A Lazuli Bunting, photo by Bruce Di Labio on February 4, 2019.
© BRUCE DILABIOA Lazuli Bunting, photo by Bruce Di Labio on February 4, 2019.
When Denise Smith spotted a songbird on her backyard feeder, she wasn't prepared for how rare it would turn out to be, or for having her home staked out by enthusiastic birders.

The lazuli bunting is a little fluffball from the southwestern United States. It is the eleventh time the species has been spotted in Ontario, and its first time in winter anywhere in Canada. It should be in Mexico now.

Now the power of listservs — an electronic mailing list for subscribers — has kicked in, bringing birders from all over Ottawa with cameras and binoculars.

More are expected on the weekend, when they have time to drive up from Southwestern Ontario. Others are expected from southern Quebec and the northern United States for what birders call a "megatick," or very rare sighting.

The situation has the Smith family on one side, saying they are tired of people pointing binoculars at their house, and birders on the other side, saying they are on public property and just innocently watching a bird.

The bunting, to make things worse, shows up for a couple of minutes and then disappears for hours. That means birders are staked out for hours at a time.

It began innocently. Smith shot a photo of the bunting more than a week ago and emailed it to someone asking what it was. Turned out the little fellow was rare, and word got around in the ultra-connected online birding world where any rare sighting is posted and draws a crowd quickly.

Lazuli Bunting Range Map
Lazuli Bunting Range Map
(Read more here)