The only source of long-term Canada-wide trends for Virginia Rail is the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), which suggests a moderate increase since 1970. However, these results have low precision, reflecting the poor detection of this secretive species through passive surveys (Conway 1995, Tozer 2007a). Marsh Monitoring Programs in the Great Lakes and Quebec use call-playback methods to increase detections and provide the best methodology. In contrast to the Canada-wide BBS results, the regional and shorter-term results from both these programs suggest slight declines in the Ontario Great Lakes Basin population since 1995, and in Quebec since 2004. These results may highlight regional variation in the Canadian population, or may reflect trends not picked up by the BBS. Considering all sources, the population status for Virginia Rail, based mainly on BBS, is perhaps best assessed as having shown a moderate increase since 1970. However, because of the limitations of the BBS protocol for this species and because the implications of the contrasting regional results from Marsh Monitoring Programs over two time-frames and two geographic scales are unclear, the reliability of this assessment is considered to be low. Continent-wide results from the BBS also suggest an increase of the population. The Virginia Rail is currently at an acceptable level relative to its national population goal (see BBS Canada graph below).
Additional information on: Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) - Canadian analysis
Additional information on: Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program
Additional information on: Quebec Marsh Monitoring Program
