Bird counts still being tallied, but number of birders up in Great Backyard Count

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This article was published 02/03/2015 (3340 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Birders spotted 60 different species of birds fluttering around in Manitoba in the middle of winter.

And while we don’t know for sure what the most common bird here in Manitoba is at that time of year, we do know more birders were watching them.

Glen Cannings, of Bird Studies Canada, said on Tuesday that there were 136 participants in last month’s four-day Great Backyard Bird Count compared to 79 last year.

“That is a nice improvement,” Cannings said.

A total of 674 checklists were turned in by Manitobans during the Feb. 13-16 count. It was the 18th year the bird count was held, put on by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, with its partner Bird Studies Canada.

Cannings said he won’t know what was the most commonly seen bird in Manitoba — or the top 10 spotted — until the end of the month.

“People know there are house sparrows outside, but to see 60 different species, people would be surprised to see how many birds you can see in the dead of winter,” he said.

The count, expanded to countries around the world three years ago, saw the brambling, a Eurasian species, top the list, with that bird not only seen on the west coast of North America, but also Montana, Wyoming and Ontario. It reached the top of the list because one birder in Germany reported seeing a flock about one million strong at a site where up to three million congregate regularly.

In total, a record 147,265 bird checklists were turned in, but Cannings said even more would have been filled out if the eastern United States and Canada hadn’t been slammed by a snowstorm that weekend.

“It was amazing anyone from Prince Edward Island could even get out at all,” he said. “Canadian birders don’t mind the cold, but when you can’t drive it is restricting.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca