Ornithology Commons^™

The Age Of Birds In Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

If each mile of highway I-80 in Nebraska represented a million years of natural history, then the 450 miles from the 60th St. on-ramp in Omaha to the westernmost exit at the Wyoming border would represent the 450 million years that encompass the time that evidence of life has been found on earth. The earth itself is more than four billion years old, or ten times older than the time scale of life described here.
The 450 million years of life on earth are correlated to the distance from Omaha to the Wyoming border, and the flora and fauna of …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 75, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Wpa News 58 (1999), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (February 1999), number 58

Published by the World Pheasant Association

The Relative Importance Of Patch Area And Perimeter–Area Ratio To Grassland Breeding Birds, Christopher J. Helzer, Dennis E. Jelinski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Habitat fragmentation has been implicated as a major cause of population decline in grassland birds. We tested the hypothesis that a combination of area and shape determines the use of grassland patches by breeding birds. We compared both species richness and individual species presence in 45 wet meadow grasslands in the floodplain of the central Platte River, Nebraska. Bird data were collected through the use of belt transects and supplemented by walking and listening outside transects. Our data supported our primary hypothesis that perimeter–area ratio, which reflects both the area and shape of a patch, is the strongest predictor of …

Avian Prey-Dropping Behavior. I. The Effects Of Prey Characteristics And Prey Loss, Paul V. Switzer, Daniel A. Cristol

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Annual Review Of The World Pheasant Association 1998/1999, World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Reports and Other Materials

President's message, Keith C. R. Howman

Chairman's report, Richard P. Howard

Annual report of Council 1998/99

Treasurer's annual report and accounts, Ian F.. Hoggarth

Conservation Breeding Advisory Committee report, Han Assink

Chapters and Affiliate reports

Pheasant Specialist Group report, Peter J. Garson

Partridge, Quail and Francolin Specialist Group report, John P. Carroll

Grouse Specialist Group report, Ilse Storch

Megapode Specialist Group report, René W. R. J. Dekker

Cracid Specialist Group report, Daniel M. Brooks and Stuart D. Strahl

WPA-South Asia Regional Office, Rahul Kaul

Pheasant surveys in Pakistan, Rab Nawaz

A preliminary study of the effects of habitat isolation and …

Avian Prey-Dropping Behavior. I. The Effects Of Prey Characteristics And Prey Loss, Paul Switzer, Daniel Cristol

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Plant And Breeding Bird Communities Of Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies And Non-Colonized Areas In Southwest Kansas And Southeast Colorado, Stephen L. Winter

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research was initiated to determine if plant and bird communities on black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus Ord) colonies in southwest Kansas and southeast Colorado differed from those found on associated non-colonized areas. Vegetation height and density, and the cover and frequency of numerous plant species differed between prairie dog colonies and non-colonized areas that were co-dominated by mid-height grasses and shortgrasses. A comparison of prairie dog colonies with non-colonized areas that were dominated solely by shortgrasses did not reveal a difference in vegetation height and density. The number of species that differed in cover or frequency between prairie dog …

Pqf News: Newsletter Of The Partridge, Quail, And Francolin Specialist Group 13/14-19 (1999-2003), Iucn Species Survival Commission, Birdlife International, World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

The purpose of the newsletter is to receive details of new projects, re-assessments of the status of relevant species, interesting discoveries or observations, taxonomic changes, conservation successes or threats and anything else that members might find interesting. We would like in future issues to produce a list of relevant publications which appear during the year in order to keep members up-to-date with current information. We will publish requests for contacts or information, advertisements for conferences and workshops and news of projects and project proposals.

Issue 13/14 (Spring/Autumn 1999)

Action Plan revision: A progress report, Richard Fuller

First nest records for …

The Effect Of Proximity On Landmark Use In Clark’S Nutcrackers, Kristy L. Gould-Beierle, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

Clark’s nutcrackers, Nucifraga columbiana, store thousands of pine seeds during the autumn and retrieve them throughout the winter. It has been shown that these birds are able to use visual cues to relocate hidden food in the laboratory. In this set of experiments, we trained three groups of Clark’s nutcrackers to find a hidden food goal that was placed in the same spatial location relative to the testing room. During training, the location of two local cues in relation to the goal differed between the three groups. Group 1 learned the task with the cues closest to the goal, group …

Patterns Of Movement And Orientation During Caching And Recovery By Clark’S Nutcrackers, Nucifraga Columbiana, Alan Kamil, Russell P. Balda, Sally Good

Avian Cognition Papers

Clark’s nutcrackers regularly store large numbers of pine seeds and remember the locations of the cached seeds. Although they are very accurate, they do make some errors during recovery. In an attempt to determine whether any behaviours during caching predicted the occurrence of errors during recovery, we videotaped Clark’s nutcrackers while they cached and recovered seeds under laboratory conditions. We used the videotapes to develop complete, quantitative descriptions of caching and recovery behaviour, with an emphasis on body orientation and directions of movement. During caching, the birds showed the greatest change in their orientation and direction following cache creation. During …

