Conserve Ontario's Carolinian Forests: preserve songbird species at risk

Songbirds of Canada’s Carolinian Forest

Several of Canada’s at-risk forest songbird species, including the Acadian Flycatcher (Empidonax virescens), Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea), Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina), Louisiana Waterthrush (Seiurus motacilla), and Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), are migrants that share essential breeding habitat in the forests of Ontario’s Carolinian Zone. Like many songbirds that nest in Canada, these species winter in Central and South America, and migrate each year to eastern North America for the spring and summer months. All five of these species nest primarily in the forested regions of the eastern United States, but also nest in the forested regions of Ontario’s Carolinian Zone. Natural areas in this region of southwestern Ontario are under pressure from urban expansion and increasing intensification of agricultural practices, all of which result in a reduction in the amount and size of woodlands.