Why is the rusty blackbird in trouble? Quebec researchers win $60K grant to find out

Quebec's borealforests and muskeg once abounded with rusty blackbirds, nestled near the water.

Just smaller than a robin, with flashy yellow eyes, they moult in the fall, their black or grey-black feathers replaced bythe brownish plumagethat give the bird its name.

But the once-plentiful bird is now listed as a vulnerable species. Pascal Ct hopes to crack the mystery of its drastic decline.

"We're starting with the beginning," said Ct, the director of the Observatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac, a bird observatorylocated at the mouth of the Saguenay River, about 200 kilometresnortheast of Qubec City.

"We don't really know a lot of things about the species."

The country's oldest bird conservation charity, Bird Protection Quebec, is giving the observatory$60,000 overthree years, to try to figure out why the rusty blackbird population has declined by 90 per cent in the past 50 years.

It's the largest grantCthas seen in his ten years with the organization.

"It's really good news, to get a grant like that," he said. "It's a gift."

• A third of birds in North America threatened with extinction

Wintering grounds a mystery

Ornithologists know that in summer the rusty blackbirdbreeds across Canada and in Alaska. The birdsspend their winters in the Mississippi Valleyor on the Atlantic coastal plain, which includes mainly South Carolina and Georgia.

But bird experts likeCtdo not know where the birds gather in big concentrations. And they don'tknow where to find the wintering grounds of those that breed in Quebec.

Ct's team will attach tiny radio transmitters to the legs of 20 birds each year.

"When the birds will move, they will track the signals from the birds all around the migration corridor. So we will be able to follow each bird," he said.

There are already theories about what is afflicting the blackbirds, such as possible mercury contaminationor initiatives to control the population of other types of blackbirds that destroy crops.

However, Ct suspects North Americansmay be stripping the bird of its habitat.

"Probably logging in boreal forests hasa major impact," he surmises.

Listen for sound of rusty hinge

April provides Quebecers witha rare window of opportunity to spot thisuncommon bird. During the course of its migration, the rusty blackbird tends to stop insmall, flooded woodlands along the St. Lawrence River on their way farther north.

Ct said people can identify it not only by its appearance, but also by its call, which sounds a bit like a rusty hinge.