An Overview of the Canadian Landbird
Monitoring Strategy
C. M. Downes
Abstract—In 1992, Canada formally agreed to work toward retention of its biological diversity upon signing the Convention on
Biological Diversity in Rio de Janeiro. Recently, data from a number
of studies have documented long-term declines in populations of
some species of landbirds. In response to the growing concern over
landbirds and the need for data to develop sound conservation
plans, the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) developed the Canadian Landbird Monitoring Strategy (in consultation with other
federal government departments, provincial/territorial governments,
and non-government organizations). The Strategy is intended as a
stepping stone toward a more effective system for monitoring
landbirds in Canada. It provides a framework to integrate monitoring activities that are conducted by both government and conservation organizations, and recommends a suite of surveys selected to
provide data on the status, population trends, and population
dynamics of landbirds. Such an approach has proved successful in
encouraging cooperation and communication among organizations,
promoting the thorough evaluation of survey techniques, identification of data gaps, and the development of regional monitoring
strategies. The Strategy has helped encourage volunteer participation by publicizing the need for volunteers and providing summaries
of the major monitoring activities, thus allowing volunteers to select
the surveys most suited to their skills and interests.
To develop sound conservation strategies for birds, an
understanding of their status, population trends, and the
causes of population change is required. A variety of monitoring programs in Canada, coordinated by various government and non-government organizations, currently gather
data on landbirds (see Downes and Welsh 1997 for overview). In 1994, the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) released the Canadian Landbird Monitoring Strategy, developed in consultation with other federal and provincial
government departments, non-government organizations,
and professional and amateur ornithologists (Canadian
Wildlife Service 1994).
The Strategy was developed in response to the need to
provide a more integrated approach to monitoring among
organizations, and to maintain a coordinated system of
surveys, which would ensure that sufficient data on landbird
population changes are obtained. The Strategy is currently
(1999) undergoing thorough revision, and will be updated
regularly as new information is gathered and progress is
In: Bonney, Rick; Pashley, David N.; Cooper, Robert J.; Niles, Larry,
eds. 2000. Strategies for bird conservation: The Partners in Flight planning process; Proceedings of the 3rd Partners in Flight Workshop; 1995
October 1-5; Cape May, NJ. Proceedings RMRS-P-16. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research
Station.
C. M. Downes, National Wildlife Research Centre, Canadian Wildlife
Service, Hull, Quebec, K1A 0H3.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-16. 2000
assessed. The Strategy addresses the Canadian government’s
national and international interests in monitoring wildlife
populations. For instance, the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy (1995) contains directives for the development and
implementation of monitoring programs and the conservation of habitat. Responsibilities for monitoring are also
outlined in A Wildlife Policy for Canada (Wildlife Ministers’
Council of Canada 1990) drafted with participation from the
federal, provincial, and territorial governments, aboriginal
organizations, wildlife professionals, and the general public.
The Wildlife Policy recognizes the need for a national program for monitoring the status of, and trends in, biodiversity.
Goals and Objectives ____________
The goals of the Strategy are:
• Collect information to assess the health of landbird
populations.
• Identify species or species groups that are a priority for
intensive study and/or conservation action.
• Ensure that data and trends are accurate, current, and
readily available to wildlife managers and the public.
The first focus of the Strategy is to ensure that sufficient
data are collected on the population status of birds. However, surveys providing information on productivity, survivorship, and bird/habitat associations are also included,
because these data contribute to an understanding of the
causes of population change, and they are important in
environmental assessments and the development of habitat
management plans.
Information on population status can be obtained most
effectively by breeding- or winter-season surveys, where the
source population of the birds being monitored can be defined. However, for those birds that breed and winter in
inaccessible areas, migration-season surveys may provide
the only way to obtain indices of population change. Distribution data on birds in all seasons are needed for the
identification of critical habitat and habitat management
initiatives. Breeding season and winter distribution of birds
are relatively well known in southern Canada, however,
data are scarce or lacking in the northern parts of provinces,
the territories, and during migration.
Evaluations of current surveys indicate that several categories of birds are not well monitored; these include nocturnal birds, diurnal raptors, and birds breeding in northern or
remote areas. Adequate coverage of some species in these
groups may be obtained if participation in current surveys is
increased; others may require new surveys that are designed to monitor a specific habitat or season. Rare or
uncommon species are unlikely to be adequately monitored
by surveys designed to cover common birds.
