COSEWIC status changes and Birds Canada commitment to making birding more inclusive

The new report by COSEWIC has come out and there is good news and bad news for several species.

Ross’s Gull is now listed as endangered and no chicks have fledged from the known Canadian breeding colony in 17 years.

Sadly Short-eared Owl has had declines of up to 30% in Canada and has changed status from Special Concern to Threatened. I am sure you have noticed those declines even at Boundary Bay and Brunswick that the numbers are down. The COSEWIC press release notes that Christmas Bird Counts have noticed significant declines. 

Chestnut-collared Longspur is now unfortunately listed as Endangered from Threatened. It has had a population decline of over 50%.

Band-tailed Pigeon remains at Special Concern but is losing breeding habitat due to urbanization and it won’t be long it seems before it is also listed as threatened.

For some positive news now: Barn Swallow is no longer listed as threatened but is now listed a special concern and Ferruginous Hawk has been moved from Threatened to Special Concern.

To read more about these status changes click HERE

Also very happy to see that Birds Canada is actively doing the work to make birding more inclusive in Canada. They have committed and followed through taking steps to make it more of an inclusive hobby for all. They are continuing to offer free memberships to BIPOC and more.  As they say, there is much work still to be done on this front but they are trying to do better. You can read all about it HERE. I hope other provincial birding associations (like Ontario has done) will publicly commit to do the same.

Chestnut-collared Longspurs are now listed as Endangered in Canada - Photo: Melissa Hafting

Short-eared Owls are now listed as Threatened in Canada - Photo: Melissa Hafting

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