How long can bird poop sit on car paint before it causes permanent damage in Calgary?

On bare clear coat in Calgary summer conditions, the safe-removal window is roughly 10–15 minutes on a south-facing panel in direct sun (typical hood surface temp 60–70°C in July), 4–8 hours on a shaded panel under 25°C, and 24–48 hours absolute outer bound in mild overcast conditions. Bird droppings — Calgary's dominant car-paint hazard from resident magpies — are acidic in the rough pH 3–5 range (comparable to vinegar) and contain water-insoluble uric acid that grips the clear coat's pore structure as it dries. The Calgary climate accelerates etching faster than most cities: low summer humidity (often under 30%) hardens droppings into an abrasive calcium-grit crust within an hour, and Chinook freeze-thaw cycles in spring and fall concentrate uric-acid acidity by crystallizing the water out overnight. The 48-hour rule is the outside bound — most permanent etching happens far sooner. If you find dried droppings on a hot panel, treat it as Level 2 damage immediately.

Why do magpies in Calgary target cars so aggressively in spring and summer?

Calgary has one of the densest urban black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) populations in Canada — fed by year-round alley garbage, dog kibble left in yards, and the mature spruce and elm canopy of inner-city neighbourhoods. Three magpie behaviours concentrate damage on cars: territorial display behaviour (magpies perch on or near side mirrors and windshields for extended periods during the April–June fledging season, dramatically increasing dropping density on those zones), communal roosting on power lines over driveways and back-alley parking pads, and post-foraging digestive timing — magpies typically defecate within 20–40 minutes of feeding on alley garbage or carrion, so cars parked under perches near food sources accumulate droppings on a predictable schedule. The highest-density nesting neighbourhoods in Calgary include Mount Royal, Elbow Park, Britannia, Bowness, Inglewood, Bridgeland, and Mission — all areas with mature canopy and active back-alley life. Magpie nests are protected under Alberta's Wildlife Act when active, so removal by the City or pest control is not permitted from approximately April through July.

Are magpie droppings worse for car paint than other Calgary birds (crows, sparrows, gulls)?

Yes — and noticeably so. Three factors make magpie droppings the most damaging to Calgary clear coat. First, diet: magpies are omnivorous scavengers eating alley garbage, dog kibble, and small carrion, so their droppings contain higher concentrations of calcium-rich bone grit and undigested seed shells that abrade the clear coat during removal. Second, volume: corvids defecate more frequently than smaller songbirds, often every 20–40 minutes after feeding, so each strafing event from a magpie roost delivers more total material per hour than a comparable sparrow flock. Third, viscosity and bonding: magpie droppings have a thicker mucilaginous binder than sparrow or starling waste, which adheres harder to vertical surfaces and dries into a stubborn crust. Crows produce similarly damaging droppings but in lower density than Calgary's magpie population. Gulls (Bow River, Glenmore Reservoir) are seasonally worse near water but rare in residential driveways. The practical takeaway: if your car is parked anywhere near a Calgary alley, mature spruce, or downtown power line, magpies are the species you are protecting against.

Does ceramic coating actually protect cars from bird droppings, or will the paint still etch underneath?

A quality ceramic coating meaningfully extends the safe-removal window from minutes to roughly 24–48 hours under Calgary summer conditions, but it is not infinite protection. The hydrophobic, non-porous SiO2 surface prevents uric acid from making intimate contact with the microscopic pore structure of the clear coat — the dropping sits on top of the coating rather than seeping in. In practical terms, a coated car that gets bombed at 8am can usually be washed off at 6pm with a standard pH-neutral car wash and no damage. The same dropping on bare paint at 8am on a hot Calgary panel is often etched by lunchtime. However: ceramic is sacrificial. The acid attack degrades the topmost layer of the coating over weeks of repeated exposure, and a coating that gets repeatedly bombed in the same spot (e.g., a regular parking pad under a power line) will need a refresh sooner than the manufacturer-rated lifespan. The combination most Calgary owners use is a ceramic coating on the full vehicle plus PPF on the hood and roof if magpies are the dominant local threat — that pairing eliminates the etching risk entirely on the highest-impact horizontal panels.

Will PPF (paint protection film) fully protect my car from bird droppings under magpie nests?

