Pelagic Cormorants are not very faithful to colony sites, so monitoring of selected colonies is not a good way to track the population. Instead, periodic surveys of all known colonies are required, but few of these are available for Canada. Declines in breeding populations were observed in the Strait of Georgia, British-Columbia, between 1987 and 2000 (Chatwin et al. 2002 in Hobson 2013). However, results from the Christmas Bird Count for both Canada and North America suggest that both the Canadian and continental populations have changed little since 1970. These results are based on a relatively small number of count circles, particularly for Canada (n = 42), but these results likely reflect the population status for the species. Information specific to Canadian breeding colonies would nevertheless be helpful. In the interim, results from the British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey also provide supporting evidence that the overwintering population has remained stable over the short term (see below). The agreement among surveys suggests that the reliability of this assessment is high. The Pelagic Cormorant is currently at an acceptable level relative to its national population goal (see graph for North America below).
Additional information on: Christmas Bird Count (CBC)
Additional information on: British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey
