


WATERFOWL BANDING IN THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE PROVINCES 
By Seth H. Low 
For purposes of management, the waterfowl population within the 
United States is divided into four units, or flyways. Estimates of 
mambers of birds available during the fall migration period are 
necessary for the purpose of setting the annual shooting regulationse 
- Data, upon which fall flight estimates are based, are gathered by 
means of aerial surveys of breeding areas in Camada, Alaska, and the 
northern portion of the United States. Unfortunately, breeding 
areas for each flyway are not separate and distinct. Rather, many 
areas supply birds to two or three flyways, and some to all four. 
One of the major weaknesses in the present forecasts of fall flight 
in each of the flyways is lack of knowledge of the proportion of 
birds which move to each of the flyways from various units of the 
breeding range 
Large-scale banding is the method uged to solve the problem of 
distribution from breeding areas, ami priority has been given to the 
more important areas. Surveys of all major duck~-breeding areas have 
amply demonstrated that the southern portions of the Provinces of 
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba can truly be called the "duck 
factory" of North America. In 1956, for example, it was estimated 
_ that 56 percent of the total breeding population of ducks nested in 
ave regions 
ae The first organiastion to band large numbers of ducks in the. 
Prairie Provinces was Ducks Unlimited. From 1939 through 1918, 
that organization banded approximately 56,000 birds at about 50 
‘banding locations mostly in the southern portions of the three 
- Provinces. Beginning in 197, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
the Canadian Wildlife Service, and the Provincial Game Branches 
organized cooperative banding crews for banding during the summer 
months. During the summer of 1954, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service increased its efforts considerably and also enlisted thes 
_ eooperation of a number of States. During the summer of 1956, 
over 60 men took part in the cooperative banding effort in the 
three Prairie Provinces. 
| Between 1939 and 195h, a good portion of the birds banied in 
the Prairie Provinces were caught either at molting areas by drive 
crews, or at late-summer or early-fall concentration points by © 
- means of baite-trapping. As data accumulated, it became apparert 
. that many birds moved into these concentration areas from unknown 
points over long distances. This being the case, birds banded at 
