The Binocular Site
Banff National Park, Alberta
Banff National Park was Canada’s first official park, and the world’s third. Spanning across over 2500 square miles, the park includes glaciers, mountains, forests, meadows, and valleys.
Over 260 bird species have been recorded here, with summer and spring being the most productive seasons, particular between an hour before the sun rises through to 9 or 10am. Look for red-winged blackbirds, American robins, and violet-green swallows along with tree swallows in March through May. Robins, house sparrows, and starlings along with nutcrackers, pygmy owls, and Cassin’s finches, light the summer sky.
Finally in winter the house sparrows are found throughout the park, along with chickadees, nuthatches, and occasionally sharp-shined hawks. Within the cave and basin marsh migratory fowl make their home, including mallards, blue-winged and green-winged teals, snipe, killdeer, and Barrow’s goldeneye.
Lake Louise offers a spectacular birdwatching opportunity, and while here, you might wish to look for skiing and snowboarding trails, and hiking trails. Four mountain faces include 4200 rated skiable areas along with 113 named and marked trails. You can even ride the Grizzly Express Gondola, which holds six people at a time.
Also consider the area’s man-made attractions including five-star fine dining, elegant accommodations, and extensive shopping. See the Banff National Park website for more information.
The provincial bird of Alberta is the Great Horned Owl and you can find a birding checklist for Alberta here.
Photo credit to Alex Art, used with permission under the creative commons license.
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