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Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 (S.C. 1994, c. 22)

Act current to 2024-10-30 and last amended on 2017-12-12. Previous Versions

SCHEDULE(Section 2)

Convention

Whereas many species of birds in the course of their annual migrations traverse certain parts of the Dominion of Canada and the United States; and

Whereas many of these species are of great value as a source of food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both Canada and the United States, but are nevertheless in danger of extermination through lack of adequate protection during the nesting season or while on their way to and from their breeding grounds;

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India, and the United States of America, being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such objects, and to the end of concluding a convention for this purpose have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries:

His Britannic Majesty, the Right Honourable Sir Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., etc., His Majesty’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at Washington; and

The President of the United States of America, Robert Lansing, Secretary of State of the United States;

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and adopted the following articles: —

Article I

The High Contracting Powers declare that the migratory birds included in the terms of this Convention shall be as follows: —

  • 1 Migratory Game Birds: —

    • (a) Anatidae or waterfowl, including brant, wild ducks, geese, and swans;

    • (b) Gruidae or cranes, including little brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes;

    • (c) Rallidae or rails, including coots, gallinules and sora and other rails;

    • (d) Limicolae or shorebirds, including avocets, curlew, dowitchers, godwits, knots, oyster catchers, phalaropes, plovers, sandpipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, willet, woodcock, and yellowlegs;

    • (e) Columbidae or pigeons, including doves and wild pigeons.

  • 2 Migratory Insectivorous Birds: Bobolinks, catbirds, chickadees, cuckoos, flickers, flycatchers, grosbeaks, humming birds, kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, nighthawks or bull bats, nuthatches, orioles, robins, shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers, titmice, thrushes, vireos, warblers, waxwings, whippoorwills, woodpeckers, and wrens, and all other perching birds which feed entirely or chiefly on insects.

  • 3 Other Migratory Nongame Birds: Auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, and terns.

Article II

The High Contracting Parties agree that, as an effective means of preserving migratory birds, there shall be established the following close seasons during which no hunting shall be done except for scientific or propagating purposes under permits issued by proper authorities.

  • 1 The close season on migratory game birds shall be between 10th March and 1st September, except that the close of the season on the limicolae or shorebirds in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and in those states of the United States bordering on the Atlantic ocean which are situated wholly or in part north of Chesapeake Bay shall be between 1st February and 15th August, and that Indians may take at any time scoters for food but not for sale. The season for hunting shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and one-half months as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate and define by law or regulation.

  • 2 The close season on migratory insectivorous birds shall continue throughout the year.

  • 3 The close season on other migratory nongame birds shall continue throughout the year, except that Eskimos and Indians may take at any season auks, auklets, guillemots, murres and puffins, and their eggs for food and their skins for clothing, but the birds and eggs so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale.

Article III

The High Contracting Powers agree that during the period of ten years next following the going into effect of this Convention, there shall be a continuous close season on the following migratory game birds, to wit:

Band-tailed pigeons, little brown, sandhill and whooping cranes, swans, curlew and all shorebirds (except the black-breasted and golden plover, Wilson or jack snipe, woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellowlegs); provided that during such ten years the close seasons on cranes, swans and curlew in the province of British Columbia shall be made by the proper authorities of that province within the general dates and limitations elsewhere prescribed in this Convention for the respective groups to which these birds belong.

Article IV

The High Contracting Powers agree that special protection shall be given the wood duck and the eider duck either (1) by a close season extending over a period of at least five years, or (2) by the establishment of refuges, or (3) by such other regulations as may be deemed appropriate.

Article V

The taking of nests or eggs of migratory game or insectivorous or nongame birds shall be prohibited, except for scientific or propagating purposes under such laws or regulations as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate.

Article VI

The High Contracting Powers agree that the shipment or export of migratory birds or their eggs from any state or province, during the continuance of the close season in such state or province, shall be prohibited except for scientific or propagating purposes, and the international traffic in any birds or eggs at such time captured, killed, taken, or shipped at any time contrary to the laws of the state or province in which the same were captured, killed, taken, or shipped shall be likewise prohibited. Every package containing migratory birds or any parts thereof or any eggs of migratory birds transported, or offered for transportation from the Dominion of Canada into the United States or from the United States into the Dominion of Canada, shall have the name and address of the shipper and an accurate statement of the contents clearly marked on the outside of such package.

Article VII

Permits to kill any of the above-named birds which, under extraordinary conditions, may become seriously injurious to the agricultural or other interests in any particular community, may be issued by the proper authorities of the High Contracting Powers under suitable regulations prescribed therefor by them respectively, but such permits shall lapse or may be cancelled, at any time when, in the opinion of said authorities, the particular exigency has passed, and no birds killed under this article shall be shipped, sold, or offered for sale.

