Press release

November 10, 2025 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Birds Canada is pleased to announce the long-anticipated release of the Saskatchewan Breeding Bird Atlas, one of the largest volunteer-based initiatives in Saskatchewan’s history, and a critical new resource for conservation. This important work provides Birds Canada and our partners with the in-depth knowledge we need to protect birds and their habitats.

To make it happen, a small but mighty group of 330 participants collectively spent over 22,700 hours surveying birds from 2017 to 2021. They documented 271 species that nest, or likely nest, across the entirety of the province from Estevan to the shores of Lake Athabasca and beyond. Participants used their keen observation skills to observe bird behaviour for signs that they were nesting nearby, submitting over 770,000 records. Notable finds include the province’s first Western Flycatcher nesting in the Cypress Hills, a Barn Swallow nest on a natural rockface along the MacFarlane River in northern Saskatchewan providing a rare glimpse of where the species would have built nests pre-settlement, along with documenting several bird range expansions such as the striking Black-necked Stilt moving in from Alberta, and range contractions for birds that rely on native grasslands such as the Chestnut-collared Longspur and Thick-billed Longspur.

The Saskatchewan Breeding Bird Atlas website has dedicated accounts for each species with photos, maps, and details about the atlas results. There is in-depth information about the atlas itself, the methods, and the people involved. We are also pleased to share adapted excerpts from the *Birds of Saskatchewan, *the seminal work on the province’s birds published by our partners at Nature Saskatchewan in 2019. For birds with enough data, a second set of maps shows where they are most likely to be seen and where they are expected to be in greatest numbers. Although some portions of the text are still being finalized, all of the accounts have been made available to the public.

The atlas was possible thanks to the efforts of volunteers, partners, and staff who collected data from all corners of the province, and the generous support of funders. Their support and dedication leave us humbled and in a better position to understand and protect Saskatchewan’s diverse birdlife.

“Every year, we continue to lose thousands of hectares of grasslands, and with it the disappearance of thousands of homes for grassland birds and other wildlife. We see the evidence of this in the documented range contractions of several grassland bird Species at Risk in Saskatchewan.”

– Kiel Drake

Prairie Region Director, Birds Canada