February 23, 2021 By Nate Smelle Every 20 years, birders in Ontario conduct a survey of all breeding birds species – including owls and marsh birds – observed and documented throughout the province over a five year period. The goal of this study is to map the distribution and relative abundance of the approximately 300 species of breeding birds in the province, and update the information found in the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. As a collaborative undertaking by Ontario Nature, Birds Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service – Ontario Region, Ontario Field Ornithologists, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and a variety of citizen science-based community groups, the atlas uses a “rigorous approach” to determine the distributions and populations of bird species breeding in Ontario, and changes over time. Locally, members of the Bancroft Field Naturalist Club are participating in the study. As the club’s past-president and avid naturalist, Terry Bradt is one of the local birders sharing his observations with the data collectors putting together the atlas. Speaking to the value of this study, he said the data compiled in the atlas is “vital for conservation and planning.”