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Status of Surveys Recommended in
the Strategy ____________________
Of the many surveys now active in Canada, those listed
below were selected to form the core of the Strategy.
Surveys were classified according to the type and accuracy
of information gathered, and species and geographic coverage. Surveys classified as “Key Surveys” are the highest
priority. Those classified as “Complementary Surveys”
appear to provide necessary data but have not yet been
fully evaluated.
Key Surveys
Breeding Bird Survey (BBS)—The BBS is the core
survey in the Strategy. The BBS is designed to detect and
measure changes in bird populations. In Canada, the BBS
has been conducted since 1966, and routes are now run in all
provinces and territories, although most are located in the
southern parts of the provinces. In 1995 more than 440
routes were run in Canada by some 300 volunteers. Data are
now sufficient to calculate national population trends for
some 267 species (Downes and Collins 1996; Dunn and
others 2000). Participation in the BBS has steadily increased over the last several years in response to recruitment efforts. Telephone surveys of current and potential
participants were conducted in target provinces over the last
few years to increase participation and improve feedback to
participants. Currently, the CWS is investigating ways in
which habitat classification of BBS stops can be incorporated into the BBS methodology. Habitat data should increase the ability to associate changes in bird populations
with changes in particular habitats. Biological Resource
Division of the U.S. Geological Survey and the CWS are
reviewing the statistics used to produce population trends
from BBS data.
Migration Monitoring Network: Intensive Sites—
Because few roads traverse much of Canada’s large boreal
forest and Arctic land mass, running sufficient numbers of
BBS routes in those areas to monitor bird populations is
difficult. Much work has focused on developing alternative
methods of monitoring. In 1993, a joint United States and
Canada workshop on monitoring birds during migration
recommended that a series of intensive long-term migration
monitoring sites be established with emphasis on monitoring birds breeding in northern Canada and Alaska (Blancher
and others 1994) which may not be well monitored by other
programs. The migration monitoring program is designed to
generate counts of migrating birds that can be used in longterm population monitoring. Sites are located at bird observatories or banding stations, and follow standard protocols.
Recommended protocols for running sites are outlined in
Hussell and Ralph (1996). Six bird observatories are now
running migration monitoring stations as part of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network: Long Point (Ontario),
Thunder Cape (Ontario), Whitefish Point (Michigan), Delta
(Manitoba), Last Mountain Lake (Saskatchewan) and
Beaverhill (Alberta). In 1995, eight other stations were run
on a trial basis (3 in British Columbia, one in Ontario, one in
Quebec, one in Maritimes, two in Alberta).
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Checklist Surveys—Checklist surveys are standardized programs in which birders record sightings of birds by
locality. The data are compiled in a central database and can
be used to examine seasonal and geographic distribution,
year-to-year and long-term variations in population, and
breeding status of birds. Checklist surveys may be particularly useful in documenting status of birds in remote areas
where a small human population precludes surveys that rely
on repeated observations or highly standardized techniques.
In such regions it may be a better use of resources to
establish a checklist program than to concentrate on more
intensive types of monitoring that can cover only a few sites.
Checklist surveys are also useful in gathering information
during migration for species that are difficult to monitor
during the breeding season (Cyr and Larivée 1993; Dunn,
Larivée, and Cyr 1996). In 1994, a Canada/United States
committee produced guidelines on standard methodologies
that were developed to ensure that data from different
checklist surveys are compatible and comparable across
North America (Dunn 1995).
In Canada, the checklist survey technique was pioneered
by Quebec’s “EPOQ” program (“Etude des populations
d’oiseaux du Québec,” or “Study of bird populations in
Quebec”). EPOQ began in the 1950s, and currently maintains a database of over 2 million observations from some
3,600 observation sites with about 10,000 new checklists
added annually. Data analyses from EPOQ have produced a
number of papers on population trends of Quebec birds and
a seasonal atlas of bird distribution (e.g., Cyr and Larivée
1993; Cyr and Larivée 1995). Such surveys are now gaining
in popularity. In 1993, the Alberta Federation of Naturalists
began a checklist survey that has now run successfully in
Alberta for the last two years. In 1995 a pilot checklist
survey was run in the Northwest Territories by the CWS.
