The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory is now over halfway done our Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program as the forest comes alive with fledglings. To not keep all their eggs in one basket for too long, baby songbirds purposefully leave the nest, or fledge, well before they are truly independent. Well-meaning people may then see these basically flightless disheveled babies and want to help. However, normally doing anything beyond moving a baby just off the trail would actually be kidnapping since the parents are most likely still caring for their next-to-helpless offspring.
As we pass July 1, we also pass Canada Day and should celebrate Canada’s eponymous birds. There are three species with “Canada” in their names, all of which are common here in the summer, but have very different strategies for survival: Canada Jays, Canada Geese, and Canada Warblers.
Similar to other corvids, Canada Jays are curious and have learned to exploit humans where their sprucy homes overlap with high recreation use. Although they tend to be wilder around Slave Lake, they are commonly found in Rocky Mountain campsites. This is our only “Canada” bird that resides with us year-round. They can survive our harsh winters by storing meat in spruce bark which has antimicrobial properties. They do need cold temperatures to preserve their food caches, and as such are threatened in southern portions of their range by climate change. This species wasn’t officially renamed from Gray Jay to Canada Jay until 2018, but it is a bird of many names including Whisky Jack. They start nesting as early as March and hatch altricial babies that are stationary and helpless for weeks.
Commonly found even in the busiest city parks and with widespread populations, the Canada Goose is the most recognizable “Canada” bird. The first reference to any “Canada Goose” was in 1772. Soon after they were hunted at alarming rates. In the 1950s, hunting restrictions and even breeding programs and reintroductions successfully recovered their populations. Baby Canada Geese are precocial and appear as fluff-balls on the lake in late-May. They are mostly herbivorous and need to depart Slave Lake when the ponds freeze in November. Although small groups will overwinter in Calgary and sometimes Edmonton, most travel to the US as a family unit. After the family arrives back on their breeding grounds, the young separate before they themselves nest a year or more later.
While Canada Geese have recovered from ‘threatened’ status, Canada Warblers are currently threatened by habitat destruction on their South American wintering grounds. However, Slave Lake’s forests may be one of the best places to find this species and we frequently host birders trying to add them to their ‘life lists’. But there is only a 100 day-long window to see Canada Warblers here since they do not arrive until around May 20 (when Canada Geese have already hatched their young) and become one of the first species to disappear around August 30. After traveling over 5,500 km one-way just to rear their altricial young. As strict insectivores, they cannot chance a winter storm.
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Above: This male Canada Warbler captured on June 30, 2025 has already begun his prebasic moult in preparation of his southward migration. This is when songbird replace all the feathers on their body. So they can maintain flight, they will replace wing feathers from the middle-out so these central feathers are full length by the time he begins replaces the outermost feathers.
It will not be long before our Canada Warblers depart to be followed a few months later by our Canada Geese, leaving just our Canada Jays behind. To monitor these southward movements, we will begin Fall Migration Monitoring on July 12.
By Robyn Perkins, LSLBO Bander-in-charge
