Woodstock is a Bird Friendly City

WEAC, local field naturalists applied to Nature Canada

Since Woodstock is considered the Friendly City; now it's time to also call it the Bird Friendly City thanks to a recent recognition from Nature Canada.

The list of criteria for this designation included a few factors, but one main point to be made is that the Woodstock Environment Advisory Committee (WEAC) created an ad-hoc committee with members of the Woodstock Field Naturalists, which was established in 1934, and also additional nature lovers such as wildlife photographers, trail lovers, and bird watchers to make this status possible.

I'm on the ad-hoc committee as a WEAC member for City Council, but the efforts of Elise Gabrielli and Dinath Ratnayake coordinated the on-going efforts that would also include Richard and Sharron Skevington (Sharron is the field naturalist club archivist), Carlos Gregorio, Elizabeth Spedaliere, April Scholz, Annette Taylor, and Sara McCreery.

The approval by Nature Canada translates into a corridor of Bird Friendly cities in southern Ontario -- London, Stratford, Guelph, Hamilton and up to Peterborough. Also, Ontario cities added to the list in 2026 are Ottawa, Caledon and Belleville.

I was also quoted in the official Nature Canada press release.

“Since Woodstock is the Friendly City, I congratulate the entire committee, who have submitted the application to Nature Canada for Woodstock to be declared Bird Friendly. Bird watchers, nature photographers, and many others brought their expertise and dedication to this group.

"Many studies note the dwindling number of many species of birds in Ontario, and our community is joining a group of environmentally conscientious communities by thinking more about birds and their habitat, and also recognizing their importance to the eco system.” – Councillor Mark Schadenberg, City of Woodstock.

Sharron Skevington, Woodstock Field Naturalist executive notes: “We are proud to say that our own City of Woodstock is now one of more than 30 municipalities which have been certified as Bird Friendly Cities, committed to reducing key threats to local bird populations such as window collisions, cat predation and habitat loss.”

The fact that Woodstock has the Thames River as a dominant feature on its map is also important as the Thames is a Canadian Heritage River -- a designation it earned in 2000 through the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) and a hard-working committee at that time.

The next goal for the Woodstock Bird Friendly committee is to have a selection community vote to name the city's official bird. The top three in the committee's nomination process are American Goldfinch, Black-Capped Chickadee and the Song Sparrow. I'm not a betting person, but my preference is the Goldfinch as it closely resembles the Charles Schulz bird Woodstock from the Peanuts series.