Yes — on the panels it covers, PPF effectively eliminates bird-dropping etching risk. Modern self-healing PPF (XPEL Ultimate Plus, 3M Scotchgard Pro Series, SunTek Reaction) has a urethane topcoat that uric acid cannot chemically bond to the clear coat through. The film itself can hold a faint yellow shadow if heavy droppings sit on it for days under direct sun, but the paint underneath is unaffected; minor surface staining on the film often fades with continued sun exposure over weeks, while deeper staining is best removed by replacing the affected film panel. For Calgary owners parked under a magpie nest or back-alley power line, the most cost-effective coverage map is hood, roof, mirrors, and front trunk lid — the horizontal surfaces where droppings dwell longest and where summer heat is most concentrated. Front-end PPF alone (bumper, hood, fenders) catches about 70% of typical magpie strafing damage; adding roof and mirror coverage catches the remaining 25–30%. If a covered panel does discolour permanently after years of magpie exposure, the film can be replaced ($150–650 per panel) without touching the original paint underneath.

What is the safe way to remove dried magpie droppings from car paint without scratching?

On unprotected paint, the procedure is short and order matters. First, cool the panel — move the car into shade or a parkade and wait 20–30 minutes until the surface is no longer hot to the touch (below 30°C). Working in direct Calgary sun is the most common cause of failed removal. Second, soften the dried dropping with a microfibre cloth soaked in lukewarm water — drape it over the spot for 5–10 minutes, do not scrub. Third, after softening, gently lift the bulk of the dropping with the soaked microfibre folding to a clean section for each pass. Never wipe back and forth — that drags the calcium grit and bone fragments across the clear coat and causes scratch swirls. Fourth, apply a pH-neutral quick-detail spray (Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer, Chemical Guys Speed Wipe, or Adam's Detail Spray, all stocked at Canadian Tire Calgary) and lift any remaining film with a clean microfibre. Fifth, inspect in direct sun at a 45° angle. If you see a faint halo, dimpling, or rainbow sheen, the clear coat is etched and needs a professional paint correction. Never use razor blades, baking-soda paste (it abrades the clear coat), WD-40 (silicone residue interferes with future ceramic coating bonding), or household solvents like acetone or paint thinner.

Can I fix bird-dropping etching at home, or do I need a professional paint correction in Calgary?

It depends on the etching depth, which falls into three levels. Level 1 — a faint outline ring with no texture change — usually polishes out with a hand-applied finishing compound (Meguiar's Ultimate Compound or Sonax Perfect Finish) plus a microfibre pad, 10–15 minutes per spot, total DIY cost under $40 in supplies. Level 2 — a visible halo with slight dimpling you can feel with a fingernail — needs machine polishing with a dual-action polisher and a cutting compound, work most Calgary owners are not equipped for. Independent Calgary detailers typically charge $79–149 for a single spot correction, $349–649 for a full panel, $1,200–2,000 for a full-vehicle paint correction. Level 3 — visible dull patches where the clear coat is etched through to the colour layer — cannot be polished out without going through the clear coat entirely. The only fix is a single-panel repaint ($1,500–3,500 in Calgary 2026 body shop pricing) with the colour-match challenges that come with it. The decision tree we use at the shop: if the etch is visible at a 45° glance in direct sun and you can feel texture change with a fingernail, book a paint correction estimate before you make it worse with DIY polish.

Magpie Bird Droppings on Car Paint: Calgary 2026 Guide

TL;DR — Quick Answer

Bird poop damage to Calgary car paint — especially from resident black-billed magpies — etches unprotected clear coat in as little as 10–15 minutes on a hot hood (60–70°C in July sun), 4–8 hours in shade, and a 24–48 hour outer bound under mild conditions. Bird droppings are acidic (roughly pH 3–5, comparable to vinegar) and contain water-insoluble uric acid plus calcium-rich grit that gouges the clear coat during careless removal. The protection stack that actually works in Calgary: ceramic coating ($799–1,499) extends the safe-removal window to 24–48 hours; front-end PPF plus roof coverage ($1,499–2,499) eliminates etching risk entirely on the panels magpies bomb most. For DIY removal — cool the panel below 30°C first, soak with warm water for 10 minutes, lift with microfibre in one direction, never use razor blades, baking soda, WD-40, or household solvents. The 48-hour rule is the outer bound, not the target — in a Calgary July, you have minutes.

