I frequently visit the Carden Plain Important Bird Area in the Kawarthas to photograph the many birds that pass through there during spring and fall migration. Having read that it was difficult to photograph the eastern loggerhead shrike – a critically endangered species in Canada – I was intrigued by a captive breeding and release program taking place in the area.
The eastern loggerhead shrike has disappeared from most of its range in Canada, and survives in only a few isolated pockets of southern Ontario.
In 2003, Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC) became the lead organization for a captive breeding and release program, the first of its kind for a migratory songbird. Although there has been some success – with captive-bred birds returning to Ontario to breed with wild birds – the shrike population in this province remains “troublingly low” according to Hazel Wheeler, species recovery biologist and recovery team member. Researchers found only 16 breeding pairs in Ontario this year, the lowest since the recovery program began in 1991.
Two young birds enjoy their first taste of the “wild blue yonder” after being released from enclosures in the Carden Plain Important Bird Area in late August.
Their unique but temporary colors – a red cap for one, blue chest bands for the other – allow researchers to identify and observe the behavior of individual birds during their first hours of freedom.
This pair’s story began the previous spring, when the research team and volunteers transported boxes containing captive breeding pairs from their winter homes in Ingersoll and at partner organization locations such as the Toronto Zoo, African Lion Safari and Mountsberg Raptor Centre.Jessica Steiner, WPC director of conservation programs, carries mating pairs to large breeding enclosures on the Carden Plain. The birds are placed in the enclosures where they remain until breeding is completed and the young birds can be released. Starting in 2015, breeding will instead take place at several partner facilities but the young birds will continue to be released in the Carden area.10501050Young birds are medicated against common parasites and banded so their movements can be tracked and recorded. Eastern loggerhead shrikes migrate to the United States during the winter where little is known about their behavior. One of the big questions is why many of them never return to breed in Ontario.1Birds are inspected to ensure they are healthy and marked with unique color patterns.Tiny electronic geolocators are attached to the birds’ backs. These devices provide more information about the shrikes’ migratory patterns. In 2014, for the first time, researchers found a bird in the wild in Ontario with a full year of data on its geolocator.Young captive-bred birds are released in late August. It sometimes takes them awhile to realize that the door to their enclosure is open, but once they do, they fly out and enjoy their first taste of freedom.The birds tend to stay near the release site for several hours so the research team and volunteers set up with spotting scopes and binoculars to watch them. I found it extremely challenging to photograph these small, quick-moving birds from the respectful distance maintained between us and them.These released shrikes have an increasingly uncertain fate. Scientists believe that habitat loss, pesticides and encounters with vehicles are contributing to the species’ decline. WPC notes that little is known about the species’ migrating and wintering behaviour, but that the greatest causes of the decline appear to be occurring outside of Canada. Canadian researchers are collaborating with their counterparts in the eastern United States to monitor shrikes throughout their range, which could help determine why so many shrikes do not return to Ontario to breed.
Lydia Dotto was a Peterborough-based science and nature photographer and writer. Capturing wildlife images was her passion and her greatest photographic challenge.
I spotted a shrike at roadside on the Peel Plain last summer. It’s a hard to find in the Headwaters. Could we not leave some of that shrub land which we are encouraged to replace with serried rows of economic tree seedlings to help shrikes to find nesting sites?
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I spotted a shrike at roadside on the Peel Plain last summer. It’s a hard to find in the Headwaters. Could we not leave some of that shrub land which we are encouraged to replace with serried rows of economic tree seedlings to help shrikes to find nesting sites?
Great to see conservation research for these spectacular birds. Thank you!