Canadian birdsong is coming to a decrescendo
Vanishing species highlight a growing environmental crisis
When Ryan N. Young, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue city councillor, noticed an American Goldfinch struggling at his bird feeder, its eyes swollen shut from avian conjunctivitis, it was a stark reminder of a growing crisis.
Across Canada, bird populations are plummeting, facing threats from habitat loss, climate change and disease.
Young is a naturalist and wildlife photographer who has been birding—observing and identifying wild birds—for 45 years. He has witnessed firsthand the troubling changes in bird populations. Once-common species are becoming harder to find, and the chorus of birdsong that once filled local landscapes is growing quieter.
“It saddens me, but I have done what I can in my life to protect bird habitats by getting involved in local politics,” Young said.
Young’s efforts and the help of local organizations such as McGill University’s bird observatory led to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue obtaining the designation of “Bird Friendly City” from Nature Canada in 2022. This was due to the city’s efforts to eliminate the use of pesticides and mitigate climate change impacts by protecting bird habitats. The municipality also promoted citizen science by encouraging birdwatching and the use of bird identification applications that contribute to data collection.
According to The State of Canada’s Birds 2024 report, 168 or 36 per cent of bird species in Canada have seen an alarming decrease in population since 1970.
“The birds are an indicator of the health of the environment […] That should be alarming to us, because at some point, that reflects on our own health,” said Marcel Gahbauer, senior wildlife biologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The report found a number of threats faced by birds in Canada including window collisions and cat attacks, the latter accounting for the death of over 100 million birds annually.
According to Kyle Horner, the NatureCounts engagement coordinator for Birds Canada, those numbers could actually be higher. Indeed, a 2013 study by Avian Conservation and Ecology estimated that cats may kill between 100 and 350 million birds each year in Canada.
Jo-Annie Gagnon, bird care coordinator at non-profit wild bird conservation centre Le Nichoir, explained that rehabilitation for these types of injuries is also limited.
“For cat [attacks], 85 per cent of birds that get [to the centre] will die and 60 per cent of birds hitting windows that come here will die,” Gagnon said.
Since 1996, Le Nichoir has cared for almost 47,500 wild bird patients in Hudson, Que., to rehabilitate and release them into the wild. However, when injuries are too severe and rehabilitation is impossible, birds are euthanized.
Beyond these threats, habitat loss from agriculture and oil development is a major factor in Canadian birds’ decline. Climate change and pesticide use are also harming both birds and their food sources.
A pesticide currently banned in Canada under the Pest Control Products Act is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in part due to its deadly effects on birds of prey.
“Back in the 1950s and 1960s, many [birds of prey] had been in steep decline because of DDT poisoning and a severe lack of reproductive output,” Gahbauer said. “Once DDT was banned in the 1960s, early 1970s, they began to recover.”
While all DDT had to be disposed of by Dec. 31, 1990, neonicotinoids are another controversial pesticide group that is still in use today.
Young banned neonicotinoids in his city, explaining that they are bad for birds. He adds that not only do neonicotinoids kill insects and reduce the amount of available food, but if a bird eats a contaminated insect, the bird will equally suffer from the consequences of intoxication.
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue also banned the use of pesticides outside of buildings following a motion filed by Young in 2016. The ban has certain exceptions, such as when the pesticides are declared and used for agricultural purposes.
Chemical pesticides are more prevalent than many people realize. According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation, pesticides can be present in everyday products like outdoor paint and disinfectants. These pesticides can cause lethal and sublethal poisoning in birds.
Lethal poisoning can happen when a bird ingests a strong pesticide, leading to its immediate death. Sublethal poisoning can accumulate in and weaken the bird through side effects like weight loss, behavioural changes that are affecting its survival.
“It’s really hard for us to know if a bird was affected by pesticides,” Gagnon said. “From my training background in biology, I know that insects can be weakened by pesticides and then birds will target those because they are easy to catch.”
According to Horner, the decline in grassland birds is the most important and concerning finding by Birds Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“They’ve declined by 67 per cent on average since 1970,” Horner said. “That’s a really considerable decline and it points to a crisis in the Prairies.”
Aerial insectivores have also decreased by 43 per cent, most likely due to the decrease in insect populations according to the 2024 report.
“We are a centre that specializes in taking care of [aerial insectivores],” Gagnon said. “They are very specific to care for, so we’ve had other centres transfer these birds to us because we are doing very good [with them].”
Other populations that have declined include shorebirds, long-distance migrants, arctic birds and forest birds.
Gagnon said that protecting birds has to happen on multiple fronts and that both communities and governments have different roles regarding bird conservation.
“If your cat goes outside and literally kills a bird, then keeping your cat inside is a concrete way of saving birds,” Horner said, “the same is true for treating windows to prevent window collisions.”
Current birders are also feeling the changes in both the environment and the general interest for birds.
Wayne Wood has birded for 35 to 40 years and said it all started with installing a bird feeder.
“Most people nowadays are glued to their cellphones and don’t look up to the sky enough to see birds,” Wood remarked.
His passion has grown over the years as he’s joined groups around the Montreal area, took a course on bird identification, and followed experienced birders to learn about the art of birdwatching.
“I’ve been birding for so long that now I am birding all the time,” Wood said.
Wood, now retired, travelled to Costa Rica recently and was birdwatching both in person and on his phone, looking at the birds visiting his feeder at home.
“When I was young, I thought birding was for the eccentric,” Wood said, laughing. “Either I was wrong or I have become eccentric.”
