Gull And Tern Breeding Colonies On The North Arm Of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010

Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories is one of the most important areas for inland breeding gulls and terns (larids) in northern Canada. Numerous rocky islands on the North Arm provide breeding habitat for a number of colonially-nesting larid species. Great Slave Lake is the only known breeding site for Caspian Terns in the Northwest Territories and the North Arm is the northernmost known breeding range for the species in North America. Given its importance to a variety of migrating, nesting and staging birds, various portions of the area have been recognized as; a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site, an Important Bird Area, and an International Biological Program site.
This dataset contains results from surveys of active larid breeding colonies from between 1986 and 2010 on the portion of the North Arm west of Yellowknife. Most data were collected through ground surveys, with travel by boat, between mid June to early July. Information recorded at each colony included species, numbers of nests, clutch size, presence of chicks, and habitat characteristics (vegetation cover).
The majority of larid colonies were located on islands along the northeastern shoreline. The southwest shoreline saw limited use by nesting larids due to the reduced number and different characteristics of the islands in that area. The most regularly occurring species were Herring Gull, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, and Caspian Tern.

Results of these surveys have been published in the report “Gull and Tern Breeding Colonies on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010 (Woodard, Fournier, and Robertson, 2013).

Woodard, P.F., M.A. Fournier, and M.O. Wiebe Robertson. 2013. Gull and Tern Breeding Colonies on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010. Technical Report Series No. 526, Canadian Wildlife Service, Yellowknife, NT.

More details are available in the metadata document for download.

CWS-North DatasetID: 071_0

Organization: Environment and Climate Change Canada | Environnement et Changement climatique Canada

Last modified: 2026-06-12T15:31:04.644572