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The Canadian Migration Monitoring Network – Réseau canadien de surveillance des migrations: Advancing migratory bird research across Canada Tara L. Crewe 1 , Marcel A. Gahbauer 2, 3 , Marie-Anne R. Hudson 3, 4 , Alaine Camfield 4 and Stuart A. Mackenzie 1, 5 1) Bird Studies Canada, Port Rowan, ON; 2) Migration Research Foundation, Calgary, AB; 3) McGill Bird Observatory, Montreal, QC; 4) Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, ON; 5) Long Point Bird Observatory Port Rowan, ON Background Accurate knowledge of population status and change is fundamental to species conservation. Because many parts of Canada are relatively inaccessible and few birders are available to count birds in northern regions, the Breeding Bird Survey provides little information on population trends of birds breeding in the vast boreal forest and other parts of northern Canada. The Canadian Migration Monitoring Network - Réseau canadien de surveillance des migrations (CMMN-RCSM) was formed in 1998 primarily to fill that information gap. The CMMN-RCSM is a cooperative venture that includes independent migration monitoring stations (Fig. 1), Bird Studies Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service - Environment Canada. Stations currently monitor the spring and/or fall migration of over 150 species of landbirds, about 80 of which breed in Canada’s boreal and other northern forests. All stations follow a standardized protocol and data are centralized and stored by Bird Studies Canada. CMMN-RCSM Mission and Vision To contribute knowledge and public understanding of Canadian birds and bird migration through a collaborative network of independent migration monitoring and research stations, and to influence conservation in the Western Hemisphere. To be an essential component of bird monitoring, migration research and conservation planning in the Western Hemisphere. 10-year Trends Report CMMN-RCSM stations conduct daily observations and/or banding of migrants during spring and/or fall migration. Using migration count data, we estimated annual population indices using a generalized linear model which controls for effects of date. Population trajectories (trends) in annual indices were modeled for each species and station using linear models for stations having less than 10 years of data, and polynomial models for stations having 10 or more years of data. Prairie and Eastern regions showed predominantly declining populations for all species guilds examined, whereas Ontario and Western regions showed predominantly increasing populations. Summarizing across Canada, about half of the species in most landbird guilds showed population increases, while the other half showed population declines (Crewe et al. 2008). Fig. 2 shows this pattern for the Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata). References Crewe, T.L. , J.D. McCracken, P .D. Taylor, D. Lepage, A.E. Heagy. 2008. The Canadian Migration Monitoring Network - Réseau canadien de surveillance des migrations: Ten-Year Report on Monitoring Landbird Population Change. CMMN-RCSM Scientific Technical Report #1. Produced by Bird Studies Canada, Port Rowan, Ontario. 69 pp. Haché, S., K.A. Hobson, M.A. Villard and E.M. Bayne. 2012. Assigning birds to geographic origin using feather hydrogen isotope ratio (δ2H): importance of year, age, and habitat. Canadian Journal of Zoology 90:722-728. Kerr, K.C.R. 2011. Searching for evidence of selection in avian DNA barcodes. Molecular Ecology Resources 11:1045–1055. Kerr, K.R., M.Y. Stoeckle, C.J. Dove, L.A. Weight, C.M. Francis, and P .D.N. Hebert. 2007. Comprehensive DNA barcode coverage of North American birds. Molecular Ecology Notes 7(4): 535–543. Ogden, N.H., L.R. Lindsay, K. Hanincova, I.K. Barker, M. Bigras-Poulin, D.F. Charron, A. Heagy, C.M. Francis, C.J. O’Callaghan, I. Schwartz, R.A. Thompson. 2008. Role of Migratory Birds in Introduction and Range Expansion of Ixodes scapularis Ticks and of Borrelia burgdorferi and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Canada. Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 74 (6): 1780-1790. Hobson, K.A. 1999. Stable-carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of songbird feathers grown in two terrestrial biomes: implications for evaluating trophic relationships and breeding origins. Condor 101:799-805. Van Wilgenburg, S.L. and K. A. Hobson. 