Wings over the Great Plains: Bird Migrations in the Central Flyway

248 Pages·2012·9.127 MB·English

by  Paul A. Johnsgard

Wings over the Great Plains:
Bird Migrations in
the Central Flyway
Paul A. Johnsgard
Abstract
The Central Flyway has been recognized as a collective North-
South migratory pathway centered on the North American Great
Plains for nearly a century, but it has never been analyzed as the
species that most closely follow it, or the major stopping points
used by those species on their journeys between their northern
breeding and southern wintering grounds. A total of 114 U.S.
and 21 Canadian localities of special importance to birds migrat-
ing within the Central Flyway are identified and described in de-
tail. Judging from available regional, state and local information,
nearly 400 species of 50 avian families regularly use the Central
Flyway during their migrations. Nearly 90 Central Flyway spe-
cies have wintering areas partly extending variably far into the
Neotropic zoogeographic realm, and at least 50 of these winter
entirely within the Neotropic realm. A few of these species un-
dertake some of the longest known migrations of all birds, in ex-
cess of 8.000 miles in each direction. Seven maps, 49 figures and
over 100 literature citations are included.

Wings over
the Great Plains:

Bird Migrations in the
Central Flyway
Paul A. Johnsgard
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Zea Books • Lincoln, Nebraska • 2012
Text and illustrations copyright © 2012 Paul A. Johnsgard.
isbn 978-1-60962-028-8 paperback
isbn 978-1-60962-029-5 ebook
Set in Palatino Linotype. Design and composition by Paul Royster.
Zea Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.
Electronic (pdf) edition available online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/
Print edition can be ordered from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/unllib
Contents
List of Maps and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1. Introduction to the North American Flyways . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2. Important Refuges, Sanctuaries, and other
Sites of Significance to Migratory Birds
in the Central Plains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3. Geographic Distributions and Migration Patterns
of Migratory Bird Species in the Central Plains . . . . . . . 77
Appendix. Taxonomic List of Species Mentioned
in the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Literature Cited & Selective Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
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List of Maps & Figures
All illustrations by Paul A. Johnsgard
Maps
1. Major climax plant formations of North America. . . . . . . . 10–11
2. Principal breeding and wintering areas of North American
waterfowl and administrative flyway units. . . . . . . . . 12–13
3. Native plant communities of the Great Plains . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4. Approximate boundaries of the Central Flyway . . . . . . . . . . 16
5. Approximate boundaries of the Pacific, Mississippi
and Atlantic flyways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6. Approximate boundaries of the Central Flyway
south of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7. Approximate boundaries of the Central Flyway in Canada . . . 20
Figures
1. Black-bellied Whistling Duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2. Greater White-fronted Goose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3. Snow Goose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4. Canada Goose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5. Tundra Swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6. American Wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7. Northern Pintail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8. Redhead pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
9. Long-tailed Duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10. American Bittern, Double-crested Cormorant
and Pied-billed Grebe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11. Western Grebe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12. American White Pelican . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
13. Osprey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
14. Bald Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
15. Red-tailed Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
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16. Ferruginous Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
17. Golden Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
18. Peregrine Falcon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
19. Prairie Falcon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
20. Whooping Crane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
21. Willet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
22. Lesser Yellowlegs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
23. Long-billed Curlew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
24. Eskimo Curlew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
25. Ruddy Turnstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
26. Sanderling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
27. Short-billed Dowitcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
28. Wilson’s Snipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
29. American Woodcock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
30. Wilson’s Phalarope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
31. Common Tern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
32. Forster’s Tern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
33. White-winged Dove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
34. Burrowing Owl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
35. Saw-whet Owl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
36. Common Nighthawk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
37. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
38. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
39. Red-eyed Vireo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
40. Blue Jay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
41. Horned Lark, American Crow and Sage Thrasher . . . . . . . 178
42. White-breasted Nuthatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
43. Marsh Wren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
44. Eastern Bluebird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
45. European Starling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
46. Black-and-White Warbler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
47. Western Tanager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
48. Red-winged Blackbird.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
49. Yellow-headed Blackbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
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