Everyone's favourite time of year to go birdwatching is the spring, when sunshine seduces us out of our warm dens, and bright nest builders return from their tropical winter holidays. During the winter, many of us keep bird feeders full so we can watch from the warmer side of a living room window.
But many amateur fans of ornithology stay outdoors in droves through January and February. It's the best time of year to see some of North America's most colourful songbirds. By observing and keeping notes you can also help ornithologists understand some unusual migratory behaviour. Winter birding is full of surprises.
The spring behaviour of most bird species is fairly predictable. You can visit Canada's Point Pelee National Park on Lake Erie for a day or two in early May and with any luck at all see 100 different species. Every one of them is intent on getting to its summer breeding ground in time to build a nest and raise a family before heading south again.
By now many of those birds are keeping warm in the Caribbean, Central America, and as far away as the Amazon River Basin. Now the woodlands and backyards of Southern Canada, New England and The Midwest host a much different set of bird species. And settling down is far from their minds. They'll travel wherever and as far as they need to go to get food.
Many of these species are boreal, which means they spend the warm part of the year in Northern Canada, Alaska and even the Arctic regions of East Asia. One example is the Boreal Chickadee , cousin to the familiar Black-Capped Chickadee. You will need a good handbook like National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America to see the differences. As a teenager I once saw noticed Boreal Chickadees in a tree near my family's cottage and watched them a couple minutes before I realized they were different from what I was used to seeing. Unfortunately I have never seen this bird again.
Cedar Waxwings are a beautiful but often overlooked bird common across North America through most of the year. But during the winter watch for mixed flocks with Bohemian Waxwings , which have white and yellow markings on their wings. They nest in Northwestern Canada, but during winter stray from Western North America into the Midwest, Southern Ontario and as far as Maine. Likewise, flocks of
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