A Protected Bird and Its Eggs Are Delaying Preparations for One of Canada’s Biggest Music Festivals

Since 1994, the Ottawa Bluesfest has been a mainstay on the summer festival scene, with its notoriety growing year after year, now making it one of the largest music festivals in Canada, with acts from all across the music world on its bill. However, this year the festival is facing a different kind of challenge: a killdeer. As reported by CNN, while working on setting up the festival’s main stage, a nest of the rare killdeer bird was found. Workers discovered the killdeer mother guarding her nest of four eggs, and the breed is protected under the Canadian government, and the nest cannot be moved without federal permission.

The reason for this is that a killdeer may abandon their eggs if they are moved more than a few feet, making for a peculiar predicament for festival organizers as the 10-day festival is set to start on July 5th. Killdeer eggs take around 24 to 28 days to hatch, and it is not known the exact age of the eggs at this point. For now, workers have roped off the next with caution tape as the festival organizers try to devise a re-nesting location that will get federal approval.

The likes of Shawn Mendes, the Foo Fighters, and the Dave Matthews Band are set to headline the festival, which draws crowds of over 300,000 people every year.

Andy Lindquist: Music news writer at mxdwn.com. Part of the mxdwn team since 2017. I have been writing about music for some time now and also play in an pop/rock band. I have a BA in rhetoric from UC Berkeley. Born and raised in the San Francisco bay area and still currently living out on the eastern side of the bay.
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