Canadian Music Festival on Hold Due to a Single Nesting Bird

Birds couldn’t care less about your human entertainment, and a killdeer certainly isn’t going to change its breeding plans to accommodate Ottawa’s annual Bluesfest music festival.

CNN reports:

This year, preparations for the festival are on hold to protect one very special attendee: a mother bird and her nest. Workers discovered the bird, a killdeer, guarding her four eggs while they were setting up one of the festival’s main stages. The breed is protected by the Canadian government and cannot be moved without federal permission.

Killdeers are quirky migratory shorebirds, and you may see them nesting in odd places—like in the middle of a parking lot, for example. But even if the birds don’t choose the safest spots to brood, they’re thankfully defended by some very old conservation laws. Back in the early 1900s, humans were really wrecking bird species, hunting many to near extinction for fun or for their beautiful feathers. In response, the United States and Canada signed a 1916 treaty to protect migrating birds.

Here in the US, the resulting law is called the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and Canada has its own version. Since the killdeer is on the list of protected species, the organizers of Bluesfest must ask the Canadian government for permission to move the eggs.

And moving the eggs can be bad. According to the CBC, the killdeer might abandon its eggs if the nest is moved too far.

While it’s a very silly problem to have, it didn’t surprise at least one scientist we spoke to. “They choose some strange places to nest,” Susan Elbin, Director of Conservation and Science at New York City Audubon, told Gizmodo. “We had one nesting in the middle of a construction site on Governor’s Island.” You just need to cordon off and protect the eggs, Elbin said.

The eggs have a three-to-four week incubation period, and then babies are up, running, and flying fairly quickly after hatching. The festival is slated to begin July 5 and will have 300,000 attendees, reports CNN. The festival organizers have an idea as to where to move the birds, but just need the government to give the OK.

Bird conservation is a good thing. If anything, the festival organizers can let the killdeer be this year’s Bluesfest mascot.

[via CNN]

via Gizmodo
Canadian Music Festival on Hold Due to a Single Nesting Bird