ELY — A pair of ornithologists highlighted their years-long effort to catalog breeding bird species in Minnesota at a Tuesday Group meeting here earlier this month.
Gerald Niemi, a retired UMD biology professor, and Lee Pfannmuller, former director of the DNR’s Division of Ecological Services, detailed their project to produce the Minnesota Atlas of Breeding Birds along with longtime Duluth-area ornithologist Jan Green.
A breeding bird atlas is a comprehensive report of nesting birds, and Minnesota is one of the last states to complete one, in part because the tremendous diversity of bird life in Minnesota along with the difficulty of accessing remote parts of northern Minnesota.
The bird atlas concept began in Great Britain during the late 1960s, expanded through Europe, then into the eastern United States, beginning with Maryland.
Now, most U.S. states have completed one.
The Minnesota study was publicized on a website in 2017 and was released last summer as a comprehensive book, “The Breeding Birds of Minnesota, History Ecology and Conservation,” published by the University of Minnesota Press.
The project to create the atlas began in 2008 and data collection occurred over five breeding seasons between 2009 and 2013. To get a representative sampling, atlas organizers divided the state into townships and then into nine-by-nine-mile squares, a total of 9,774 blocks.
Volunteers aimed to record bird sightings and evidence of breeding of about 250 bird species. The effort resulted in about 380,000 breeding evidence records and approximately one-million detections.
Of the 250 species, 231 were confirmed breeders. As many as 452 species have been reported in Minnesota, but many of those species are vagrants, migrants, and or visit only during winter.
More than 700 people volunteered to collect data. Niemi explained that to do their point counts, volunteers sampled early in the morning in good weather between 4:45-9:30 a.m. and observed at a designated place for ten minutes.
“In that time, a good observer can usually identify 15 species,” he said, though it can vary between five and 25, depending on the quality of habitat.
Once all the data was gathered, it took four years, the help of many graduate students, and the use of the University of Minnesota’s supercomputer to crunch all the numbers.
After all that, the authors thought it would be no trouble to put the information into a book for a wider audience and more permanent resource, but it took them six years to complete.
The massive coffee-table book is 685 pages and weighs about nine pounds. The book includes maps, population graphs, photos, and detailed natural histories, including breeding habitat, population abundance, and conservation for each bird species known to breed in the state.
So, what are the most abundant birds in Minnesota? The top three are the common yellowthroat (estimated at 14.7 million adults), the horned lark (12.2 million adults), and the song sparrow (10.4 million adults). The most common birds in Minnesota, the ones you are most likely to have an encounter with, are the American robin (spotted in 59 percent of surveys), common yellowthroat (51 percent) and the red-winged blackbird (49 percent).
Looking specifically at northeastern Minnesota, our most abundant birds were the Nashville warbler, American redstart, black-and-white warbler, red-eyed vireo, chestnut-sided warbler, and ovenbird.
Some birds breeding only in this region include the golden-crowned kinglet, Swainson’s thrush, dark-eyed junco, Cape May warbler, magnolia warbler, blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler, and the Canada warbler.
Niemi said several species are in a perilous state, including black-crowned night-herons, piping plovers, loggerhead shrikes, and cerulean warblers. Some secretive nocturnal species such as the eastern whip-poor-will and eastern screech owl have seen declines as well.
On a more positive note, conservation efforts for bald eagle, peregrine falcon, osprey, and trumpeter swan have been successful. Wild turkeys, sandhill cranes, and red-bellied woodpeckers have expanded their territories. Gradually, some species that had previously disappeared in southern Minnesota are reappearing, such as the common loon, northern harrier, and clay-colored sparrow.
To explore the data online, go to mnbirdatlas.org or purchase the book at local bookstores, including the Piragis Bookstore in Ely, or by ordering from the University of Minnesota Press. ELY — A pair of ornithologists highlighted their years-long effort to catalog breeding bird species in Minnesota at a Tuesday Group meeting here earlier this month.
Gerald Niemi, a retired UMD biology professor, and Lee Pfannmuller, former director of the DNR’s Division of Ecological Services, detailed their project to produce the Minnesota Atlas of Breeding Birds along with longtime Duluth-area ornithologist Jan Green.
A breeding bird atlas is a comprehensive report of nesting birds, and Minnesota is one of the last states to complete one, in part because the tremendous diversity of bird life in Minnesota along with the difficulty of accessing remote parts of northern Minnesota.
The bird atlas concept began in Great Britain during the late 1960s, expanded through Europe, then into the eastern United States, beginning with Maryland.
Now, most U.S. states have completed one.
The Minnesota study was publicized on a website in 2017 and was released last summer as a comprehensive book, “The Breeding Birds of Minnesota, History Ecology and Conservation,” published by the University of Minnesota Press.
