A total of 242 species of birds can be observed regularly in the NWT. Of these, three species are alien to the NWT. An additional 58 species are vagrant and have been observed irregularly, sometimes only once.

Birds are feathered vertebrates capable of flight, though some species have lost this adaptation. Eighty-seven percent of the bird species breeding in the NWT are migratory. The remaining 13% are year-round residents. Many species that breed in the Arctic will winter in South America, travelling thousands of kilometers. The Arctic tern, for example, has the longest migration of any bird and flies 40,000 km from its Arctic breeding grounds to winter in Antarctica. Other Arctic birds, such as the islandica sub-species of the red knot, undertake a different route altogether. These birds nest in our northern-most islands and in Nunavut, travel to Iceland, then reach their wintering grounds in Europe. Others stay relatively nearby: the yellow-billed loon flies west to the north Pacific and back to nest on the mainland tundra and our southern Arctic islands.

Population declines of migratory birds

In the NWT, responsibility for bird management is shared amongst renewable resources boards set up under land claim settlements, involving governments, Indigenous users, and beneficiaries. This co-management system provides direct involvement for Indigenous governments and organizations in the management of all bird species occurring in their land claim area or region.

All migratory bird species included in Schedule I of the Migratory Birds Convention Act 1994 are co-managed with the federal government. All other bird species are co-managed with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Since 1970, monitoring programs have shown that Canadian breeding bird populations have declined on average. Certain groups, like grassland birds, aerial insectivores, and shorebirds, are experiencing the steepest declines. For example, the aerial insectivores, such as the olive-sided flycatcher, have declined by 59% since 1970, and shorebird populations have declined by 40%. Populations are thought to be decreasing due to a variety of reasons such as habitat loss, pesticide use resulting in declining insect populations, and climate change.

Landbird research

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) coordinates multiple programs to monitor waterfowl in the NWT. Many of these programs generate population trend estimates. The Yellowknife Study Area program has been monitoring waterfowl and waterbirds for over 25 years. Some surveys, like the Cape Perry thick-billed murre seabird survey, or the Pacific common eider survey, census all individuals in an area and provide population estimates for a region.

CWS coordinates the Arctic Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (Arctic PRISM), a program designed to address concerns about shorebird population declines. The program is in collaboration with the Government of the United States and is conducted across the North American Arctic. Arctic PRISM is in its 20th year and provides data on population size and trends, as well as shorebird distribution, abundance, and habitat use. Although the focus is shorebirds, all bird species are recorded. The data collected through Arctic PRISM is some of the first bird and habitat data ever collected in many areas of the Arctic and is integral to the General Status Ranks.

CWS coordinates a number of programs to monitor songbirds in the NWT. The main objective is to understand species distribution, habitat associations, and responses to forest fires. The plan is to continue these programs to monitor bird populations and provide long-term trend information. CWS also coordinates the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), an avian survey used to collect long-term data on bird population status and trends throughout North America. The BBS has been running for more than 50 years and is the primary source for terrestrial bird status and trends in Canada. The Liard Valley Long-term Monitoring Program has been running for almost 25 years in the southwestern NWT and is an important data source to inform the General Status Ranks.

BBS trends were a primary resource and the volunteer-based global online bird observation tool “eBird” also provided information on distribution where studies are not currently conducted. Please consider submitting any observations you can, of any bird species, from any season, to www.ebird.ca.

Over the next five years, through long-term monitoring programs and new initiatives, we hope to gather more information to help inform bird status ranks in the NWT. Continued monitoring and working collaboratively on conservation priorities are important to the preservation of bird populations within the NWT. In addition, international collaboration is the key to truly preserving our feathered friends, which spend time across many international borders.

Raptor monitoring

Raptor monitoring was conducted extensively in the 1980s and 1990s all over the NWT. Most surveys have not been repeated systematically since then, except for peregrine falcons. Intensive falcon surveys are done on the barrenlands, in Tuktut Nogait National Park, and Wood Buffalo National Park. These surveys are conducted in collaboration with Parks Canada, industry,

and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT). The GNWT is also tracking location and visit data on all known raptor sites in the NWT. This information is often provided from NWT residents’ incidental observations during a trip on the land, or provided by industry during impact assessment work. This data is stored in the Nunavut-Northwest Territories Raptor Database, the largest database on birds of prey in North America.