How Do They, Indeed? A Reply To Biegler Et Al., Alan Kamil, Juli E. Jones

Avian Cognition Papers

We trained Clark’s nutcrackers, Nucifraga columbiana, to search halfway between two landmarks while varying the distance between the landmarks (Kamil & Jones 1997). We found that the birds learned the problem readily and generalized to novel interlandmark distances within the range of distances used during training. Unlike some other studies in which responses to proportional distance were obtained (e.g. O’Keefe & Burgess 1996; Tommasi et al. 1997), the nutcrackers showed very precise search and maintained this precision during the transfer test. The distributions of digging locations around the central position were concentrated within ±1–2 cm of the central location …

Proceedings Of The Symposium On The Status, Management, And Conservation Of The Species Alectoris, Black Francolin, Thrush, Quail, And Turtle Dove In The Mediterranean Region, Nicos Kassinis, Panicos Panayides

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Reports and Other Materials

Proceedings of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation, Symposium on the Status, Management, and Conservation of the Species Alectoris, Black Francolin, Thrush, Quail, and Turtle Dove in the Mediterranean Region held Octobe 8-10, 1999 in Lemesos, Cyprus.

Current Status Of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet And Tropical Parula In Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park And Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Southern Texas, Timothy Brush

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

There are no published records of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe) and Tropical Parula (Parilla pitiayumi) nesting in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas since the late 1940s. In this 1996- 1998 study, both species were confirmed nesting at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, and Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet was also confirmed at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park. Most Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet nests were between clumps of ball-moss (Tillandsia recurvata) in cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia) trees, and nests were active from 21 March-23 September. Only fe. males build nests or incubate. Two-three young fledged per successful nest, but three nests were abandoned …

Index [For Volume 66]

Nebraska Bird Review

Alexander, G. 26

Alexander, I. 26

Allen, A. A. 68

Allen, B. 27, 60, 61, 110

Alt, J. 8

Amiotte, S. 27

Armstrong, M. 60

Aversa, T. 158

Avocet, American 39, 90, 128

Bird Banding Notes From Ruth Green, Ruth Green

Nebraska Bird Review

On 29 April 1998, while working with school children from the Chadron Public Schools, Ruth banded a Pine Siskin at Nebraska's Chadron State Park, Dawes County. Approximately seven and a half months later, on 12 December, this same bird was recovered beneath a feeder in Springfield, Oregon. The Pine Siskin was dead, perhaps a victim of disease sweeping the siskin population on the West Coast. This particular occurrence is noteworthy for the distance traveled both west and north.

The Summer Tanager pictured below was also banded by Betty. She banded the AHY-F (After Hatching Year, Female) Summer Tanager on 10 …

Nebraska Bird Review (December 1998) 66(4), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

In Memorium: Harvey L. Gunderson … 114

Parasitic Jaeger at Lake McConaughy … 114

Endemicity and Regional Biodiversity in Nebraska's Breeding Avifauna … 115

Fall Field Report: Introduction … 121

Fall Field Report: Species Accounts … 123

1997 (Ninth) Report of the NOU Records Committee … 147

Bird Banding Notes … 159

Index for Volume 66 … 160

Masthead And Table Of Contents [December 1998]

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): $14.00 in the United States; $18.00 for all foreign countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4.00 each, postpaid, in the United States, and $5.00 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Pritchard, NOU Librarian, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, NE 68588-0514.

Memberships in NOU (on a calendar year basis only): Active, $15.00; Sustaining, $25.00; Student, $10.00; Family Active, $20.00; Family Sustaining,$30.00; …

Endemicity And Regional Biodiversity In Nebraska's Breeding Avifauna, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

I estimate that 215 bird species currently breed or have previously bred in Nebraska. This number compares with a total of 330 spe¬cies that breed or have bred in the Great Plains region south of Canada, as I defined that region in my book on the breeding birds of the Great Plains (Johnsgard, 1979). An analysis of the relative species diversity of Nebraska's breeding avifauna establishes several areas of unusual species richness and endemicity, these most important being the Missouri Valley and associated middle to lower Niobrara Valley, the Pine Ridge area of the northwestern Panhandle, and the entire Platte …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 74, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Wpa News 57 (1998), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (November 1998), number 57

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Grassland Birds And Habitat Structure In Sandhills Prairie Managed Using Cattle Or Bison Plus Fire, Randall Griebel, Stephen L. Winter, Allen Steuter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Grassland birds are known to respond to specific changes in habitat structure, such as plant height and density. However, the response of grassland bird communities to management induced changes in the regional habitat mosaic are less well understood. Grazing by ungulates and fire regimes play an important role in defining the habitat mosaic in the Great Plains. We provide information on bird abundance, distribution, and habitat structure from similar sandhill prairie landscapes managed traditionally with grazing by cattle (Bos taurus) and by a dynamic bison (Bos bison)-plus-fire regime. Although the two management regimes are dissimilar, only …