Mid-June through August, Calgary detail shops field the same call several times a week: a Mount Royal or Inglewood owner walks out of the alley on a sunny morning and finds three white-and-grey smears already drying on the hood of an otherwise pristine SUV. By the time they look closer at lunch, the smear has been rinsed off — but a dull halo remains in the clear coat. This guide is what we tell those callers, and what every Calgary driver parked under a tree, alley power line, or downtown light standard needs to know about magpie droppings, the 48-hour rule, and the protection stack that actually solves it.

From Our Calgary Bay

Mid-June through early August is when our paint correction bookings spike — and roughly seven out of ten of those jobs trace back to a magpie or crow drop sitting on a hot hood for an afternoon. The pattern is consistent enough that we now ask new customers two questions before quoting: where do you park, and how close is the nearest mature spruce or alley power line? The answers usually tell us whether a ceramic refresh is enough or whether we need to recommend hood-plus-roof PPF to break the cycle.

Reviewed by Calgary PPF Pros — Consumer Choice Award winner, protecting Calgary vehicles since 2021.

The 48-Hour Rule (And Why Calgary Sun Cuts It to Minutes)

The 48-hour rule that every detailer quotes is the outer bound for a dropping sitting on a cool panel in mild conditions — not the target. Bird droppings are corrosive for one core reason: uric acid. Unlike mammalian urea, uric acid is essentially water-insoluble, which is why hosing alone fails to clean it and why the acid stays in contact with the clear coat as the water flashes off. Calgary's climate accelerates the reaction harder than most cities, for three specific reasons that no other detailer page covers.

First, surface temperature. A black or dark blue hood in direct Calgary July sun routinely hits 60–75°C surface temperature by mid-morning even when ambient air sits at a moderate 22°C — Calgary sits at 1,048 metres with UV intensity roughly 10–12% higher than at sea level (see our Calgary altitude and paint damage guide for the underlying physics), which drives panel temps well past the threshold where uric-acid etching turns from hours-scale to minutes-scale. Second, humidity. Calgary's summer humidity often drops under 30%, which dries droppings into a hardened calcium-grit crust within roughly an hour — a coating that abrades the clear coat as soon as anyone attempts to wipe it off without softening first. Third, Chinook freeze-thaw. In spring and fall, overnight temperature swings of 15–25°C crystallize moisture out of droppings, concentrating the uric-acid acidity into a more aggressive residue by morning. None of the generic "48-hour rule" articles ranking on page 1 of Google factor for any of these effects.

10–15 min

Hot Panel Etch

~3–5

Bird-Dropping pH

60–75°C

Hood Temp (July sun)

Near Zero

PPF Etch Risk

The Etching Timeline by Panel Temperature

Panel Temperature	Safe Removal Window	Damage at Outer Bound	Calgary Real-World Match
Under 20°C (overcast / morning shade)	24–48 hours	Faint outline ring, polishes out	May overcast morning, indoor parkade pickup
20–30°C (mild shade)	4–8 hours	Halo + slight dimpling, needs polish	Late afternoon shaded driveway, June
30–45°C (light sun, light paint)	1–4 hours	Visible etch ring, needs paint correction	White vehicle, summer morning, partial sun
45–60°C (direct sun, mid-temp paint)	20–60 minutes	Etched into clear coat, may need single-panel polish	Silver/grey vehicle, July noon
60–75°C (direct sun, black/dark blue)	10–15 minutes	Permanent etch likely, panel-level correction	Dark vehicle on south-facing driveway, July afternoon

Why the 48-Hour Rule Misleads Calgary Owners

If you take the generic "48 hours is safe" advice at face value and leave a magpie drop on a black hood through a July workday, you are nearly guaranteed permanent etching by 5pm. The 48-hour figure was developed in moderate-climate, lower-altitude conditions — not Calgary summer. Treat any dropping you see as a same-shift problem in the warm months. The cost of removal is essentially zero; the cost of correction is $79–649 per panel.

Why Calgary Magpies Are the Real Threat

The black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) is Calgary's dominant car-damaging corvid. Three of its biological and behavioural traits make it the most aggressive paint-damaging bird Canadian drivers regularly encounter — meaningfully worse than sparrows, starlings, or even crows.

