The Breeding Birds of Kansas

Part 1

Produced by Chris Curnow, Tom Cosmas, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 12, No. 14, Pp. 575-655, 10 figs.

May 18, 1964

The Breeding Birds of Kansas

RICHARD F. JOHNSTON

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1964

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr.

Volume 12, No. 14, Pp. 575-655, 10 figs. Published May 18, 1964

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY HARRY (BUD) TIMBERLAKE, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1964

30-1476

The Breeding Birds of Kansas

RICHARD F. JOHNSTON

CONTENTS

PAGE INTRODUCTION 577

DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN KANSAS 579 Avian habitats in Kansas 581 Species reaching distributional limits in Kansas 584

BREEDING SEASONS 588 Introduction 588 Variation in breeding seasons 589 Zoogeographic categories 593 Significance of phylogeny to breeding schedules 595 Regulation of breeding schedules 598

ACCOUNTS OF SPECIES 601

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 652

LITERATURE CITED 652

INTRODUCTION

The breeding avifauna of Kansas has received intermittent attention from zoologists for about 75 years. Summary statements, usually concerning all birds of the state, have been published by Goss (1891), Long (1940), Goodrich (1941), Tordoff (1956) and Johnston (1960). All but the first dealt with the breeding birds chiefly in passing, and none was concerned primarily with habitat distributions and temporal characteristics of Kansan birds. The present work treats mainly certain temporal relationships of breeding birds in Kansas, but also geographic distribution, habitat preferences, and zoogeographic relationships to the extent necessary for a useful discussion of temporal breeding phenomena.

Information on breeding of some of the 176 species of birds known to breed in Kansas is relatively good, on a few is almost non-existent, and on most is variously incomplete. It is nevertheless possible to make meaningful statements about many aspects of the breeding biology and distribution of most species of Kansan birds; we can take stock, as it were, of available information and assess the outstanding avenues of profitable future work. In the accounts of species below, the information given is for the species as it occurs in Kansas, unless it is otherwise stated. For the various subsections analyzing biology and distribution, only information taken in Kansas is used, and for this reason the analyses are made on about half the species breeding in the state. An enormous amount of observational effort has been expended by several dozen people in order that suitable data about breeding birds of Kansas be available; all persons who have contributed in any way are listed in the section on acknowledgments, following the accounts of species.

Kansas has been described topographically, climatically, and otherwise ecologically many times in the recent past; the reader is referred to the excellent account by Cockrum (1952), which treats these matters from the viewpoint of a zoologist. For present purposes it will suffice to mention the following characteristics of Kansas as a place lived in by birds.

Topographically, Kansas is an inclined plane having an elevation of about 4100 feet in the northwest and about 700 feet in the southeast. West of approximately 97 deg. W longitude, the topography is gently rolling, low hills or flat plain; to the east the Flint Hills extend in a nearly north to south direction, and to the east of these heavily weathered, grassy hills is a lower-lying but more heavily dissected country, hills of which show no great differences in elevation from surrounding flatland.

The vegetation of eastern Kansas comingles with that of the western edge of the North American deciduous forest; a mosaic of true forest, woodland remnants, and tall-grass prairie occupies this area east of the Flint Hills. From these hills west the prairie grassland today has riparian woodland along water-courses; the prairie is composed of proportionally more and more short-grass elements to the west and tall-grass elements to the east.

Part 2

Climate has a dominating influence on the vegetational elements sketched above. Mean annual rainfall is 20 inches or less in western sectors and increases to about 40 inches in the extreme eastern border areas. Mean monthly temperatures run from 25 deg.F. or 30 deg.F. in winter to 80 deg.F. or 90 deg.F. in summer. The northwestern edges of Caribbean Gulf warm air masses regularly reach northward only to the vicinity of Doniphan County, in northeastern Kansas, and extend southwestward into west-central Oklahoma; these wet frontal systems are usually dissipated along the line indicated by masses of arctic air, sometimes in spectacular fashion. The regular recurrence of warm gulf air is responsible for the characteristically high relative humidity in summer over eastern Kansas and it has an ameliorating effect on winter climate in this region. Almost immediately to the north in Nebraska and to the west in the high plains, summers are dryer and winters are notably more severe. The breeding distributions of some species of birds fairly closely approximate the distribution of these warm air masses; these examples are noted where appropriate below.

DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN KANSAS

Birds breeding in Kansas are taxonomically, ecologically, and distributionally diverse. Such diversity is to be expected, in view of the mid-continental position of the State. Characteristics of insularity, owing to barriers to dispersal and movement, tend to be lacking in the makeup of the avifauna here. The State is not, of course, uniformly inhabited by all 176 species (Table 1) of breeding birds; most species vary in numbers from one place to another, and some are restricted to a fraction of the State. Variations in numbers and in absolute occurrence are chiefly a reflection of restriction or absence of certain plant formations, which is to say habitats; the analysis to follow is thus organized mainly around an examination of gross habitat-types and the birds found in them in Kansas.

