European Robin in Montreal, Canada! ~ January 10, 2026

Jason Horn and his friend, Marjorie Keefe, had just returned from a trip to Argentina and Antarctica when I got a text from him asking if I had gone to see the European Robin that had been discovered in Montreal, Canada on January 7th. I hadn't. After a few phone calls between him and Marjorie setting up the plan, we met at Jason's house at 4:30 AM and began the roughly seven-hour drive to Montreal.

We arrived at Rougemont Avenue, where the bird was being seen, just before noon. There were around a hundred other birders lining the street looking for the bird that hadn't been seen since around 8:30. We headed down toward the corner where the cedars were that the bird had been photographed in several times yesterday. As we were walking down there, someone spotted the bird in a tree just above the tall, concrete wall. Within five minutes of arriving, I was photographing the European Robin! I got these photos despite the bird being backlit by the sun.

European Robin

I moved my position to where the bird was more side-lit and a dark telephone pole was in the background and got these shots of it before a squirrel chased it back behind the wall.

European Robin

We spent some time talking with some of the other birders. That's when I took these photos of a portion of the birders that still remained there along the street.

Some of the roughly one hundred birders present at the European Robin site.

We then drove to a nearby park where we were told a Boreal Owl was being seen. The trails were very icy. We spent some time there looking without any luck and then headed home. We stopped in Plattsburgh, New York to get something to eat, and then drove home through some snow and, later at times, heavy rain, and got back to Jason's house a little after 1:00 AM. It was a 'life bird' for me, getting me one closer to that elusive 900 species for the A.B.A. area.

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