THE BIRDS OF NEBRASKA
AND ADJACENT PLAINS STATES
Paul A. Johnsgard

• Table of Contents
• Definitions of Terms Used in the Text
• List of Species
• References

Lying near the center of the Great Plains of North America, Nebraska shows a variety of geographic and ecologic influences on its bird fauna. Of its approximately 200 breeding species, the largest single component is arboreal, or adapted to living in trees, woodlands and forests, while limnic (aquatic and shoreline-adapted) species make up the second largest component. Species primarily associated with grasslands comprise a still smaller breeding component, and xeric-adapted forms associated with semidesert scrub are the least numerous (Prairie Naturalist 10: 97-112). Most of Nebraska's arboreal species of birds, which comprise about 45 percent of the state's total species, are eastern or northern in their geographic breeding affinities, while a small percentage are western or southern in origin. Of the limnic-adapted forms, which make up about 32 percent of the state's total avifauna, a considerable proportion are either northern or widespread (pandemic) in breeding distributional affinities, and many of these are only migrants in the state. Species especially associated with natural grasslands, which made up the largest single original vegetational component in the state, comprise only about 10 percent of the state's total avifauna, and the remaining species are mostly rather general in their ecological breeding requirements.

In its original state, probably close to 90 percent of the land area of Nebraska was covered by native grasslands. Of the total land area of 77,510 square miles, more than a fifth, or 19,000 square miles, are comprised of the Sandhills grasslands. Other major grassland components are the tallgrass bluestem prairie of the eastern third of the state, the mixed prairie generally lying to the west of the tallgrass prairies, the sandsage prairie of southwestern Nebraska, the Kansas mixed prairie of the southernmost counties of Nebraska, the Dakota prairie of the Pine Ridge area, and the shortgrass prairie of the high plains in western Nebraska. The accompanying map (Figure 1) showing the distribution of these vegetational types is based on Robert Kaul's preliminary "Vegetation of Nebraska (circa 1850)".

The surface topography of Nebraska is primarily that of a slightly inclined plane, sloping from west to east at an average gradient of about nine feet per mile. The state's elevations range from more than 4,000 feet in the Pine Ridge area to about 825 feet in the extreme southeast. Precipitation likewise increases from the northwest to the southeast, from about 15 to 33 inches of total annual precipitation. The two largest river valleys in the state are the Missouri Valley and the Platte Valley, which both tend to be quite broad and fairly shallow, while the Niobrara Valley in the northern part of the state tends to be deeper and narrower, the shorelines often lined with steep bluffs. Bluffs and escarpments are also typical of the Pine Ridge area in the northern panhandle, the Wildcat Hills in Scotts Bluff and Banner counties, and the upper portions of the North Platte Valley. These features are shown on the accompanying map (Figure 2), which is based on the "Topographic Regions Map" published by the Conservation and Breeding Bird survey Division of the University of Nebraska.

Except for a few species of rather highly specialized birds, few Nebraska birds are specifically restricted to a single vegetational type or to a single type of topography. Nevertheless many birds are most abundant in particular vegetational communities or life forms, and some species have nesting requirements that tend to restrict them to certain kinds of terrain. The range maps accompanying the species accounts show not only Nebraska but also the nearby Plains States from North Dakota through Oklahoma, and are mostly modified and updated versions of those appearing in my earlier book (Johnsgard, 1979) on the breeding birds of the Great Plains. However, migratory and wintering areas of both breeders and non-breeding species are also shown, and the indicated breeding distributions are often modified to include areas of relatively denser breeding populations. The latter were derived from maps presented by Price, Droege and Price (1995), on the basis of their analyses of Breeding Bird Breeding Bird survey data.

Several species of Nebraska birds have become extirpated as an apparent result of human activities since settlement times, and many relatively specialized species have undergone considerable retraction of ranges as wetlands have disappeared and natural vegetation has given way to agriculture, urbanization, and other disturbances. Other generalist species, such as various "blackbirds" (including starlings and cowbirds) and crows, have benefited from these same changes. The increasing development of riparian woodlands along the Platte and other river systems crossing the plains has also facilitated east-west range changes in forest-adapted birds, and reservoirs such as Lake McConaughy have attracted many new species (especially gulls) to the state in recent years. The appearance of some of the other new species on the list has perhaps been influenced by increased bird-feeding activities by the general public, and new information resulting from increased recreational bird-watching.