The Canadian Boreal Forest 

Protecting the Songbird Nursery of North America

The Canadian boreal forest is especially important as breeding habitat for migratory songbirds. Each year, nearly 3 billion songbirds travel to the boreal forest, including 1 billion sparrows and a half-billion woodland warblers.

It provides breeding habitat for more than 30 percent of North America's entire bird population.More than 75 percent of North American waterfowl rely on the boreal forest for breeding, migration and molting.

Canada's boreal forest provides breeding habitat for more than 80 percent of the global populations of 14 species:

• Palm warblers
• Tennessee warblers
• Black-backed woodpeckers
• Connecticut warblers
• Northern shrikes
• Smith's longspurs
• Spruce grouse
• Yellow-bellied flycatchers
• Philadelphia vireos
• White-throated sparrows
• Lincoln's sparrows
• Cape May warblers
• Bay-breasted warblers
• Swamp sparrows

Each individual species has its own habitat requirements. Some need particular combinations of trees for nesting and foraging. Some require huge swaths of unbroken forest and will not cross even the narrowest of lumber roads.

By joining with partners to protect North America's boreal forest, the Conservancy commits its science expertise and conservation credibility to the concept of a well-managed and substantially intact forest. In so doing, the Conservancy is investing in the birthplace of some of North America's most colorful and beloved springtime birds — and in one of the most important avian resources in the world.