There has been a recent upload from eBird to the IBA Canada website. In turn, there have been a number of Manitoba IBAs which now have updated in their respective tables. Below are links to the relevant tables. If the writing is in bold, it means that a species trigger has been met (usually either 1% of a global, continental or national (for COSEWIC species) breeding population). If the writing is not in bold type, it means that the total number of birds listed is 75% below the trigger.

If you notice any other changes from 2016 and 2017 which are not highlighted below, please let us know.

MB001 – Delta Marsh IBA,  Semipalmated Plover, Rusty Blackbird

• The above Semipalmated Plover trigger came from our 2016 summer blitz

MB003 – Churchill & Vicinity IBA, Little Gull, Rusty Blackbird

• Little Gulls trigger each year given the small North American breeding population. For example, our 2017 trip to Churchill located 6.
• Rusty Blackbirds were triggered numerous times by visitors to Churchill.

MB010 – Oak Hammock Marsh, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Rusty Blackbird

• One of the 2016 Rusty Blackbird triggers came from our fall blitz.
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper was from summer 2017 from an eBird user.

MB015 – Whitewater Lake, American White Pelican, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Short-billed Dowitcher, Western Grebe, Tundra Swan, Franklin’s Gull

• American White Pelican, Pectoral Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher and Western Grebe were all triggered in our August 2016 blitz.
• Franklin’s Gull received a trigger in our May 2017 blitz.
• Short-billed Dowitcher and Western Grebe were triggered in our early August 2017 blitz
• Long-billed Dowitcher and Western Grebe were triggered in our late August 2017 blitz.
• A total of 2,500 Pectoral Sandpipers has appeared from fall 2014, recorded by Christian Artuso and the late Liis Veelma, indicating that the new boundaries have now been uploaded by Cornell. Thanks to Andrew Couturier and his team at BSC for facilitating this process.

MB024 – Southwestern Manitoba Mixed-grass Prairie, Loggerhead Shrike, Spargue’s Pipit, Chestnut-collared Longspur

• Loggerhead Shrike is a regular trigger in this IBA
• The triggers for pipits and longspurs from 2016 were from our July blitz.

MB038 – North, West and East Shoal Lake, American White Pelican

• The above total shows the IBA Protocol on eBird in action, being a total of 3 different checklists from a single day within the IBA. These were recorded by Christian Artuso and Josiah Van Egmond (checklist 1, checklist 2, checklist 3).

MB055 – Saskatchewan River Delta, Tundra Swan

• The large numbers of Tundra Swans were counted on a single day in the Carrot Valley by Joel Kayer.

MB091 – Riverton Sandy Bar, Rusty Blackbird

• This 2016 trigger came from the late September workparty.

MB100 – Kinosota-Leifur, Red-headed Woodpecker

• The above trigger does not include the total for the IBA blitz in July 2017. This will be updated in the next upload.

We do know of some significant totals at Oak Lake and Plum Lakes IBA which will be added in the next data upload in the table (a certain gathering of cranes and some large totals of Tundra Swans).

Thank you to the many people contributing this critical information on eBird. There is a strong possibility that one day your totals might end up on these tables. If you have any high numbers of birds from IBAs, historic or recent, and they are not entered on eBird, then please don’t hesitate to contact us at iba@naturemanitoba.ca. We would be delighted to enter your bird monitoring information on your behalf!