2011. Combining stable-isotope (dD) and band recovery data to improve probabilistic assignment of migratory birds to origin. Ecological Applications 21:1340–1351. MNO RMBS WPBO BPBO HBO TTBRS Figure 1. Locations of CMMN-RCSM member stations across Canada. 1 - Rocky Point Bird Observatory (RPBO) 1a - Rocky Point (RPBO) - Pedder Bay 2 - Tatlayoko Bird Observatory (TBO) 3 - Teslin Lake Bird Observatory (TLBO) 4 - Albert Creek Bird Observatory (ACBO) 5 - Mackenzie Nature Observatory (MNO) 6 - Vaseux Lake Migration Monitoring Station (VLMMS) 7 - Revelstoke Bird Monitoring Station (RMBS) 8 – Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (IBS-CBBS) 9 - Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory (LSLBO) 10 - Beaverhill Bird Observatory (BBO) 11 - Last Mountain Bird Observatory (LMBO) 12 - Delta Marsh Bird Observatory (DMBO) 13 - Thunder Cape Bird Observatory (TCBO) 14 - Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) 15 - Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory (BPBO) 16 - Pelee Island Bird Observatory (PIBO) 17 - Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO) - Old Cut 17a - Long Point (LPBO) - Breakwater 17b - Long Point (LPBO) - The Tip 18a - Haldimand Bird Observatory (HBO) - Ruthven 18b - Haldimand (HBO) - Rock Point 18c - Haldimand (HBO) - Selkirk 19 - Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station (TTBRS) 20 - Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO) 21 - Innis Point Bird Observatory (IPBO) 22 - McGill Bird Observatory (MBO) 23 - Observatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac (OOT) 24 - St. Andrew's Bird Banding Station (SABBS) 25 - Point Lepreau (PTLE) 26 - Brier Island Bird Migration Research Station (BIBMRS) 27 - Atlantic Bird Observatory (ABO) - Bon Portage Island 27a - Atlantic (ABO) - Seal Island Contact Us CMMN-RCSM member facilities are spread across Canada. Experienced staff train and provide expertise to their volunteers and visitors – both long and short-term. For more information, visit www.bsc-eoc.org/national/cmmn.html or contact the co-chairs of the CMMN-RCSM Steering Committee: email [email protected] or [email protected]. The CMMN-RCSM is one of the foremost sources for data on migratory bird populations, migratory timing, and demographic information in Canada. As such, it has an important role to play in facilitating research on related topics. As a large-scale collaborative network, CMMN-RCSM is uniquely positioned to contribute to the understanding of various aspects of bird migration at a national scale. These include: effects of weather and climate change on bird migration, stop-over ecology, timing of migration (e.g. chronology/phenology), energetics, physiology, disease, productivity and survival. CMMN-RCSM has recently participated in four collaborative national research projects: contributing to the DNA barcoding of North American species (Kerr et al. 2007, Kerr 2011), contributing to modeling the spread of infectious disease into Canada through tick-borne vectors (Ogden et al. 2008), delineating catchment basins and place of origin of Canadian birds based on their isotopic signature (Hobson 1999, Van Wilgenburg et al. 2011, Haché et al. 2012), and calculating trends in migratory bird populations across Canada (Crewe et al. 2008). In addition to their core migration monitoring activities, many stations run special research projects during summer and/or winter. Most of the CMMN-RCSM member stations take an open-source approach to their data which comprise some of the largest data sets available to researchers on migratory populations anywhere in North America. Data are hosted by Bird Studies Canada and are readily available at the Nature Counts web-site at www.birdscanada.org/birdmon/ . Acknowledgements Thank you to all the hard-working volunteers, funders and backers of each individual station. A Source for Data, a Destination for Research Figure 2. Map showing strength and significance of population trends for the Blackpoll Warbler across Canada (1997-2006). Graphs on left and right show population trends for each station represented on the map. Setophaga striata
