Populations of Gray-cheeked Thrush are poorly monitored in Canada, with most of the breeding population occurring north of the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) coverage area. The species winters in South America, where it is not well covered by the Christmas Bird Count. The only data comes from BBS coverage of a small number of routes primarily in northern British Columbia, Yukon, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Although considered to be of low reliability because of poor coverage of the breeding population and small sample size, BBS results suggest that there has been a large decrease in the Canadian population since about 1970. At the regional level, apparent decreases have occurred in the Boreal Softwood Shield Bird Conservation Region (BCR; data mostly from Newfoundland) and to a lesser extent in the Taiga Shield and Hudson Plains BCR (data mostly from Labrador since 1989). These decreases are reflected in the national trend for the most recent decade (2006-2016), which includes data from all BCRs and shows a higher magnitude of decrease then the long-term trend, but is also considered to be of low reliability. The species consists of two subspecies: the broadly distributed aliciae subspecies and the minimus subspecies, which occurs in Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador (FitzGerald et al. 2017). Different factors could potentially influence the two subspecies, causing differences in population trend. The species is below the lowest acceptable level relative to its national population goal (see Canada graph below).
Additional information on: Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) - Canadian analysis