Quebec company fined $12,500 for destroyed threatened bird nests

A Quebec company was fined $12,500 after it conducted excavation work and destroyed a colony of bank swallows, which are a threatened species in Canada. (Wiki Commons)

A Quebec company was fined $12,500 after it damaged multiple bank swallow nests.

On July 4, a Quebec Superior Court justice ordered Les Entreprises Enia Lafontaine to pay the fine to the Receiver General of Canada after it pleaded guilty to violated the Species at Risk Act.

The bank swallow (riparia riparia), also known as a sand martin, is a threatened species and has been identified as a priority species for conservation in Canada.

According to a news release from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Quebec environment ministry reported in 2022 that a bank swallow colony was threatened by excavation work below their nests in a sandpit.

"Officers proceeded to the site and found that heavy machinery was removing material at the base of a sand wall where swallows were nesting. At the site, the officers saw the walls collapse, destroying the Bank Swallow nests in the process," the release reads.

The bank swallow is listed as a species of concern in Canada. (Government of Canada)

After, the company was found responsible for the work that damaged the nests and was charged under section 33 of the act.

"No person shall damage or destroy the residence of one or more individuals of a wildlife species that is listed as an endangered species or a threatened species, or that is listed as an extirpated species if a recovery strategy has recommended the reintroduction of the species into the wild in Canada," the law reads.

The bank swallow's numbers have decreased by 98 per cent in the past four decades, Environment Canada says. There are around 500,000 to 5,000,000 adults in Canada.

Facts about the bank swallow:

• Birds fly with rapid wingbeats and swooping.
• They nest in burrows dug into exposed earth such as gravel pits, piles of sand and sandy embankments on the edges of bodies of water.
• They are long-distance migrants and winter in South American lowlands.
• The population is around 29 million globally.
• Collective nouns for a swallow include a flight, a gulp, a kettle or a richness.