David Scott
davidrscott.bsky.social
David Scott
@davidrscott.bsky.social
Birder, photographer, author, and librarian based in Lethbridge, Alberta
If you've never seen coot feet, you really should make it your next priority. They are typically concealed underwater, as in this photo. I guess I can't blame them. Were I a coot, I would feel decidedly self-conscious.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
October 26, 2025 at 2:43 AM
This dozing Costa's Hummingbird is welcoming a little R&R after venturing from the Desert Southwest to Alberta, Canada. Here, she found a hospitable backyard still offering flowers and a feeder. But it won't serve as a refuge for long—winter is coming!

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
October 15, 2025 at 12:33 AM
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
September 29, 2025 at 1:43 AM
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
September 28, 2025 at 3:02 AM
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
September 21, 2025 at 2:25 AM
A Rufous Hummingbird fluffed up for a cool mountain morning.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
August 17, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Last night, a north wind brought in some boreal migrants, like this sprightly Canada Warbler!

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
August 15, 2025 at 1:38 AM
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
August 13, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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
August 11, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by David Scott
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 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪
August 8, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Lots of fledgling robins out and about, learning the ropes of being a bird.

#birds #Alberta
August 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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
August 5, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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
August 2, 2025 at 3:33 PM
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
August 2, 2025 at 1:15 AM
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
July 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM
A White-crowned Sparrow spies me from a small spruce.

#birds #Alberta
July 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
This morning, I came across a confiding Common Loon on a small mountain lake.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
July 15, 2025 at 1:12 AM
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
July 11, 2025 at 9:14 PM
A Violet-green Swallow eyes a suspicious photographer from a badlands snag. This is quite strictly a swallow of the west.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta
July 8, 2025 at 1:31 AM
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
June 18, 2025 at 6:29 PM
TIL what TIL means.
June 17, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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
June 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
A kaleidoscope of fritillaries had descended on this blossoming tree in Medicine Hat, #Alberta.

#bugs #invertebrates
June 12, 2025 at 9:42 PM
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
June 12, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Among my favourite places and times to bird in #Alberta is the boreal forest in early June. Virtually all of the breeding birds are back and busy, including the stunning Blackburnian Warbler.

#birds
June 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM