Year-round habitat use of yellow and chestnut-sided warblers across a rural-urban gradient
– Nathanya Goudreau, Josiah Riskin, Dr. Kyle Elliott, Dr. Barbara Frei (McGill University), Lauriane Nault (Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC))
Urban greenspaces and forests have the potential to serve an important role in supporting biodiversity, particularly to vagile species such as birds. Most research on birds within urban ecosystems has focused on the breeding season, creating a seasonal bias. An emerging and exciting topic within urban ornithology is identifying how birds use or move through urban areas during the migratory or non-breeding periods. Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers are urban-tolerant, migratory songbirds breeding in cities across eastern Canada and wintering in urban areas in the neotropics. Thus, they serve as an ideal study species to explore migratory and wintering movements by birds within an urban landscape. The objective of the project is to determine whether urban warblers have different migration phenology than rural warblers (ex. Kenauk), and whether they encounter different threats during migration.
