Ornithology Commons^™

Body Weights And Species Distributions Of Birds In Nebraska's Central And Western Platte Valley, William C. Scharf, Josef Kren, Paul A. Johnsgard, Linda R. Brown

Papers in Ornithology

Data are presented on nearly 18,000 bird-captures involving 125 species banded between 1992 and 2005 at two Platte Valley study areas in central and western Nebraska. Weight data for more than 1 1,500 individuals of 74 species are summarized by age, sex and banding site, including several species having larger samples than in any previously published reports. Breeding evidence was obtained for 67 species in one or both locations, and 108 of the total 125 species banded were migrants, 71 percent of which were Neotropical migrants. The largest banding totals were obtained at Cedar Point Biological Station, in Keith County, …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 84, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

The Altruistic Cardinal?, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

Cardinals also are known for their intense parental behavior. Most feeding of fledged young is done by the males, since females typically begin a new nesting cycle very shortly after their first young fledge. I’ve seen male cardinals feed female cardinals, cowbirds and house finches. One researcher in Oklahoma reported a cardinal attempting to feed goldfish in a pond! While photographing backyard birds in Lincoln, I noticed that a male cardinal was tending to a single newly fledged cardinal chick, but also was being constantly pestered by two young house finches. Cardinals raise their young on insects while house finch …

Familiarity With Breeding Habitat Improves Daily Survival In Colonial Cliff Swallows, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Kathleen R. Brazeal

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

One probable cost of dispersing to a new breeding habitat is unfamiliarity with local conditions such as the whereabouts of food or the habits of local predators, and consequently immigrants may have lower probabilities of survival than more experienced residents. Within a breeding season, estimated daily survival probabilities of cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, at colonies in southwestern Nebraska, USA, were highest for birds that had always nested at the same site, followed by those for birds that had nested there in some (but not all) past years. Daily survival probabilities were lowest for birds that were naive immigrants to …

Modeling The Daily Activities Of Breeding Colonial Seabirds: Dynamic Occupancy Patterns In Multiple Habitat Patches, Andrea L. Moore, Smruti P. Damania, Shandelle M. Henson, James L. Hayward

Faculty Publications

We constructed differential equation models for the diurnal abundance and distribution of breeding glaucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) as they moved among nesting and non-nesting habitat patches. We used time scale techniques to reduce the differential equations to algebraic equations and connected the models to field data. The models explained the data as a function of abiotic environmental variables with R2=0.57. A primary goal of this study is to demonstrate the utility of a methodology that can be used by ecologists and wildlife managers to understand and predict daily activity patterns in breeding seabirds.

Phylogeographical Structure And Evolutionary History Of Two Buggy Creek Virus Lineages In The Western Great Plains Of North America, Abinash Padhi, Amy T. Moore, Mary Bomberger Brown, Jerome E. Foster, Martin Pfeffer, Kathryn P. Gaines, Valerie A. O'Brien, Stephanie A. Strickler, Allison E. Johnson, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) is an unusual arbovirus within the western equine encephalitis complex of alphaviruses. Associated with cimicid swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarius) as its vector and the cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and house sparrow (Passer domesticus) as its amplifying hosts, this virus is found primarily in the western Great Plains of North America at spatially discrete swallow nesting colonies. For 342 isolates collected in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, and North Dakota, from 1974 to 2007, we sequenced a 2076 bp region of the 26S subgenomic RNA structural glycoprotein coding region, and analyzed phylogenetic relationships, …

2007 (19th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The functions and methods of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union (NOU) Records Committee are described in its bylaws (NOU Records Committee 1986). The committee's purpose is to provide a procedure for documenting unusual bird sightings and to establish a list of all documented birds for Nebraska. The "Official List of the Birds of Nebraska" was first published in 1988 (NOU Records Committee 1988) and has been updated two times (NOU Records Committee 1997, 2004).

The "Official List" has been appended seventeen times: (Mollhoff 1989; Grenon 1990, 1991; Gubanyi 1996a, 1996b, 1996c; Brogie 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007; Jorgensen …

Summer Field Report, June-July 2008, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Generally excellent water conditions in the southeast, including the Rainwater Basin, and in the Sandhills resulted in some notable breeding records, such as Eared Grebes in York County. Ducks were numerous in the Sandhills, especially Redhead. These conditions may have encouraged shorebirds to linger; several late spring records were noted.

Three western species were found eastward; Western Wood-Pewee and Cordilleran Flycatcher were not unexpected based on recent records, but a major surprise was a pair of Pygmy Nuthatches in Cherry County.

Subscription And Organization Information [September 2008]

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal, and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $15 in the United States, $18 in Canada, and $30 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4 each, postpaid, in the United States, $5 in Canada, and $8 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Pritchard, NOU Librarian, c/o University of Nebraska State Museum, W-436 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0514.

Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): …

Nebraska Bird Review (September 2008) 76(3), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Summer Field Report, June–July 2008 ... 94

2007 (19th) Report of the NOU Records Committee ... 111

Migration Chronology, Nesting Ecology, and Breeding Distribution of Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) in Nebraska ... 120

Observation of Hailstorm-Caused Mortality of Least Terns and Piping Plovers on the Niobrara River, Nebraska ... 129

Subscription and Organization Information ... 131

Observation Of Hailstorm-Caused Mortality Of Least Terns And Piping Plovers On The Niobrara River, Nebraska, Mark M. Czaplewski, Mark Peyton, Jim Jenniges

Nebraska Bird Review

Hail has been documented to be a cause of mortality to adult Least Terns and Piping Plovers as well as to eggs and young (Boyd 1992, Lingle 1993, Schweitzer and Davis 2000, SD Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks 2005). While on an airboat survey to document Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) and Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) use of a portion of the Niobrara River (from Highway 137 to the Spencer Dam, approximately 40 river miles), the authors observed the remnants of a Least Tern and Piping Plover colony that had been hit by an overnight rainstorm …

Migration Chronology, Nesting Ecology, And Breeding Distribution Of Mountain Plover (Charadrius Montanus) In Nebraska, Bartholomew L. Bly, Larry Snyder, Tammy Vercauteren

Nebraska Bird Review

The Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) is a loosely colonial (Graul 1975) upland shorebird that breeds across the xeric tablelands of the western Great Plains and shortgrass prairie ecoregion of North America (Knopf and Wunder 2006). This is a species of conservation concern throughout its range because of apparent range-wide population declines (Knopf and Wunder 2006). The U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan (USSCP) recently classified the species as globally highly imperiled (Brown et al. 2001; USSCP 2004). Reasons for the decline of Mountain Plovers are not fully understood. Habitat destruction and the tendency of the species to nest in agricultural …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 84, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Wpa News 81 (2008), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Summer 2008), number 81

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Guidelines For Re-Establishing Grey Partridges Through Releasing, Francis Buner, N. J. Aebischer

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Reports and Other Materials

In the UK, numbers of grey partridges have declined by over 75% during the last 20 years, and in many parts of the country the species has become locally extinct. Concerns over the magnitude of the decline led the UK Government to place the species on the short list of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for which the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust was appointed lead partner in 1996. The Grey Partridge Species Action Plan’s targets are to restore numbers from 65,000 pairs in 2005 to 90,000 pairs nationally by 2010, and to expand its 1990 range. Over the …

Annual Meeting At Scottsbluff

Nebraska Bird Review

The 109th Annual Meeting of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union was held in Scottsbluff on May 16-18, 2008. Gatherings and meals took place at the Jane Fliesbach Retreat Center at the Trails West YMCA Camp on the North Platte River at the base of Scotts Bluff National Monument. The meeting was hosted by members of Wildcat Audubon, who arranged the speakers, field trips, lodging, meeting facility, and meals.

Field trips were led by Alice Kenitz, Helen Hughson, Kathy DeLara, and Wayne Mollhoff to Wildcat Hills SRA, Kiowa WMA, Winters Creek Lake, Lake Minatare, Chilibaba Pond in Scotts Bluff Co., and various …

Spring Field Report, March–May 2008, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Despite this cool, wet spring, warbler enthusiasts were thrilled by one of the best showings in years, with Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Mourning Warblers leading the charge. Swallows also as a group arrived early, including a record early Barn Swallow, and record early Western Tanagers (yes, more than one) appeared, surprisingly, in the east. There were no reports of mortality due to cold or excessive moisture; apparently food sources were unaffected. The large incursion of Purple Finches and the smaller one of Mountain Chickadees continued into the spring period, with impressive totals.

Identification of Catharus thrushes is more …

Book Review [Of John Kirk Townsend: Collector Of Audubon’S Western Birds And Mammals], Paul A. Johnsgard

Nebraska Bird Review

A review of John Kirk Townsend: Collector of Audubon's Western Birds and Mammals. Barbara and Richard Mearns. 2007. Published by the authors, Dumfries, UK. 389 pp., with 18 appendices, and a bibliography of nearly 150 entries. No price given. ISBN 978-0-9556739-0-0

This large (9 x 12 inches) and sumptuously illustrated book details the life and biological contributions of John Townsend, one of the earliest biologists after Lewis and Clark (1804) and Prince Maximilian (1832) to visit what is now Nebraska, preceding John J. Audubon's visit (1843) by nearly a decade. Townsend ascended the upper Platte Valley during an 1834 …

2007 Nebraska Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey, Joel E. Jorgensen, Sarah E. Rehme

Nebraska Bird Review

Bald and Golden Eagles are species of conservation concern that regularly winter in Nebraska (Sharpe et al. 2001). The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NCJPC) has conducted an annual statewide Midwinter Eagle Survey (MWS) since 1980. The Nebraska MWS is done in conjunction with a national survey coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey. The purpose of the MWS is to determine the number and distribution of eagles wintering in Nebraska. Here we present results from the 2007 Nebraska MWS.

