Weekly Banding Reports

In North America, bird banding stations are typically much busier during the fall than they are in the spring, as fall migration monitoring runs for a longer duration and captures large numbers of young birds that hatched just a few months previously. For migratory birds especially, population numbers reach an annual peak around this time… Read more »

By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge On August 1 the LSLBO’s 2021 Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program finished. MAPS is an international banding initiative in which sites of 10 mist-nets are visited once every 10 days over the breeding season. We operate four of these sites. When we band birds, we estimate their age… Read more »

There is so much variety in the size and coloration of birds, that it comes as no surprise their beaks are no different. From the long, thin needle of a hummingbird, to the flat bill of a duck, every bird has a beak shaped conveniently for their preferred diets. Of the forty-three species we have… Read more »

Believe it or not, fall migration monitoring for the LSLBO is underway!  Already we have banded 599 birds from 35 species. Although overhead migration has been relatively slow, Tree Swallows, Myrtle Warblers and Yellow Warblers are already on the move. This week also saw the second to last period of the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship)… Read more »

With the recent heat warnings that have been in effect across Canada, birds and humans alike have been seeking ways to keep cool during this hot summer! When it comes to beating the heat birds have a slight advantage over us because their body temperature is naturally higher: 40º Celsius on average, compared to the… Read more »

The Unique Behaviours of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Have you ever noticed rows of shallow holes in the bark of a tree in your neighbourhood? If so, there’s a good chance they were created by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! As their name suggests, these woodpeckers largely rely on sap as their main food source. Just like humans… Read more »

In 2018, the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory was contracted by Vanderwell Contractors (1971) Ltd. to survey logged forests and to determine how breeding bird communities change alongside the forest as it regenerates. The boreal forest is a mosaic of different forest types and ages that are created by natural and human disturbances. When large… Read more »

School programs wrapping up for the season June is a month of transition at the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory for both the birds and our staff. Spring migration has tapered off as the last of our migrant birds have arrived in the boreal forest, settled into their territories, and found mates for the summer…. Read more »

On June 10, the LSLBO’s Spring Migration Monitoring program of 2021 was completed. With coverage every day since April 17, we have successfully documented the beginning, middle, and end of migration for most species that breed north of us or locally. In total, our field staff recorded 160 unique bird species during the monitoring period…. Read more »