Hello Ontario Birders, This is update two of four. This update will cover the last three weeks of December 2025. The Ontario Winter Brid list is at 184 species. This is up 23 species since the first week of December. New additions include a Glaucous-winged Gull found by Josh Vandermeulen and Jude Szabo. A Dickcissel was found by Rob Crawford in Brant County, and a Western Meadowlark was found by Ian Davidson in Ottawa.
The five species that I consider common but that we do not yet have for the 2025-2026 Winter bird list are Brant (seen in 16 of the last 18 years), Gray Partridge (18/18), Black Vulture (15/18), Gyrfalcon (18/18), and Varied Thrush (18/18). Let me know if you have seen these species. To give perspective, the final 2024-2025 list was 208, the 2023-2024 list was 226, and the 2022-2023 list was 218. The average number of species for the last 18 years is 208. This year's list is currently below the average total winter list species number. With the winter we're having, it might be difficult to reach 208 species. We still have two months left, so get out there and prove me wrong. Winter Listers can keep track of what's being seen in the Ontario Birds Discord <https://discord.com/invite/kdYPQBdQgy>or the OFO Discord <https://discord.com/invite/npbCzXVhZ2>. If you are interested in going out on an organized group trip or bird talk, the OFO is running these winter events: - Trip Report from Churchill Manitoba - Online Meeting January 7, 2026 - Winter Birds of the Detroit River - Windsor January 10, 2026 - Young Birds Camp 2026 - Zoom Meeting January 17, 2026 Make sure to register and note the dates on your calendars. You can register on the OFO website <http://www.ofo.ca/site/Tripsupcoming>. There are more events in 2026 that I have not listed above. The OFO also has tips on how to find winter birds here <http://www.ofo.ca/content/winter-birding/tips>. The winter list can be viewed here <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1umLIsr70JMC85hbAq82tryI1Jz55M8oRGxapWBr7dIc/edit?gid=0#gid=0>. I try to update the spreadsheet every couple of days or whenever I hear of a new addition. Please let me know if you hear of a new addition or any other correction to the spreadsheet. Happy New Year, Todd Hagedorn -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
