Q: Where in the Hunting Regulations Summary has the information gone regarding hunting crows, cowbirds, starlings, grackles, etc.? I can’t find any reference to it.
– Brian Kitchen, Phelpston
Copy removed but rules remain
A: The paragraph on crows, brown-headed cowbirds, common grackles, house sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and starlings did not appear in this year’s hunting regulations summary (nor will it be in the 2020-2021 edition); we are looking at potentially having it back in next year for the 2021-2022 edition. However, the rules have not changed; a small game licence still allows the holder to hunt these species at any time of the year (subject to the June 16 to August 31 restriction on validity in northern Ontario).
Small game licences are not valid from June 16 to August 31 in the “north”: 18. (1) Despite section 17, a licence to hunt small game is not valid from June 16 to August 31 of any year in the parts of Ontario lying north and west of a line from Georgian Bay to the Ottawa River formed by the southerly boundary of The District Municipality of Muskoka and the southerly and easterly boundaries of the Territorial District of Nipissing, unless the holder of the small game licence is hunting small game with a falconry bird or a non-indigenous falconry bird. O. Reg. 544/17, s. 3.
– David Critchlow (Provincial Enforcement Specialist, MNRF)
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Originally published in the May 2020 issue of Ontario OUT of DOORS magazine. Ask a CO is also a regular feature in the print edition.
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