it was the beneficiary of a dubious arrangement.

#birds

Alas, like the works of Ozymandias, these roots are a thing of the past across much of the prairies.

Yesterday, I was excited to have found a new-to-me bumble bee! I didn't.

Orange-legged Drone Fly
July 21, 2025
Lethbridge, #Alberta

#bugs #insects #bugsky #photography

A White-crowned Sparrow spies me from a small spruce.

#birds #Alberta

@aba.org Easily my most memorable encounter with the American Birding Association's bird of the year in 2025!

This morning, I came across a confiding Common Loon on a small mountain lake.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

No sooner had I sat down to snap some photos of longspurs and larks in the golden morning light than this ground squirrel scared them off. I'd have been upset at the little guy, but then he looked at me like this.

#birds #notabird #Alberta

Haha! I rather like that. Perhaps I'll submit a name-change proposal.

A Violet-green Swallow eyes a suspicious photographer from a badlands snag. This is quite strictly a swallow of the west.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

This fledgling grackle only left the nest a couple of days ago. It looks rather dozy here, but when an adult comes along with food, it'll perk right up!

#birds #birdphotography

TIL what TIL means.

It almost feels like cheating when a snipe sits atop a fence post and let's you photograph it from the car window.

Er, I mean, I definitely donned camo and crouched in a buggy wetland for several hours for this shot...

#birds #birdphotography

That's too sensible an observation to be given serious consideration by taxonomic authorities.

A kaleidoscope of fritillaries had descended on this blossoming tree in Medicine Hat, #Alberta.

#bugs #invertebrates

Yesterday, this bird became a blackbird. Or rather, it has been recategorized into the blackbird family. I'm sure the bird doesn't know it, let alone care, but it's at least exciting to taxonomists.

Yellow-breasted Chat
Medicine Hat, Alberta
June 11, 2025

#birds

That could be. It would make sense.

Yeah, Rocky certainly won't net one as many as northeastern Alberta will. That's interesting about the flycatchers.