Another guest post, this time from Ken Bushman in Saskatchewan, who had the amazing luck to photograph a group of wild whooping cranes in flight. This is not something you see everyday. I showed this photo to the head of the Whooping Crane Breeding Program at the Calgary Zoo, and …
Last weekend, a small group of local birders were lucky enough to meet North America’s tallest birds in person. Whooping cranes stand about 1.5 m (5 ft) tall. Their wingspan is 2 m (6.5 ft) or more between the tips of their long black flight feathers. At close range, adult …
A new Status of Birds in Canada section has been added to Environment Canada’s website. It identifies the overall status of each species, describes population changes, discusses some of their conservation needs and provides a mechanism to track the success of ongoing and proposed conservation actions for these species. The …
At the spring meeting of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) held in Charlottetown, PEI May 1-6, 2011, Threatened status was recommended for two more species of songbirds – Eastern Meadowlark and Barn Swallow. The addition of these two common species draws further attention to …
A team of field researchers, including Calgary Zoo Director Dr. Jake Veasey, released 84 captive-bred burrowing owls into artificial burrows in the Kamloops/Merritt region of British Columbia in mid-April. The Calgary Zoo joined the burrowing owl project in 2004, and the research team provides assistance assessing owls, pairing, determining release …
At one time, the Burrowing Owl was common in the four western provinces. Now, it is one of the most endangered birds in Canada. The population decline began in the 1980s and accelerated during the 1990s to an average rate of 22% a year. In 1977, more than 2,000 breeding …