Diet — alley garbage and bone grit

Magpies are omnivorous scavengers eating dog kibble left in yards, alley refuse, small carrion, and crushed-shell calcium from gravel. The droppings carry a higher load of undigested bone fragments and shell grit than typical songbirds, which abrades the clear coat during careless removal. Wiping a dried magpie drop without softening is a guaranteed scratch event.

Territorial display behaviour (April–June)

During fledging season Calgary magpies react to their own reflection on side mirrors, windshields, and chrome trim — perching on or near these surfaces for extended bouts of display. The behaviour concentrates droppings around mirrors and door pillars at much higher density than elsewhere on the vehicle. Owners in Mount Royal, Britannia, and Bowness regularly find clusters of fresh waste on mirrors and front fenders during spring.

Communal roosting on alley power lines

Magpies roost communally on power lines running over Calgary back alleys — exactly above where most inner-city homeowners park on rear pads. Communal roost waste accumulates predictably overnight, so cars parked unprotected in alleys in Inglewood, Bridgeland, Mission, Hillhurst, or Sunnyside collect repeat strikes on the same panels week after week. The cumulative damage hits the same square foot of clear coat dozens of times per summer.

Calgary Neighbourhoods Ranked by Magpie Density

Neighbourhood	Why High Risk	Risk Level	Best Defence
Mount Royal / Elbow Park / Britannia	Mature elm + spruce canopy, alley garbage, dog yards	Very High	PPF hood + roof + mirrors, ceramic full body
Bowness	Older spruce/poplar canopy, alley parking, Bow River corridor	Very High	PPF hood + roof, ceramic full body, weekly rinse
Inglewood / Bridgeland / Ramsay	Alley parking pads, mature trees, restaurant garbage	High	PPF hood + roof, ceramic
Hillhurst / Sunnyside / West Hillhurst	Communal alley roosts, dense canopy, foot traffic	High	PPF hood, ceramic, garage when possible
Mission / Cliff Bungalow	Power-line roosting above pad parking, mature trees	High	PPF hood + roof, ceramic
Crescent Heights / Renfrew	Older canopy, alley parking, magpie nests in spruce	Moderate–High	PPF hood, ceramic
Suburban communities (Auburn Bay, Mahogany, Cranston)	Newer canopy, fewer mature trees, less alley life	Low–Moderate	Ceramic coating, garage parking
Downtown / Beltline parkades	Underground or covered parking removes overhead exposure	Low	Ceramic coating sufficient

Risk ratings reflect Calgary PPF Pros field experience with customer drop-off contamination, cross-referenced against Calgary's published urban-canopy mapping. Magpie nests are protected under Alberta's Wildlife Act while active (roughly April through July) — see the Alberta Wildlife Act overview for current rules on nest removal.

What Actually Stops Bird-Dropping Etching

The protection hierarchy for uric-acid etching follows the same surface-chemistry physics as every other Calgary summer contaminant — hydrophobicity and pore-blocking, the mechanism we broke down in our explainer on how ceramic coatings work. What changes with bird droppings specifically is the acidity vector: pH 3.5–4.5 attacks the topmost protective layer faster than the alkaline contaminants we usually wrestle with, which is why wax-based protection fails so quickly under repeated magpie strikes.

Surface	Safe Contact Window (hot panel)	Outcome After 24h in Sun	Cleanup Difficulty
Bare clear coat	10–15 minutes	Permanent etch, panel correction	High — solvent + polish
Carnauba wax (4–8 weeks old)	15–45 minutes	Light etch, polish required	Moderate — wax fails fast on acid
Synthetic sealant (3–6 months old)	2–6 hours	Possible halo, light correction	Moderate
Professional ceramic coating	24–48 hours	Standard wash clears it	Low — pH-neutral shampoo
PPF (XPEL Ultimate / 3M Scotchgard Pro / SunTek)	Indefinite	Standard wash; faint stains fade with sun	Very Low — wash only

The honest comparison: why wax fails against bird-dropping acid in a Calgary summer comes down to thickness and pH tolerance — a 0.5-micron wax layer simply does not survive repeated pH 3.5 attacks the way a 2-micron ceramic does. For drivers parked under magpie territory, the practical question is whether ceramic alone is enough or whether front-end-plus-roof PPF is required. The deciding factor is parking location and panel temperature exposure.

