The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust is reporting encouraging early signs of success following the start of habitat restoration for the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler on more than 33 hectares of marginal farmland at the MapleCross Featherstone Nature Reserve.
Meanwhile, Bird Friendly Uxbridge announced it will join with North Durham Nature on May 9 to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day by leading a Dawn Chorus.
The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust said while it will take several years before the site matures into the young forest habitat required by the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler, nature is already responding in powerful and hopeful ways.
It said the work is part of an Ontario Kirtland’s Warbler restoration project, in an effort designed to rebuild rare pine-oak ecosystems that have been lost across the Oak Ridges Moraine and critical to multiple at-risk species.
Breeding pairs drop 30%
The work comes at a time when the global population of Kirtland’s Warblers has shown recent declines. According to the 2025 census, the number of breeding pairs dropped by roughly 30 per cent from some 2,245 pairs to about 1,489 pairs. One of the key factors contributing to the decline is the shortage of suitable breeding habitat, since the warbler relies almost exclusively on young jack pine forests that are currently limited in their breeding range.
“The recent decline in Kirtland’s Warbler populations is a clear warning that we are running out of suitable habitat for this species,” said Dr. Ben Walters, Professor in Fleming College’s Forestry program. “What’s exciting about this project is that even in its earliest stages, the land is already being used by other species at risk. That tells us we’re rebuilding an ecosystem that is deeply needed. If we want to reverse these population declines, we have to start creating habitat now, well before the birds are ready to return.”
Already attracting other at-risk species
Although it will be some time before Kirtland’s Warblers themselves are expected to arrive at MapleCross Featherstone, the site has already begun attracting several other at-risk species. Early observations include Eastern Whip-poor-will, Common Nighthawk, Yellow-banded Bumble Bee, Monarch butterfly, Eastern Red Bat, and Hoary Bat – all species-at-risk that are also struggling across southern Ontario, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
“I have been working in conservation for over 25 years, and I have never seen such a concentration of bumble bees and native plants in bloom in one place.” said Aileen Barclay, Director of Conservation and Operations with the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.
As the habitat continues to develop, it is expected to support additional species at risk, including Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, Common Nighthawk, Little Brown Bat, Northern Myotis, a diverse community of pollinators and other insects, and native flora, many of which are severely restricted to small areas on the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Uxbridge Dawn Chorus
Bird Friendly Uxbridge announced it will join with North Durham Nature on May 9 to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day by leading a Dawn Chorus.
For those literally willing to get up before the birds, this is a unique chance to hear the morning song of freshly arrived migrants, as local experts help you to identify each one. A participant in last year’s Chorus called it “a borderline mystical experience”.
Bird Friendly Uxbridge team leader Carly Davenport said community science is great, and apps like eBird and iNaturalist make the process really easy. The need for this type of data becomes more urgent every day. “We’re losing our migratory birds to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and collisions with human-made structures,” it pointed out.
Community science is a bridge between local action and global conservation efforts, enabling real-time monitoring and rapid responses to emerging threats.
“Every observation counts”, says Davenport, “and every participant becomes part of a larger movement. When so much in the world seems beyond our control, this is a way for each of us to actually make a difference.”
Anyone interested in signing up for the Dawn Chorus can register online. Spaces are limited.
Bird Friendly Uxbridge is a local team of volunteers committed to helping Uxbridge Township maintain Nature Canada’s Bird Friendly City standards by working across three main pillars:
- reducing threat to birds,
- protecting and restoring habitat and
- engaging the Uxbridge community.
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