By Martha Leary for the Backlands Coalition
July 14, 2024
With leadership from the Williams Lake Conservation Company (WLCC) the Backlands Coalition (BC) has assembled the “Bird Team”.
In addition to our annual surveys of all birds in the Backlands, our popular social media series on ground-nesting birds and participation in the Bird Friendly Halifax activities, the Bird Team is continuing our 2-year Common Nighthawk Project.
This year our Bird Team includes students and professors from Dalhousie University who are gathering standardized data on the Common Nighthawk and doing a systematic analysis of the food sources available to the birds.
The Common Nighthawk is the Halifax Bird of the Year for 2024 and is a Species at Risk in Nova Scotia. Its numbers have declined 68% across southern Canada. The work of the Bird Team and the Dalhousie students will add information for the Nova Scotia recovery plan for the Common Nighthawk.
Visit this link for a video of the Common Nighthawk in the Backlands (credit Joshua Barss Donham):