Rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4

Distribution

Global range

The Rusty Blackbird is an exclusively North American species with a range of occurrence of over 7.6 million km², which includes almost all of the Canadian provinces and the Yukon and Northwest Territories, most of the U.S. state of Alaska, and some parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York and Massachusetts (Avery 1995; Figure 1).

The winter range of the Rusty Blackbird includes southern Massachusetts, southeastern New York, southeastern Pennsylvania, southwestern Virginia, northern Ohio, southeastern Michigan, southeastern Wisconsin, central Iowa, central Kansas, central Oklahoma; and the remaining Atlantic coast states. The Rusty Blackbird also winters locally and sporadically in very small numbers in the southern part of most Canadian provinces (Avery 1995; Figure 1).

Canadian range

The Canadian range of the Rusty Blackbird extends from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon and includes all Canadian provinces and territories (Godfrey 1986; J. Richards pers. comm.; Figure 1).

The northern limit of the Rusty Blackbird’s breeding range in Canada is delineated by the Old Crow region in northern Yukon; the Mackenzie River delta, Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories (NWT); the Thelon and Arviat rivers in Nunavut; the south shore of Hudson Bay from Churchill, Manitoba, to central Ontario; Guillaume-Delisle Lake and Kuujjuaq in northern Québec; Davis Inlet in Labrador; and the north coast of Newfoundland (Cadman et al. 1987; Erskine 1992; Gauthier and Aubry 1995; Norment et al. 1999; Manitoba Avian Research Committee 2003; Sinclair et al. 2003; J. Richards pers. comm.). The southern limit of its range includes central British Columbia east of the Coast Mountains, central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, northeastern Michigan, southern Ontario (i.e., Bruce Peninsula), southern Québec (i.e., the Outaouais and Eastern Townships), and southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Figure 1).

Figure 1. North American distribution of the Rusty Blackbird during breeding (light grey) and wintering (dark grey) seasons. The Rusty Blackbird also winters irregularly within the dotted area (adapted from Avery 1995, based on Gauthier and Aubry 1995; Campbell et al. 1997; Norment et al. 1999; Manitoba Avian Research Committee 2003; Sinclair et al. 2003, and http://www.birdsource.org).

Figure 1. North American distribution of the Rusty Blackbird during breeding (light grey) and wintering (dark grey) seasons

The range of occurrence of the species is generally continuous and relatively unfragmented (Godfrey 1986). The species’ extent of occurrence in Canada is estimated at approximately 5.3 million km², which is 70% of their 7.6 million km² North American breeding range (Blancher 2003). The species’ area of occupancy in Canada is unknown, but presumably very large.

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