Assiniboine Park is not only a hub for people, but also for wild birds! Birds use the Park and Zoo to raise their young and to fuel up during migration stopovers before completing their amazing journeys south every fall. We are committed to ensuring that Assiniboine Park and Zoo are welcoming spaces for our feathered friends so they can thrive. This is part of our involvement in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Saving Animals From Extinction Program for North American Songbirds. Read on to learn about our conservation projects focused on creating habitat and keeping birds safe on their incredible migratory journeys – and learn about how you can help in your backyard!
Increasing Nesting Habitat
To create more spaces for wild birds to raise their young, we have several artificial nesting structures installed around the Park and Zoo, including nest boxes, a nest condo, and even an artificial chimney! This summer, the nesting structures housed a record number of bird species, including Tree Swallows, Black-capped Chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds, House Wrens, Chimney Swifts, and Purple Martins. For the first time since the installation of the Purple Martin condo in 2021, a pair of Purple Martins made a nest in the condo and successfully raised two young! This was also a great year for Chimney Swifts, with up to eight birds observed nesting and roosting in the artificial chimney behind McFeetors Heavy Horse Centre.
A view inside the chimney at Assiniboine Park Zoo showing chimney swifts in a nest and adults under nest.
A male and female Purple Martin with nesting material on the ledge of the Purple Martin Condo. (Photo Credit: Kirstyn Eckhardt)
With the help of students from the Avian Behaviour and Conservation Lab at the University of Manitoba, we have banded a total of 47 birds since the nesting structures were first installed in 2019, including Tree Swallows, Purple Martins and an Eastern Bluebird. Bird banding is a useful conservation tool for identifying individual birds, studying population growth, and understanding bird movements during migration. Bird banding has allowed us to see that several Tree Swallows from the project have returned to the same nest box after spending the winter in Central America!
Making the Park Bird-Friendly
As the season begins to change, you may notice an increase in the number and types of birds observed around your neighbourhood. With the onset of fall comes a new migratory period for the billions of birds that undertake this long-haul movement as a part of their annual cycle. During migration, birds often travel through areas they are unfamiliar with. When this coincides with cityscapes, the result can be deadly.
Bird-window collisions are one of North America's leading causes of bird mortality, with some estimates placing this number up to a billion deaths each year. During the day, trees and sky reflect off window glass and create the illusion of a continual landscape that birds can fly through. Birds may also see indoor plants through the glass and confuse them with desirable habitats. As a result, many birds fly directly into windows, leading to disorientation, injury, or death.
We recently treated the glass at the Zoo main entrance with a repeating dot pattern to make this surface easier for birds to see. You may have also seen white sticker dots on windows around the Park and Zoo, like at the Park Café and the Polar Bear habitat. These dots were installed on windows that are considered high risk for bird collisions to reduce the number of bird injuries or deaths. These installations have saved countless birds in the Park and Zoo. By leaving these stickers in place, you are helping Assiniboine Park remain a bird-friendly space!
Mitigated window at the Polar Bear habitat in the Journey to Churchill exhibit.
How You Can Help
Create Bird-Friendly Windows
There are several ways you can prevent bird-window collisions at your home. Washable markers, like chalk markers, can be used to create temporary solutions you can use in the fall. Simple patterns like lines or dots are effective, but you can get creative and draw patterns and designs! Make sure the gaps in your pattern are less than 5 cm wide and drawn on the outside of the window to be effective. Other strategies to make windows safe for birds include turning off your lights at night, keeping curtains closed, and moving houseplants away from windows.
A bird-friendly window, mitigated with a pattern drawn on the outside of the window with chalk markers.
Window mitigation - close up of Zoo main entrance.
Participate in Community-Science Projects
Global Bird Rescue, an annual event hosted by FLAP Canada, is taking place during peak migration season and aims to assess the global scope of birds affected by bird-window collisions. Assiniboine Park Conservancy will be taking part in this initiative from September 23rd to September 29th, 2024. You can help raise awareness for bird-window collisions by generating useful data too! Join the Global Bird Rescue project and collaborate with friends, family, or neighbours to monitor windows in your area, and spread the word to prevent collisions. You can report your sightings online at https://www.birdmapper.org/.
Keep Your Cats Inside
One of the leading causes of bird mortality in Canada is outdoor domestic cats, accounting for more than 100 and 350 million bird deaths each year in Canada alone. Because domestic cats are not native wildlife, allowing them to roam outdoors has many negative impacts on birds and other wildlife populations. By keeping your cat indoors, or only allowing them outdoors in a controlled environment (e.g. using a leash and harness, or within a fenced “Catio”), you can help protect native wildlife and keep your cat safe!
If you are looking for more ideas to help protect birds, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website!