After nearly four decades of being considered on the verge of extinction, the peregrine falcon has made a comeback.

According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, the bird which is known to frequent southwestern Saskatchewan has recently been deemed 'not at risk.'

Andrew Holland, a spokesperson with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), said the NCC is happy to see the conservation efforts of many paying off.

"It's fantastic, it shows that conservation efforts are working and it's nice to see species comeback from the brink of extinction to being health populations," he said. "It's taken 40 years, four decades for this happen, but it's really encouraging to see these birds in different parts of the country."

In 1978 the raptor was registered as a threatened species after a toxic pesticide almost wiped out the bird's entire population.

"The pesticide called DDT was essentially being sprayed [everywhere]," Holland explained. "The peregrine falcon was nearly eliminated from much of North America because it was dying from the effects of DDT."

Holland noted it took a very stategic program to reverse the trend of the falcons disappearing.

"It took captive breeding programs in different parts of the country [to kickstart a rebound]," he said. "They would catch the peregrine falcons and have them breed in certain areas."

The NCC says they've had roughly 60 sightings of the bird in past 18 months on NCC properties throughout Canada and two of them have been in southern Saskatchewan.

One was observed in Reed Lake at one of Saskatchewan's Important Bird Areas (IBA) which is one of the best possible places for sightings.

"There are lots of different bird and duck species there and peregrine falcons typically pray on ducks and shorebirds, so that's an ideal spot for them to be looking for something to eat," Holland said. "It was on its own, it wasn't paired with another bird, it may have been there and then going on its way to its nesting grounds in the north."

The other sighting on NCC land was at Old Wives Lake, about 40 kilometres from Moose Jaw.

Since the ban on DDT in 1990, it is estimated the number of birds has increased to 600 in southern Canada and 1,500 in northern Canada.