A Half-Century Of Winter Bird Surveys At Lincoln And Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Since 1900, the National Audubon Society has sponsored annual "Christmas bird counts" during the two-week period encompassing Christmas; and as a result, long-term data on winter bird populations have accumulated, especially for some locations. The first two such counts in Nebraska were made in 1909 and in 1912 in Lincoln. Beginning in 1947 and continuing to the present, an unbroken series of counts were made in Lincoln, usually by members of the Uni¬versity Place Bird Club, the Audubon Naturalist's Club, or the Wachiska chapter of the National Audubon Society. For Scottsbluff, an unbroken set of counts extends from 1949 to …

Table Of Contents And Masthead [September 1998]

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): $14.00 in the United States; $18.00 for all foreign countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4.00 each, postpaid, in the United States, and $5.00 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Prichard, NOU Librarian, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, NE 68588-0514.

Memberships in NOU (on a calendar year basis only): Active, $15.00; Sustaining, $25.00; Student, $10.00; Family Active, $20.00; Family Sustaining,$30.00; …

Bald Eagle Counts At Two Facilities Owned And Operated By The Central Nebraska Public Power And Irrigation District, Mark M. Peyton, Rodger Knaggs

Nebraska Bird Review

Since 1988 the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (Central) has provided, free to the public, a bald eagle viewing facility in its Johnson #2 Hydroelectric Plant south of Lexington, Dawson County, and since 1990 a facility near the outlet of the Kingsley Hydroelectric Plant at Lake Ogallala in Keith County.

Central provides binoculars and viewing scopes at both locations as well as personnel to answer questions and provide assistance. These individuals also conducted daily eagle surveys at the facilities.

1998 Midwinter Eagle Survey For Nebraska Including Summary Tables For The 1980-1998 Period From The Nebraska Game And Parks Commission, John J. Dinan

Nebraska Bird Review

Mild temperatures were prevalent in the weeks prior to this year's survey; however, temperatures cold enough to form a thin layer of ice on some reservoirs and lakes occurred between aerial surveys. Three of the aerial surveys were conducted on the 6th and 7th of January and one was conducted on the 13th. The survey route that includes the Platte River from Kearney to Plattsmouth and the Loup River was not surveyed this year because of persistent foggy conditions.

Temperatures recorded during the 1998 survey were variable, ranging from 5 to 40 degrees F. The Niobrara River was 50 to …

Book Review: Baby Bird Portraits By George Miksch Sutton: Watercoiors In The Field Museum By Johnsgard, P. A. (1998), John J. Janovy Jr.

Nebraska Bird Review

George M. Sutton's baby bird portraits are his most captivating works. The subjects are isolated against a stark, raw-paper background, and they stare out at the viewer with eyes typically naive but alert. Sutton's artistic mastery of the foot is integral to the underlying biology in these pictures: sturdy and sure against the table for a ruffed grouse, curled inward and near useless for a gallinule on dry land, and almost casually clutching a twig, the hallux resting loosely, for a newly fledged grosbeak. The match between these pictures and Paul Johnsgard's text is perfect. In his first two paragraphs, …

"A Half-Century Of Winter Bird Surveys At Lincoln And Scottsbluff, Nebraska", Paul A. Johnsgard

Nebraska Bird Review

Since 1900, the National Audubon Society has sponsored annual "Christmas bird counts" during the two-week period encompassing Christmas; and as a result, long-term data on winter bird populations have accumulated, especially for some locations. The first two such counts in Nebraska were made in 1909 and in 1912 in Lincoln. While similar counts were made in Omaha from 1909 to 1911, no further counts were conducted elsewhere in the state until the 1940's. Beginning in 1947 and continuing to the present, an unbroken series of counts were made in Lincoln, usually by members of the University Place Bird Club, the …

Nebraska Bird Count For 1997 Addendum

Nebraska Bird Review

Site and Party Data

Observers

Total Species

Total Individuals

CW Birds

Summer Field Report, June-July, 1998, W. Ross Silcock, Joel G. Jorgensen

Nebraska Bird Review

First, some housekeeping is in order. . . . You will also notice the new order of species (AGAIN!!), reflecting the latest American Ornithologists' Union Checklist, published this spring. The most noticeable change concerns the placement of shrikes and vireos between flycatchers and corvids; but the order of species within some genera also differs, especially among the waterfowl, where, for instance, swans now follow the geese.

And now let's turn to the birds! As in most summers, many species went about their business in routine fashion, hence the notation "Routine Reports" for many.

We encourage observers to note and to …