 Breeding evidence |
 Relative abundance |
 Probability of observation |
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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]
[%squares plot]
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Atlas Results
Atlas results coming soon
Note: During all years of the Saskatchewan Breeding Bird Atlas drought conditions persisted and the Atlas range maps for all waterfowl, waterbirds, and wetland-associated species should be viewed as characteristic of distribution and abundance during dry conditions. Read the full drought statement here.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
Nelson's Sparrow nests in three geographically separate areas: southern Northwest Territories south through the Prairie Provinces to northwest Minnesota; around James Bay and southern Hudson Bay; and the lower St Lawrence estuary, coastal Maritimes, and New England. Wintering occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US.
This sparrow nests mostly in cattails and bulrushes, occasionally in tall and dense grasses bordering marshes, ponds, and lakeshores (Callin 1980, Smith 1996, Roy in Leighton et al. 2002).
Nelson's Sparrow is generally an uncommon summer resident breeding locally across most of southern Saskatchewan (Smith 1996). It is extremely scarce in the southwest; the only records are of two at Cypress Lake 8 Jul 1948 (Godfrey 1950) and another at Eastend Dam/Reservoir 28 Jun 1995 (SBDB). In suitable habitat, singing males can be numerous. Breeding numbers and nesting areas vary from year to year (Houston and Anaka 2003); the birds are scarcer in years of low water when there are fewer areas of emergent vegetation (Roy 1996, Wapple and Renaud 2008).
Original text by Paul Chytyk. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Nelson's Sparrow in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Nelson's Sparrow 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=NESP&lang=en [14 Nov 2025]
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