Nebraska Bird Review (June 2008) 76(2), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Spring Field Report, Mar.–May 2008 ... 50

Endangered Species Responses to Natural Habitat Declines: Nebraska's Interior Least Terns and Piping Plovers Nesting in a Human-created Habitat ... 72

2007 Nebraska Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey ... 81

Book Review [of John Kirk Townsend: Collector of Audubon's Western Birds and Mammals] ... 84

Annual Meeting at Scottsbluff ... 85

Subscription and Organization lnformation ... 91

Subscription And Organization Information [June 2008]

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal, and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $15 in the United States, $18 in Canada, and $30 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4 each, postpaid, in the United States, $5 in Canada, and $8 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Pritchard, NOU Librarian, c/o University of Nebraska State Museum, W-436 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0514.

Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): …

Endangered Species Responses To Natural Habitat Declines: Nebraska’S Interior Least Terns (Sternula Antillarum Athalassos) And Piping Plovers (Charadrius Melodus) Nesting In A Human-Created Habitat, Mary Bomberger Brown, Joel G. Jorgensen, Sarah E. Rehme

Nebraska Bird Review

Formerly, state and federally endangered Interior Least Terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos) and state and federally threatened Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) nested on sandbars in rivers as well as on other sandy beach habitat (Hardy 1957; Haig 1992; Kirsch 1992; Ziewitz et al. 1992; Thompson et al. 1997). In Nebraska, the birds primarily used sandbars in the Platte, Loup, Elkhorn, Niobrara, and Missouri rivers (Sharpe et al. 2001). These sandbars were created and maintained by river flow and regular flooding events. Despite the frequent scouring, reshaping, and relocation of the sandbars, nesting habitat was consistently available to …

Grouse And Quails Of North America — Frontmatter, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction

1 Evolution And Taxonomy, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

The modern array of grouse-, quail-, and partridge-like species occurring in North America is the result of three processes: evolution and speciation within this continent, range expansion or immigration from Central America and Eurasia, and recent introductions by man. The last category accounts for the presence in North America of the chukar and gray partridges, which are both natives of Europe or southern Asia and typical representatives of the quail-like and partridge-like forms that have extensively colonized those land masses. It is still necessary to account for the presence of the nine or so species of grouse-like forms that are …

2 Physical Characteristics, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

All of the grouse, quails, and introduced partridges of North America share a number of anatomical traits which provide the basis for their common classification within the order Galliformes. Among these are the facts that they all have fowl-like beaks and four toes. In all the North American species the hind toe is elevated and quite short, thus is ill-adapted for perching. There are always ten primaries, thirteen to twenty-one secondaries, and twelve to twenty-two tail feathers (rectrices). Aftershafts on the contour feathers are well developed, especially in the grouse, and true down feathers are infrequent. A large crop is …

3 Molts And Plumages, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

An understanding of the molts and plumages of the quails and grouse is of great importance to the applied biologist, for they provide clues that are valuable for determining age and sex of individual birds without resorting to internal examination. They thus offer a means of analyzing wild populations as to sex and age composition, which are basic indices to past and potential reproductive performances and probable mortality rates. Additionally, molts and plumages are generally speciesspecific traits, which have resulted from pressures of natural selection over a long period of time in a particular habitat and climate. The ecology of …

4 Hybridization, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

The study of hybridization between species, under either natural or artificial conditions, provides information of value for a variety of reasons. In general, it may be expected that the incidence of crossbreeding between populations existing under natural conditions will be related to their nearness of relationship, and information of taxonomic interest may be obtained from such study. Furthermore, the relative survival and fertility of the resulting hybrids should provide an indication of the degree of genetic difference between the parental types, and thus genetic information may be available through experimental hybridization studies. Hybrids provide favorable material for studying the chromosomal …

5 Reproductive Biology, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

The reproductive potentiaI of animal species is a compound result of numerous behavioral and physiological characteristics, most of which can be considered species-typical. These include such things as the time required to attain reproductive maturity, the number of nesting or renesting attempts per year once maturity is attained, the number of eggs laid per breeding attempt, and the number of years adults may remain reproductively active. These traits place an upper limit on the reproductive potential of a species, which is never actually attained. Rather, the actual rate of increase will only approach the reproductive potential, being limited by such …

6 Population Ecology And Dynamics, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Like other animals, grouse and quail exist as natural populations dependent upon particular habitats and vary in population density between the absolute minimum populations that have permitted past survival to fairly dense populations that may approach or even temporarily exceed the carrying capacity of the habitat. Each species may also have an upper limit on the density of the population, or a saturation point, which is independent of the carrying capacity of the habitat but is determined by social adaptations. Within the population as a whole, individual birds or coveys may have home ranges, geographical areas to which their movements …

7 Social Behavior And Vocalizations, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

One of the most complex and fascinating aspects of grouse and quail biology is their social behavior, particularly that related to reproduction. Natural selection in the quail group has seemingly favored the retention of a monogamous mating system with the associated advantages of maintaining the pair bond through the breeding season. This system allows the male to participate in the protection of the nest, possibly participate in incubation, and later care for the brood. It also provides the possibility, if not the frequent actuality, that the male might undertake the entire incubation or rearing of the first brood, while the …