 Breeding evidence |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
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Atlas Results
The Dickcissel made incursions into Saskatchewan in both 2017 and 2021, but was absent in the intervening years. In 2017, only a few individuals were encountered, with at least three found on territory near Estevan and one male, likely on territory, observed singing south of Tompkins. The 2021 incursion was more significant, with the maximum number of 19 and 20 individuals recorded in adjacent squares near Estevan, and two singing birds at Fairy Hill, north of Regina, all observed in the first two weeks of July. There was also an early June sighting near Saskatoon, though this bird was probably a vagrant. Dickcissels were generally observed in hay and forage crop fields, as well as in a canola field.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
The Dickcissel is a colonial nester that may breed in numbers one year and be absent the next, responding to cues in habitat and moisture. Extreme southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario intermittently fall within the northern reaches of its elastic breeding range; many years can pass without a single Saskatchewan sighting. Breeds south to Texas and Georgia. It is one of the few grassland birds that winters in the neotropics, mainly on the plains of central Venezuela.
This species formerly nested in tallgrass prairie where the grass is of a certain height and density (Zimmerman 1970). Since the conversion of North America's tallgrass region to crop and hayland, Dickcissels, including birds presumed to have nested in Saskatchewan, now nest in clover, alfalfa, and hay fields that approximate their optimal habitat.
The Dickcissel was once an uncommon and irregular summer resident of Saskatchewan grasslands but with a decline across its entire range it is now a rare and irregular summer resident of the southeast (Smith 1996).
Original text by Trevor Herriot. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Dickcissel in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Dickcissel in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=DICK&lang=en [09 Nov 2025]
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