Article VIII

The High Contracting Powers agree themselves to take, or propose to their respective appropriate law-making bodies, the necessary measures for insuring the execution of the present Convention.

Article IX

The present Convention shall be ratified by His Britannic Majesty and by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof. The ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible and the Convention shall take effect on the date of the exchange of the ratifications. It shall remain in force for fifteen years, and in the event of neither of the High Contracting Powers having given notification twelve months before the expiration of said period of fifteen years, of its intention of terminating its operation, the Convention shall continue to remain in force for one year and so on from year to year.

In faith whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention in duplicate and have hereunto affixed their seals.

Done at Washington this sixteenth day of August, 1916.

[Here follow the signatures of Cecil Spring-Rice and Robert Lansing.]

Protocol Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America Amending the 1916 Convention Between the United Kingdom and the United States of America for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada and the United States

The Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America,

REAFFIRMING their commitment to achieving the purposes and objectives of the 1916 Convention between the United Kingdom and the United States of America for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada and the United States;

DESIRING to amend and update the Convention to enable effective actions to be taken to improve the conservation of migratory birds;

COMMITTED to the long-term conservation of shared species of migratory birds for their nutritional, social, cultural, spiritual, ecological, economic, and aesthetic values through a more comprehensive international framework that involves working together to cooperatively manage their populations, regulate their take, protect the lands and waters on which they depend, and share research and survey information;

AWARE that changes to the Convention are required to ensure conformity with the aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada;

ACKNOWLEDGING the intent of the United States to provide for the customary and traditional taking of certain species of migratory birds and their eggs for subsistence use by indigenous inhabitants of Alaska; and

AFFIRMING that it is not the intent of this Protocol to cause significant increases in the take of species of migratory birds relative to their continental population sizes;

HAVE AGREED as follows:

Article I

In order to update the listing of migratory birds included in the terms of this Convention in a manner consistent with their current taxonomic (Family and Subfamily) status, Article I of the Convention is deleted and replaced by the following:

The High Contracting Powers declare that the migratory birds included in the terms of this Convention shall be as follows:

  • 1 Migratory Game Birds:

    Anatidae, or waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans); Gruidae, or cranes (greater and lesser sandhill and whooping cranes); Rallidae, or rails (coots, gallinules and rails); Charadriidae, Haematopodidae, Recurvirostridae, and Scolopacidae, or shorebirds (including plovers and lapwings, oystercatchers, stilts and avocets, and sandpipers and allies); and Columbidae (doves and wild pigeons).

  • 2 Migratory Insectivorous Birds:

    Aegithalidae (long-tailed tits and bushtits); Alaudidae (larks); Apodidae (swifts); Bombycillidae (waxwings); Caprimulgidae (goatsuckers); Certhiidae (creepers); Cinclidae (dippers); Cuculidae (cuckoos); Emberizidae (including the emberizid sparrows, wood-warblers, tanagers, cardinals and grosbeaks and allies, bobolinks, meadowlarks, and orioles, but not including blackbirds); Fringillidae (including the finches and grosbeaks); Hirundinidae (swallows); Laniidae (shrikes); Mimidae (catbirds, mockingbirds, thrashers, and allies); Motacillidae (wagtails and pipits); Muscicapidae (including the kinglets, gnatcatchers, robins, and thrushes); Paridae (titmice); Picidae (woodpeckers and allies); Sittidae (nuthatches); Trochilidae (hummingbirds); Troglodytidae (wrens); Tyrannidae (tyrant flycatchers); and Vireonidae (vireos).

  • 3 Other Migratory Nongame Birds:

    Alcidae (auks, auklets, guillemots, murres, and puffins); Ardeidae (bitterns and herons); Hydrobatidae (storm petrels); Procellariidae (petrels and shearwaters); Sulidae (gannets); Podicipedidae (grebes); Laridae (gulls, jaegers, and terns); and Gaviidae (loons).

Article II

Article II of the Convention is deleted and replaced by the following:

The High Contracting Powers agree that, to ensure the long-term conservation of migratory birds, migratory bird populations shall be managed in accord with the following conservation principles:

To manage migratory birds internationally;

To ensure a variety of sustainable uses;

To sustain healthy migratory bird populations for harvesting needs;

To provide for and protect habitat necessary for the conservation of migratory birds; and

To restore depleted populations of migratory birds.

Means to pursue these principles may include, but are not limited to:

Monitoring, regulation, enforcement and compliance;

Co-operation and partnership;

Education and information;

Incentives for effective stewardship;

Protection of incubating birds;

Designation of harvest areas;

Management of migratory birds on a population basis;

Use of aboriginal and indigenous knowledge, institutions and practices; and

Development, sharing and use of best scientific information.

