Design and management of bird nesting habitat: Tactics for conserving colonial waterbird biodiversity on artificial islands in Hamilton Harbour, Ontario

Hamilton Harbour, at the west end of Lake Ontario, supports breeding colonies of six piscivorous waterbirds: double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), herring gull (Larus argentatus), ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis), common tern (Sterna hirundo), and Caspian tern (Sterna cuspia). Most breeding pairs of all species nest on privately owned mainland locations that are subject to …