Monitoring Canada's Bird Populations in a Changing Climate

Climate change is causing an increase in global temperatures, and in Canada the temperature is increasing at roughly twice the global rate leading to changes in ecosystems that are affecting biodiversity. The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident in our day-to-day lives, from extreme weather events to the haze of wildfire smoke that engulfed much of Ontario last summer.

While some aspects of climate change may be obvious to us, the impact it is having on wildlife such as birds may be less obvious, which is one of the reasons why population monitoring is so important. Proper monitoring of bird populations can tell us whether individual species or habitat-specific communities are declining, and this knowledge can direct research and inform conservation efforts. In Canada we have several long-term monitoring programs for birds including the Breeding Bird Survey, the Breeding Bird Atlas, and the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network.

Identifying which bird species are being counted is an important step in all of these monitoring programs and identification can be broken down into four main components: size and shape, habitat and behaviour, detailed appearance, and song. Once identification skills are acquired, anyone can contribute to the monitoring of Canada’s birds.