The Pros

Ceramic coating ($799–1,499) extends safe-removal window from minutes to 24–48 hours — the single highest ROI move for most Calgary owners
PPF on hood, roof, and mirrors ($1,499–2,499) eliminates etching risk entirely on the panels magpies bomb most
Park in a garage or under cover during peak magpie activity hours (5am–9am, 5pm–9pm in summer)
Weekly rinse during summer — three-minute coin-wash visit between full washes breaks the bonding cycle on coated cars
Same-day cleanup when you spot a drop — cost is minutes, savings is hundreds of dollars in correction

The Cons

Razor blades on dried droppings — guaranteed scratch and the calcium grit will leave swirl marks across half the panel
Baking-soda paste — abrasive on modern soft clear coats, can dull the surface even when it removes the dropping
WD-40 — silicone residue interferes with future ceramic coating bonding, and the smear marks need a separate decontamination pass
Household solvents (acetone, paint thinner, gasoline) — dissolve clear coat as fast as they dissolve uric acid
Brush-style automatic car washes on dried droppings — drag the calcium grit across the rest of the panel and embed it into fresh clear coat

The Safe Removal Procedure (Calgary Bare Paint)

If you catch droppings within an hour of contact on unprotected paint, the safe removal procedure takes about ten minutes. The key insight: dwell time matters more than scrubbing pressure, and panel temperature matters more than either.

Cool the panel first. Move the car to shade, a parkade, or a garage. Wait 20–30 minutes until surface temperature drops below 30°C (panel should no longer feel hot to the touch). Working in direct Calgary sun is the single largest cause of failed DIY removal — the solvent flashes off before it can soften the uric acid.
Soften the dropping with warm water. Drape a microfibre cloth soaked in lukewarm (not hot) water over the dropping. Leave it for 5–10 minutes. Do not scrub during this step. The water rehydrates the uric acid and lifts the calcium grit off the clear coat surface so it can be lifted away rather than dragged across the paint.
Apply pH-neutral quick-detail spray. Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer, Chemical Guys Speed Wipe, or Adam's Detail Spray — all stocked at Canadian Tire Calgary locations. Spray onto the softened spot, do not rub.
Lift in one direction with a clean microfibre. Fold the cloth to a clean section for each pass. Never wipe back-and-forth — that drags the abrasive grit across the clear coat. If the dropping resists, re-soak and dwell longer; do not increase pressure.
Rinse and inspect. Light rinse with a pH-neutral car shampoo, dry with a clean microfibre, then inspect at a 45° angle in direct sun. If you see a faint outline, halo, dimpling, or rainbow sheen, the clear coat is etched and needs correction — stop and book a detailer assessment before making it worse.
Reapply protection. Spot-apply a quick-ceramic spray (Adam's Ceramic Spray, Turtle Wax Hybrid Ceramic, Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Spray) over the cleaned area to re-establish hydrophobic protection on the affected panel.

If the Dropping Is Dried Hard (Several Hours+ in Sun)

Increase the warm-water soak to 15–20 minutes. Add a dedicated bird-and-insect remover (Stoner Spot Free Bird Dropping Remover, Wizards Bug & Tar) as a second softening pass after the water soak. Resist the temptation to scrape with a plastic spatula until the dropping is fully hydrated — premature mechanical removal is how hard-edge scratches happen. If after two soaking passes the dropping still resists, you are now looking at Level 2 damage at minimum; stop and book a paint correction estimate. Calgary detailer spot correction runs $79–149 for a single dropping etch; full panel runs $349–649; full vehicle paint correction runs $1,200–2,000.

The Damage Severity Triage (CAD 2026)

When customers send us photos before booking, we triage by severity. Use this matrix to decide whether you are looking at a DIY job, a detailer visit, a paint correction, or a single-panel respray.

Severity	Visual	Removal Cost (CAD)	Time Window
Level 1 — Fresh, surface only	Wet/recent, no halo, lifts with light pressure	DIY: $0 in time + microfibre	0–60 minutes, cool panel
Level 2 — Dried film	Hard crust, faint outline ring after lift	Detailer: $79–149 spot	1–6 hours under sun
Level 3 — Etched halo	Visible ring, slight dimple feel under fingernail	Paint correction: $349–649 panel	6–48 hours under sun
Level 4 — Through clear coat	Dull patch, no gloss, colour layer visible	Single-panel respray: $1,500–3,500	48 hours+ in heavy sun

Pricing reflects 2026 Calgary market averages from independent detail shops and ICBC-rated body shops. For broader paint-correction economics context, see our companion piece on rock chip protection economics.

