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The American Black Duck breeds primarily in the eastern part of North America and was historically one of the most abundant duck species encountered in this region. However, the species' population declined in abundance over the middle of the last century with the most pronounced decline in the Mississippi Flyway. Causes for this decline are thought to be the result of changes in breeding and wintering habitat quality, overharvesting, and competition and hybridization with Mallards. The American Black Duck population has remained relatively stable since the 1990s, as has the harvest since 2000. The species remains one of the most sought-after waterfowl by hunters in both Canada and the United States. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.
Mid-Winter Waterfowl Surveys conducted by the USFWS in the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway States, which do not cover all of the American Black Duck's wintering range, suggest that Black Duck numbers declined by half from the 1950s to the 1980s. This apparent decline in the population resulted in the implementation of restrictive harvest regulations aimed at protecting the species. Since then, winter population numbers have remained relatively stable, but only about half as many Black Ducks are counted in wintering areas in the U.S. now compared to the early 1950s. There has been a concurrent shift in the winter distribution, with an increased number of Black Ducks wintering in Canada in recent years, which could in part explain the decline observed in the mid-winter surveys (Brook et al. 2009; Robertson et al. 2017). Three factors have been hypothesized to explain the decline in the Black Duck population: habitat loss (i.e., loss of carrying capacity) caused by urban and agricultural development-on both the breeding and wintering grounds; competition with mallards, whose population size and distribution are expanding in eastern Canada; and overharvest, which has been addressed through the implementation of restrictive harvest regulations (Conroy et al. 2002).
Because of the limitations of the winter surveys, a large-scale aerial survey (the Eastern Waterfowl Breeding Ground Survey) was initiated in 1990 by the Black Duck Joint Venture to monitor Black Duck numbers on their breeding grounds (Atlantic provinces, boreal forest in Quebec, and northeastern Ontario) and improve the tracking and estimation of the Black Duck population. Data from this survey show that the population has remained relatively stable for several decades.
Management concerns for the Black Duck population prompted the CWS and the USFWS to adopt, in 2012, an International Black Duck Harvest Strategy, with the objectives of maintaining sustainable population levels and equitable access to the Black Duck resource between the two countries. This adaptive management approach is designed to identify appropriate harvest levels in both Canada and the U.S., based on harvest objectives and population levels of Black Ducks and sympatric Mallards. The desired harvest level is achieved through the selection of a pre-defined regulatory package with a pre-defined season length and bag limits. In Canada, four American Black Duck hunting regulatory packages with varying season lengths and bag limits have been developed (liberal, moderate, restrictive, and closed seasons). Harvest regulations under this strategy were first implemented in 2013-2014 under a liberal approach. Moderate levels of harvest were implemented for the hunting seasons between 2014-2017 and a liberal strategy has been proposed for the 2018-2019 and 2019-20 hunting seasons. Hunting regulations, as well as the Black Duck harvest management approach, are published annually by Environment and Climate Change Canada in the Migratory Game Bird Hunting Regulations in Canada report.
Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:
Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.