Meet the cold-loving birds researchers want your help to track

While people begin to enjoy the warmer temperatures, some birds are heading north to avoid them. 

Snow buntings are small black and white birds that thrive in temperatures below 12 C and as low as -60 C to -80 C. 

One researcher says there's not enough known about snow buntings, and he's calling on everyone to help. 

"They're truly amazing to watch," said Rick Ludkin. 

Ludkin is with the Haldimand Bird Observatory in Ontario, and helped set up the Canadian Snow Bunting Network. He was invited to Labrador by a woman in St. Lewis, then found help through the Snow Bunting Project Facebook group.

He decided to make the trip to teach people how to put small bands on the birds to help track them. It's important because birds are a visible way to study whether something is going on in an ecosystem, Ludkin said. 

"The changes to the arctic, as you well know, have been dramatic, and we need to find a way to assess what's going on, and snow buntings are a good way to do that," Ludkin said. 

"It's going to be very interesting to see over time what climate change, and especially climate change in the Arctic, does for them. Can they adapt fast enough to deal effectively with the change? We don't know," Ludkin said. "But that's why studies like this are going to be very helpful. Give us a clue."

Volunteer banders use small traps to snag the birds before gently setting them into "bird bags" to block out the light and calm the bird. Then they are weighed and measured. 

So far in Labrador, Happy Valley-Goose Bay's Carl Oldford has the record for the fattest bird at 54 grams. Oldford has been living in town for 53 years and in their current home for 47 years.

Oldford had a few seasons with barely any snow buntings, but now they are returning in droves. There can be up to 300 in total, with groups of 80 passing through, he said. 

"Every morning, first thing I do is look at the window," Oldford said. "We're feeding birds, we have swallows, robins, morning doves, we got woodpeckers, even got squirrels there. Jays, all kinds."

The snow buntings banded in southern Ontario and southern Quebec seem to be flying out along the St. Lawrence River up the coast of Labrador and into Greenland and potentially as far as the eastern Arctic, Ludkin said. He hopes to see them thrive long into the future. 

"My dream for these little birds is that they continue to thrive and be the thrilling presence that they are every winter," he said.