Key Areas for Birds in the coastal regions of the Canadian Beaufort Sea

The Beaufort Sea region provides marine and coastal habitat for hundreds of thousands of migrating, breeding, and molting birds. Alexander et al. (1988) published an atlas of the region that summarized avian distribution and abundance along the Canadian Beaufort coastline, and evaluated the regional importance of specific areas to birds. This project provides an update to that original atlas, and it expands the geographical scope to include Banks, Prince Patrick, and Eglinton islands, and the mainland coast east of Cape Bathurst. As in the original atlas, seasonal differences in bird distributions and abundances are considered through separate evaluations in each of the four time periods: spring migration (May to mid-June), nesting (June to mid-July), molting/brood-rearing (mid-July to mid-August), and fall migration (mid-August to late September). There is a description of the major aspects of avian use for each region in each time period, as well as colour-coded maps delineating areas of high, moderate, variable and low avian use. This information should assist developers, regulators, and regional planners in ensuring that negative impacts on birds from industrial activities are minimized. Additionally, this atlas can serve as a quick reference tool for ensuring that important bird areas receive priority protection in the event of an oil spill or other pollutant event.