Because of the small population size and remoteness of
much of the NWT, emphasis was placed on the participation
of research camps, ecotour groups and visitors, as well as the
local communities. Results from the pilot year were promising, and the NWT survey will be run at a more intensive level
in 1996. Preliminary discussions with naturalist groups in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan show there is interest in starting checklist programs in these provinces.
Breeding Bird Atlases and Distribution-Mapping
Projects—Breeding Bird Atlases are designed to provide
information on distribution and, to a lesser extent, relative
abundance of breeding birds. Atlases have been completed
in Ontario (Cadman and others 1987), Quebec (Gauthier
and Aubrey 1995), Alberta (Semenchupk 1992),
Saskatchewan (Smith 1996), and the Maritimes (Erskine
1992). Three volumes of the Birds of British Columbia
(Campbell and others 1990) have been published, and publication of the fourth volume is anticipated in 2000 (Campbell
and others, in preparation). The Birds of Yukon, focusing on
distribution and status, is scheduled for publication in
2000 with over 100,000 sight records in the database.
Manitoba is currently working on a publication of bird
distribution and status. Publication in 2001 is anticipated.
A checklist of birds of the Northwest Territories was published in 1995 based on the compilation of published and
unpublished records (Sirois and McRae 1995).
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Forest Bird Monitoring Program (FBMP)—The
FBMP monitors population changes of birds in interior
forest habitat and describes species-habitat associations.
The program relies on volunteers using 10-minute point
counts to count birds at several (usually 5) listening stations.
The program also records information on habitat. The FBMP
is active in Ontario. It began in 1987, and by 1995, 160 sites
were monitored. The first analyses of results are in preparation (Welsh and others 1997). The establishment of forest
bird monitoring in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan is
now being considered.
Christmas Bird Counts (CBC)—The CBC is included
in the Strategy as a key survey because it provides information on early winter bird distribution. The CBC also may be
valuable in corroborating population trends of species monitored by other surveys, and may provide trends for species
not covered by other surveys, such as those that breed in the
Canadian north (Dunn and Sauer 1997). Because CBCs are
conducted in teams, the counts also serve as a training
opportunity and introduction to surveys for less-experienced volunteers. Approximately 230 counts are run annually in Canada.
Complementary Surveys
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship
(MAPS)—MAPS is a cooperative effort among public agencies, private organizations, academic institutions, and individual bird banders in North America to operate a network
of constant-effort mist-netting and banding stations. MAPS
was established in 1989 by The Institute for Bird Populations, Point Reyes, California, to provide long-term demographic data on landbirds to help identify the causes of
change in bird populations documented by other major
programs (DeSante and others 1993b). MAPS is designed to
provide annual estimates of post-fledging productivity, adult
survivorship recruitment, and population size for certain
species. All MAPS stations follow a standardized method
that includes: Constant-effort mist netting and banding
throughout the breeding season, point counts, and vegetation mapping (DeSante and Burton 1994a).
In 1995, 24 MAPS stations were operating in Canada: BC
(1), Alberta (6), Saskatchewan (1), Manitoba (1), Ontario
(10), Quebec (2), New Brunswick (2), and Yukon (1). The
Institute for Bird Populations is conducting an evaluation of
the results from the six years that MAPS has been running.
In Canada, the outcome of this evaluation will be used to
decide whether this program should be incorporated as a
“Key Component” of the Strategy, aimed at providing needed
long-term information on the productivity and survivorship
of target landbird species.
Nest Records Schemes—Nest Records Schemes provide information on breeding distribution and breeding
biology of nesting birds. The schemes rely on participants
finding nests and reporting information on clutch sizes,
breeding success, distribution, and habitat of nesting birds.
In Canada, all provinces have active programs. Although the
Nest Records databases appear to be promising sources of
information on productivity and survivorship of landbirds,
their ability to do so has not yet been evaluated. A thorough
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evaluation of this program is difficult because the majority
of data have not been entered into computers. Evaluations
may be possible in BC where the data for passerines has been
computerized, and in Ontario, where volunteers are beginning to input data. A final decision on the inclusion of the
Nest Record Scheme as a “Key Survey” in the Strategy
awaits the results of such an evaluation.
