Canada's Avian Migration Trends

Hello, Reader. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read some BirdInspector. The lovely bird who lent his face to our article is a Black-Capped Chickadee. These little guys are very prevalent in Canada and are even the provincial bird of New Brunswick. All this, however, is beside the point. The main focus of this article will be on the migration trends of Canadian birds. Specifically the billions of migratory birds that nest and raise young there. The overall population of migrating birds in Canada has declined about 12% since 1970, but of course this is different between each species and where they go for the winter. For example, birds who spend the entire year in Canada have grown in population by 68%, but birds who spend the winter in South America have seen a decline of 53%. North America wintering birds hand declined about 10% and 14% in Central America. When thinking about all the struggles en route a bird can have makes this information a little easier understand. Traveling hundreds of miles for their new winter homes can be taxing and it's hard to find food, shelter, and safety from predators along the way. Disruptions in their actual habitats can make it unlikely for them to return too. Habitat loss from growing development opportunities and higher demand for products in Central and South America are destroying the winter homes of a lot of Canadian birds. Pollution can also damage these populations. Pollution from heavy metals or chemicals in the air or water source can get the birds sick. Uncontrolled bird trapping is a big problem in some countries and can be the fate of many migrating birds each year. A few other fatal encounters that birds have are with running into buildings, trees, windows, towers, and feral and domestic cats. It only makes sense that the birds who stay in Canada year round are the only ones who have grown in population. There are so many dangers of migrating such great distances. 

Thank you so much for reading this article, and I hope you check back for more!