  • 1 Except as provided for below, there shall be established the following close seasons during which no hunting shall be done:

    • (a) The close season on migratory game birds shall be between March 10 and September 1, and the season for hunting shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and one-half months as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate and define by law or regulation; and

    • (b) The close season on migratory insectivorous birds and other migratory nongame birds shall continue throughout the year.

  • 2 Except as provided for below, migratory birds, their nests, or eggs shall not be sold or offered for sale.

  • 3 Subject to laws, decrees or regulations to be specified by the proper authorities, the taking of migratory birds may be allowed at any time of the year for scientific, educational, propagative, or other specific purposes consistent with the conservation principles of this Convention.

  • 4 Notwithstanding the close season provisions in paragraph 1 and the prohibition on the taking of eggs in Article V, and respecting aboriginal and indigenous knowledge and institutions:

    • (a) In the case of Canada, subject to existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and the regulatory and conservation regimes defined in the relevant treaties, land claims agreements, self-government agreements, and co-management agreements with Aboriginal peoples of Canada:

      • (i) Migratory birds and their eggs may be harvested throughout the year by Aboriginal peoples of Canada having aboriginal or treaty rights, and down and inedible by-products may be sold, but the birds and eggs so taken shall be offered for barter, exchange, trade or sale only within or between Aboriginal communities as provided for in the relevant treaties, land claims agreements, self-government agreements, or co-management agreements made with Aboriginal peoples of Canada; and

      • (ii) Migratory game and non-game birds and their eggs may be taken throughout the year for food by qualified non-aboriginal residents in areas of northern Canada where the relevant treaties, land claims agreements, self-government agreements, or co-management agreements made with Aboriginal peoples of Canada recognize that the Aboriginal peoples may so permit. The dates of the fall season for the taking of migratory game birds by qualified residents of Yukon and the Northwest Territories may be varied by law or regulation by the proper authorities. The birds or eggs taken pursuant to this sub-paragraph (ii) shall not be sold or offered for sale.

    • (b) In the case of the United States:

      • (i) Migratory birds and their eggs may be harvested by the indigenous inhabitants of the State of Alaska. Seasons and other regulations implementing the non-wasteful taking of migratory birds and the collection of their eggs by indigenous inhabitants of the State of Alaska shall be consistent with the customary and traditional uses by such indigenous inhabitants for their own nutritional and other essential needs; and

      • (ii) Indigenous inhabitants of the State of Alaska shall be afforded an effective and meaningful role in the conservation of migratory birds including the development and implementation of regulations affecting the non-wasteful taking of migratory birds and the collection of their eggs, by participating on relevant management bodies.

  • 5 Murres may be taken by non-aboriginal residents of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador for food, subject to regulation, during the period from September 1 to March 10, but the murres so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale. The season for murre hunting shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and one-half months as the proper authorities may deem appropriate by law or regulation.

Article III

Article III of the Convention is deleted and replaced by the following:

The High Contracting Powers agree to meet regularly to review progress in implementing the Convention. The review shall address issues important to the conservation of migratory birds, including the status of migratory bird populations, the status of important migratory bird habitats, the effectiveness of management and regulatory systems and other issues deemed important by either High Contracting Power. The High Contracting Powers agree to work cooperatively to resolve identified problems in a manner consistent with the principles underlying this Convention and, if the need arises, to conclude special arrangements to conserve and protect species of concern.

Article IV

Article IV of the Convention is deleted and replaced by the following:

Each High Contracting Power shall use its authority to take appropriate measures to preserve and enhance the environment of migratory birds. In particular, it shall, within its constitutional authority:

  • (a) seek means to prevent damage to such birds and their environments, including damage resulting from pollution;

  • (b) endeavour to take such measures as may be necessary to control the importation of live animals and plants which it determines to be hazardous to the preservation of such birds;

  • (c) endeavour to take such measures as may be necessary to control the introduction of live animals and plants which could disturb the ecological balance of unique island environments; and

  • (d) pursue cooperative arrangements to conserve habitats essential to migratory bird populations.

Article V

Article V of the Convention is deleted and replaced by the following:

The taking of nests or eggs of migratory game or insectivorous or nongame birds shall be prohibited, except for scientific, educational, propagating or other specific purposes consistent with the principles of this Convention under such laws or regulations as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate, or as provided for under Article II, paragraph 4.

Article VI

This Protocol is subject to ratification. This Protocol shall enter into force on the date the Parties exchange instruments of ratification, shall continue to remain in force for the duration of the Convention and shall be considered an integral part of the Convention particularly for the purpose of its interpretation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned representatives, being duly authorized by their respective Governments, have signed the present Protocol.

DONE at Washington, this 14th day of December, 1995, in duplicate, in the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA:FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
[Here follow the signatures of Sheila Copps and Bruce Babbitt.]
  • 1994, c. 22, Sch.
  • SOR/2000-189

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