TABLE 1.--THE BREEDING BIRDS OF KANSAS

Woodland Species

Elanoides forficatus N P. bicolor O Ictinia misisippiensis U Sitta carolinensis O Accipiter striatus U Troglodytes aedon N A. cooperii U Thryomanes bewickii N Buteo jamaicensis O Thryothorus ludovicianus N B. lineatus N Mimus polyglottos N B. platypterus N Dumetella carolinensis N Aquila chrysaetos O Toxostoma rufum N Falco sparverius U Turdus migratorius O Colinus virginianus N Hylocichla mustelina N Phasianus colchicus O Sialia sialis O Meleagris gallopavo N Bombycilla cedrorum N Philohela minor U Lanius ludovicianus O Zenaidura macroura N Sturnus vulgaris O Ectopistes migratorius N Vireo atricapillus N Conuropsis carolinensis U V. griseus N Coccyzus americanus N V. bellii N C. erythropthalmus N V. flavifrons N Otus asio U V. olivaceus N Bubo virginianus O V. gilvus N Strix varia U Mniotilta varia N Asio otus U Protonotaria citrea N Aegolius acadicus U Parula americana N Caprimulgus carolinensis N Dendroica aestiva N C. vociferus U D. discolor N Phalaenoptilus nuttallii N Seiurus motacilla N Chaetura pelagica U Oporornis formosus N Archilochus colubris N Icteria virens N Colaptes auratus N Wilsonia citrina N C. cafer N Setophaga ruticilla N Dryocopus pileatus O Passer domesticus O Centurus carolinus N Icterus spurius N Melanerpes erythrocephalus N I. galbula N Dendrocopos villosus O I. bullockii N D. pubescens O Quiscalus quiscula N Tyrannus tyrannus S Molothrus ater N T. vociferans S Piranga olivacea N Muscivora forficata S P. rubra N Myiarchus crinitus S Richmondena cardinalis S Sayornis phoebe S Pheucticus melanocephala S Empidonax virescens S P. ludoviciana S Contopus virens S Guiraca caerulea S Iridoprocne bicolor N Passerina ciris S Progne subis N P. cyanea S Cyanocitta cristata N P. amoena S Pica pica O Spinus pinus O Corvus brachyrhynchos O S. tristis O C. cryptoleucus O Loxia curvirostra O Parus atricapillus O Pipilo erythrophthalmus N P. carolinensis O Chondestes grammacus N Spizella passerina N

Limnic Species

Podilymbus podiceps U Butorides virescens U Phalacrocorax auritus U Florida caerulea U Ardea herodias U Casmerodius albus U Leucophoyx thula U Porzana carolina U Nycticorax nycticorax U Laterallus jamaicensis U Nyctanassa violacea U Gallinula chloropus U Ixobrychus exilis U Fulica americana U Botaurus lentiginosis U Charadrius alexandrinus U Plegadis chihi U Actitis macularia U Branta canadensis U Steganopus tricolor U Anas platyrhynchos U Sterna albifrons U A. acuta U Chlidonias niger U A. discors U Telmatodytes palustris N A. clypeata U Cistothorus platensis N Aix sponsa U Geothlypis trichas N Aythya americana U Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus N Oxyura jamaicensis U Agelaius phoeniceus N Rallus elegans U Rallus limicola U

Grassland Species Xeric Scrub Species

Buteo swainsonii N Callipepla squamata N B. regalis U Geococcyx californianus N Circus cyaneus O Salpinctes obsoletus N Tympanuchus cupido N T. pallidicinctus N Pedioecetes phasianellus N Unanalyzed Species Charadrius vociferus U Eupoda montana U Cathartes aura N Numenius americanus U Coragyps atratus N Bartramia longicauda U Falco peregrinus U Speotyto cunicularia U Columba livia O Asio flammeus U Tyto alba U Sayornis saya S Chordeiles minor U Eremophila alpestris O Megaceryle alcyon U Dolichonyx oryzivorus N Riparia riparia O Sturnella magna N Stelgidopteryx ruficollis N S. neglecta N Hirundo rustica O Spiza americana N Petrochelidon pyrrhonota U Calamospiza melanocorys N Ammodramus savannarum N Passerherbulus henslowii N Aimophila cassinii N Spizella pusilla N

The letter following each name refers to presumed zoogeographic derivation of the species, modified after Mayr (1946). N = North American evolutionary stock; S = South American stock; O = Eurasian stock; U = unanalyzed.

Continue reading The Breeding Birds of Kansas free in the Wunder reader →