The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory (LSLBO) is in the thick of Fall Migration Monitoring with our summer residents quickly vanishing. However, since we have officially passed any chance to complete our MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) operations, let’s do a preliminary roll-up of our MAPS results.
MAPS is a continent-wide program monitoring songbird population changes to conserve birds and their habitats. By banding during the breeding season, population parameters such as productivity (young produced) and survival (adults returning to breed) may be estimated. Conservation efforts can then target causes of population declines, such as poor breeding success or poor wintering habitat quality. The LSLBO has contributed to MAPS since 1994 and has operated four MAPS sites since 2003. Each site is visited six times between May 31 to August 3 when six hours of songbird banding is undertaken.
The habituated fox stopped us from running two stations in our last period. While it’s not the first time a predator has prevented a site from being run for an entire period, it was the first time since a Black Bear prevented operations in 2013, and the first time two sites were affected.
Despite this interruption to coverage, with 457 birds banded from 33 species, it was still the sixth busiest for MAPS banding in 32 years, coming in well above this program’s average of 303 birds banded from 27 species per year. Captures were greatly boosted when the MAPS site FAWA banded 97 birds in a single day, almost surpassing FAWA’s 2021 record of 107 birds banded in a day. Both these busy days were because of captures of migrating warblers rather than the targeted breeding families.
The top five most frequently banded species accounted for 57% of all captures: American Redstart (98 banded), White-throated Sparrow (54 banded), Swainson’s Thrush (50 banded), Canada Warbler (35 banded), and Tennessee Warbler (25 banded). There were no record lows for captures, but Red-breasted Nuthatches achieved a new record high with three banded. All these species are among our most common songbird species breeding in the Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park’s mature deciduous forests.
As for fall, we have now doubled our 2025 spring band total of 618 birds with 1,295 birds from 43 species banded. We are not expecting it to be one of the busiest years on record since we are having a hard time opening the nets between poor weather and predator presences, but the days we have been able to open recently have been busy. This past week we banded 274 birds in just 37% of possible net-hours. We have also already seen record high captures of Bay-breasted Warblers with 59 banded (average 12 banded per fall).
If the rain, wind, fox, and bears allow it, we host drop-in tours every Wednesday and Saturday in August from 9 AM to 11 AM. Please contact the Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation for more information by calling 780-849-8240.
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-Charge
Preliminary totals of all species banded in MAPS, 2025:
| Species | Banded | Species | Banded | |
| American Redstart | 98 | American Robin | 3 | |
| White-throated Sparrow | 54 | Cedar Waxwing | 3 | |
| Swainson’s Thrush | 50 | Northern Waterthrush | 3 | |
| Canada Warbler | 35 | Red-breasted Nuthatch | 3 | |
| Tennessee Warbler | 25 | Bay-breasted Warbler | 2 | |
| Yellow Warbler | 24 | Chipping Sparrow | 2 | |
| Ovenbird | 23 | Philadelphia Vireo | 2 | |
| Mourning Warbler | 18 | Black-throated Green Warbler | 1 | |
| “Myrtle” Warbler | 18 | Brown Creeper | 1 | |
| Magnolia Warbler | 17 | Common Yellowthroat | 1 | |
| Black-and-white Warbler | 16 | Downy Woodpecker | 1 | |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 13 | Hairy Woodpecker | 1 | |
| Lincoln’s Sparrow | 12 | Hermit Thrush | 1 | |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | 7 | Western Tanager | 1 | |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 7 | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | |
| Least Flycatcher | 6 | Total banded MAPS 2025 | 457 | |
| Winter Wren | 5 | Total species MAPS 2025 | 33 | |
| Alder Flycatcher | 3 |
