A bird sighting rare in North America is drawing crowds from across the country, all hoping to catch a glimpse of a small robin that has made Montreal its temporary home.
The bird was found on Jan. 7 by Sabrina Jacob, an amateur birder for more than six years. Jacob says she was simply taking out the garbage when she heard a chirp she didn’t recognize.
“One of my friends, he recognized it and told me what it was, and we were all in shock,” Jacob said.
She says she stopped what she was doing and managed to catch a fleeting moment of the bird on her phone.
“I just put down my garbage. I got out my phone and the bird just came in front of me for one second,” she said.
Jacob posted photos and videos in online birding communities to ask for help identifying the species.
Many confirmed the sighting as a European robin, a bird common in Europe but never before documented in Canada. Meanwhile, some users online were very skeptical, questioning whether the images were real or generated by artificial intelligence.
“After some people came and saw it, it just, the storm just began to be bigger and bigger,” Jacob said.
Since then, the bird has remained in the area, drawing crowds that sometimes reach into the hundreds. Birders have travelled from as far away as British Columbia. Everyone quietly gathers along the street in hopes of not scaring it off.
Toronto birder Jean Iron made the trip to Montreal to see the robin for herself, describing the experience as unforgettable.
“It’s just a feeling of awe,” Iron said.
How the bird managed to cross the Atlantic remains a mystery. York University professor Gail Fraser says there are a few possibilities, but no definitive answers.
“Birds do get moved outside of their natural range through big storms,” Fraser said.
As for whether the robin can survive a Canadian winter, Fraser says it’s not impossible, noting that the species is made up of versatile eaters.
For now, Jacob says she is helping feed the bird in hopes it will gain enough strength to eventually migrate somewhere with a less harsh winter.