The Calgary Magpie-Zone Protection Stack

For owners parked anywhere near a Calgary alley, mature spruce, or downtown power line, the protection economics favour a layered approach. Here's what we typically recommend in priority order for a daily-driven vehicle in the magpie-density neighbourhoods listed above.

Layer	What It Solves	Cost (2026 Calgary)	Lifespan
Front-end PPF (hood, fenders, bumper, mirrors)	~70% of typical magpie strafing damage on horizontal panels	$1,299–1,799	8–10 years
Roof PPF add-on	Remaining ~25–30% — magpies drop most on the highest horizontal surface	$399–699	8–10 years
Ceramic coating (full vehicle)	Vertical panels, doors, trunk — extends wash window to 24–48 hours	$799–1,499	2–5 years
Maintenance ceramic spray (quarterly)	Restores hydrophobics worn by repeated acid attacks	$60–90 per visit	3–4 months
Same-shift cleanup habit	Catches the 70% of strikes that protective layers do not stop	Free (microfibre + detail spray)	Per-event

For the deeper logic on hood-versus-full-coverage PPF decisions, see full-front vs partial-front PPF. For ceramic coating durability under repeated contaminant exposure, see is ceramic coating worth it for Calgary daily drivers.

A Magpie-Season Weekly Routine

For Calgary drivers in high-magpie-density neighbourhoods, a short structured routine eliminates most preventable damage during the May–September peak window. The cost is roughly 15 minutes per week.

Daily glance (30 seconds): Before leaving for work, walk around the hood, roof, and side mirrors. Anything visible gets removed before driving anywhere.
Mid-week rinse (3 minutes): Touchless coin-wash visit, garden hose, or a quick wipe-down with a ceramic spray. Breaks the bonding cycle on coated vehicles and catches the cumulative dust from alley-pad parking.
Weekend full wash (45 minutes): pH-neutral two-bucket wash. Pay extra attention to mirrors, A-pillars, hood leading edge, and roof — the panels magpies hit hardest.
After any extended outdoor parking (post-work dinner, downtown event, summer festival): Walk the hood before driving home. The 10-minute hot-sun window matters most in July and August.
Quarterly ceramic refresh: Top up the hydrophobic layer with a quick-ceramic spray on a freshly washed vehicle. Restores protection that thirty consecutive hot days will degrade.

The Calgary-Specific Twist: Magpies + Cottonwood Season Overlap

One pattern no other detailer page covers: Calgary's resident magpies nest predominantly in the same mature poplar and cottonwood trees that release their seed fluff and sticky resin from late May through July. The result is a compounding double-hazard window — the cottonwood fluff and resin sit on the hood as a contaminant net while magpie droppings land on top of the fluff, where the acid concentration is amplified by the trapped moisture. We covered this dynamic from the tree side in our cottonwoods that magpies nest in guide.

The practical implication is the same: if your car parks under a Calgary cottonwood between late May and mid-July, you are facing both threats simultaneously, and the protection stack needs to address both — front-end-plus-roof PPF plus a maintenance ceramic refresh, ideally booked before mid-June so the film and coating are fully cured before peak magpie and cottonwood activity overlap.

Stop Magpie Etching Before It Starts

Free 15-minute consultation. We'll review your neighbourhood, parking pattern, and vehicle colour, then recommend the right combination of front-end paint protection film for the panels magpies hit hardest, professional ceramic coating in Calgary to extend your safe-removal window, and pre-summer decontamination to clear winter mag-chloride residue that accelerates etching. Calgary AB. Consumer Choice Award winner. 10-year manufacturer-backed warranty.

Front-End PPF from $1,299 Book a Magpie-Zone Detail

Magpie Bird Droppings on Car Paint: Calgary 2026 Guide

The 48-Hour Rule (And Why Calgary Sun Cuts It to Minutes)

The Etching Timeline by Panel Temperature

Why the 48-Hour Rule Misleads Calgary Owners