The Nest Records Scheme in the Maritime provinces
began in 1960 and now contains over 40,000 records. The
CWS office in Sackville, New Brunswick maintains the data
and produces an annual report (Erskine 1994). In Quebec,
the Nest Records Scheme began in the late 1960s, and the
database now contains over 22,000 cards. The cards are
maintained at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Vertebrate
Division (Gosselin 1994). In Ontario, the Royal Ontario
Museum in Toronto maintains the database. The scheme
started in 1956 and now contains over 110,000 cards (Peck
1994). To date, about 5,000 nest record cards have been
entered into computers. The Manitoba Museum of Man and
Nature maintains the data for the three prairie provinces
and some cards from the Northwest Territories. The scheme
began in the late 1950s and now has a database of approximately 45,000 cards. Most of the data are available only as
hard copies, although portions of the Manitoba data are now
being entered into computers (Copeland 1993). The British
Columbia Nest Records Scheme began in 1955.
Setting Monitoring Priorities ______
In Canada, a scheme for setting priorities for monitoring,
research, and management related to Ontario birds has
been developed (Dunn 1997). This scheme will be used as an
outline for setting priorities at the national level.
Promotion and Education ________
Most of the surveys described above rely heavily on volunteer participation. In Canada the pool of committed, highly
skilled birders is relatively small, and many volunteers
already are overtaxed. If programs are to expand and continue into the future, a means of training and encouraging
new recruits must be provided. Appropriate feedback and
encouragement to current volunteers is equally important.
In the last several years a series of training and recruitment workshops have been held in BC, Alberta, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Some workshops have been
aimed at a technical audience including members of provincial and federal wildlife management agencies and parks,
while others were oriented to the general public. Topics
covered include the design of regional and local monitoring
programs, recruitment of volunteers for the various surveys,
and training in survey methods and bird identification.
Resource material to assist participants in identifying
birds by song has been developed. The CWS contracted
Cornell University and Monty Brigham to produce a series
of cassettes and compact disks of bird songs for each of seven
biogeographic regions in Canada. Cornell University and
Microwizard were asked to adapt their computer learning
program to work with the regional compact disks. The
computer programs allow the user to practice and test their
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bird song identification. The cassettes were distributed to all
BBS and FBMP participants. The computer programs were
distributed to BBS coordinators and placed in other selected
areas where volunteers could access them.
The BIRDQUEST program, developed by CWS and the
Canadian Nature Federation, is an educational program
designed to introduce participants to the ecology of wild
birds and to develop identification skills. The program is
geared toward children, who qualify for a badge and certificate as they advance from the beginner level through the
advanced level. Graduates of the advanced level must be
able to identify their local birds by sight and sound, among
other requirements, and should be well-equipped to participate in monitoring surveys.
In Ontario, a coalition of government and non-government organizations have cooperated in developing the Ontario
Wildlife Watcher’s Program, designed to promote participation in surveys of birds and other wildlife, and to promote
partnerships among government, nongovernment agencies,
and volunteers. This program offers incentives to survey
participants such as badges and an annual report (Environment Canada 1995).
Bird Trends is a new newsletter published by the CWS to
report the results of ornithological surveys. The first and
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sixth volumes (Hyslop 1991; Kennedy 1998) summarized
the results of national and regional landbird surveys. The
newsletter is available to a wide audience of professional and
amateur birders; it provides feedback to volunteers on the
results of surveys, and ensures that sources of data are well
known.
Conclusion _____________________
The Canadian Landbird Monitoring Strategy is meant to
be a stepping stone toward a more effective system for
monitoring Canadian landbirds. To date, such an approach
has been effective in promoting participation in surveys,
encouraging the evaluation of current techniques, the development of standardized methods, and the development
of regional monitoring strategies that tie into the national
strategy. The Strategy was prepared by the CWS with
extensive input from stakeholders in various provincial
and territorial governments, other federal government
departments, nongovernment organizations, and members of the public. A revised version of the Canadian
Landbird Monitoring Strategy was published in 2000
(Downes and others 2000).
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