Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area sits along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, offering a sanctuary for countless bird species. While many visitors come to witness the massive flocks of Snow Geese, the area also shelters some of Canada’s rarest and most vulnerable birds. Understanding which species call this place home helps us appreciate the importance of protecting these vital habitats for future generations.
Bird sightings can vary by season and environmental conditions. Some species listed may require patience and luck to observe. Always follow wildlife area regulations and maintain respectful distances from all birds.
1. Short-Eared Owl
Unlike most owls, this species hunts during daylight hours, gliding low over open fields and marshes. Short-Eared Owls have distinctive facial discs that help channel sound to their ears.
Their buoyant, moth-like flight makes them easy to identify from a distance. Watch for their courtship displays in early spring when males perform dramatic aerial dives accompanied by wing clapping sounds.
2. Peregrine Falcon
Speed defines the Peregrine Falcon, which can reach over 320 kilometres per hour during hunting dives. These powerful raptors nearly disappeared from eastern Canada due to pesticide contamination in the 1960s and 1970s.
Conservation efforts brought them back from the brink. Cap Tourmente’s cliffs provide perfect nesting sites where they raise their young while feasting on migrating shorebirds.
3. Loggerhead Shrike
Sometimes called the butcher bird, Loggerhead Shrikes have a gruesome hunting strategy. They impale prey on thorns or barbed wire to create natural larders for later consumption.
Despite looking like innocent songbirds, they hunt like miniature raptors, catching insects, small birds, and rodents. Their populations have declined dramatically across Canada, making every sighting at Cap Tourmente particularly special.
4. Barn Swallow
With their deeply forked tails streaming behind them, Barn Swallows perform aerial acrobatics that seem to defy physics. These graceful insect hunters have lived alongside humans for centuries, building mud nests on buildings and under bridges.
Their numbers have declined significantly across Canada. Climate change and reduced insect populations likely contribute to their struggles, making conservation sites crucial for their survival.
5. Olive-Sided Flycatcher
Quick, three beers! That is how birders remember the Olive-Sided Flycatcher’s distinctive whistled song. These stocky flycatchers perch atop dead trees, scanning for flying insects.
White tufts peek out from their sides like cottony pockets. They breed in boreal forests and have declined steeply, possibly due to habitat loss on their South American wintering grounds and reduced insect prey during migration.
6. Wood Thrush
The Wood Thrush’s flute-like song once symbolized healthy eastern forests. Their melodious phrases echo through mature woodlands, with each bird capable of singing two notes simultaneously.
Forest fragmentation has devastated their populations. They need large, unbroken forest tracts for successful breeding. Their spotted breasts and reddish heads make them look like oversized, elegant versions of their robin cousins.
7. Canada Warbler
Sporting a bold necklace of black streaks across their yellow chest, Canada Warblers look dressed for a formal occasion. They skulk in dense forest understory, making them challenging to observe despite their bright colours.
These energetic insect hunters have declined by over 60 percent since the 1970s. They require mature forests with thick shrub layers, habitat that continues disappearing across their range.
8. Nelson’s Sparrow
Nelson’s Sparrows practically vanish into salt marsh vegetation with their cryptic plumage and secretive behaviour. Their buzzy, insect-like songs drift from dense marsh grasses where they nest just above the high tide line.
Rising sea levels threaten their coastal breeding marshes. At Cap Tourmente, they occupy freshwater marshes during migration, offering birdwatchers rare opportunities to observe these typically coastal specialists inland.