The project to create the atlas began in 2008 and data collection occurred over five breeding seasons between 2009 and 2013. To get a representative sampling, atlas organizers divided the state into townships and then into nine-by-nine-mile squares, a total of 9,774 blocks.
Volunteers aimed to record bird sightings and evidence of breeding of about 250 bird species. The effort resulted in about 380,000 breeding evidence records and approximately one-million detections.
Of the 250 species, 231 were confirmed breeders. As many as 452 species have been reported in Minnesota, but many of those species are vagrants, migrants, and or visit only during winter.
More than 700 people volunteered to collect data. Niemi explained that to do their point counts, volunteers sampled early in the morning in good weather between 4:45-9:30 a.m. and observed at a designated place for ten minutes.
“In that time, a good observer can usually identify 15 species,” he said, though it can vary between five and 25, depending on the quality of habitat.
Once all the data was gathered, it took four years, the help of many graduate students, and the use of the University of Minnesota’s supercomputer to crunch all the numbers.
After all that, the authors thought it would be no trouble to put the information into a book for a wider audience and more permanent resource, but it took them six years to complete.
The massive coffee-table book is 685 pages and weighs about nine pounds. The book includes maps, population graphs, photos, and detailed natural histories, including breeding habitat, population abundance, and conservation for each bird species known to breed in the state.
So, what are the most abundant birds in Minnesota? The top three are the common yellowthroat (estimated at 14.7 million adults), the horned lark (12.2 million adults), and the song sparrow (10.4 million adults). The most common birds in Minnesota, the ones you are most likely to have an encounter with, are the American robin (spotted in 59 percent of surveys), common yellowthroat (51 percent) and the red-winged blackbird (49 percent).
Looking specifically at northeastern Minnesota, our most abundant birds were the Nashville warbler, American redstart, black-and-white warbler, red-eyed vireo, chestnut-sided warbler, and ovenbird.
Some birds breeding only in this region include the golden-crowned kinglet, Swainson’s thrush, dark-eyed junco, Cape May warbler, magnolia warbler, blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler, and the Canada warbler.
Niemi said several species are in a perilous state, including black-crowned night-herons, piping plovers, loggerhead shrikes, and cerulean warblers. Some secretive nocturnal species such as the eastern whip-poor-will and eastern screech owl have seen declines as well.
On a more positive note, conservation efforts for bald eagle, peregrine falcon, osprey, and trumpeter swan have been successful. Wild turkeys, sandhill cranes, and red-bellied woodpeckers have expanded their territories. Gradually, some species that had previously disappeared in southern Minnesota are reappearing, such as the common loon, northern harrier, and clay-colored sparrow.
To explore the data online, go to mnbirdatlas.org or purchase the book at local bookstores, including the Piragis Bookstore in Ely, or by ordering from the University of Minnesota Press. ELY — A pair of ornithologists highlighted their years-long effort to catalog breeding bird species in Minnesota at a Tuesday Group meeting here earlier this month.
Gerald Niemi, a retired UMD biology professor, and Lee Pfannmuller, former director of the DNR’s Division of Ecological Services, detailed their project to produce the Minnesota Atlas of Breeding Birds along with longtime Duluth-area ornithologist Jan Green.
A breeding bird atlas is a comprehensive report of nesting birds, and Minnesota is one of the last states to complete one, in part because the tremendous diversity of bird life in Minnesota along with the difficulty of accessing remote parts of northern Minnesota.
The bird atlas concept began in Great Britain during the late 1960s, expanded through Europe, then into the eastern United States, beginning with Maryland.
Now, most U.S. states have completed one.
The Minnesota study was publicized on a website in 2017 and was released last summer as a comprehensive book, “The Breeding Birds of Minnesota, History Ecology and Conservation,” published by the University of Minnesota Press.
The project to create the atlas began in 2008 and data collection occurred over five breeding seasons between 2009 and 2013. To get a representative sampling, atlas organizers divided the state into townships and then into nine-by-nine-mile squares, a total of 9,774 blocks.
Volunteers aimed to record bird sightings and evidence of breeding of about 250 bird species. The effort resulted in about 380,000 breeding evidence records and approximately one-million detections.
Of the 250 species, 231 were confirmed breeders. As many as 452 species have been reported in Minnesota, but many of those species are vagrants, migrants, and or visit only during winter.
More than 700 people volunteered to collect data. Niemi explained that to do their point counts, volunteers sampled early in the morning in good weather between 4:45-9:30 a.m. and observed at a designated place for ten minutes.
“In that time, a good observer can usually identify 15 species,” he said, though it can vary between five and 25, depending on the quality of habitat.
Once all the data was gathered, it took four years, the help of many graduate students, and the use of the University of Minnesota’s supercomputer to crunch all the numbers.
After all that, the authors thought it would be no trouble to put the information into a book for a wider audience and more permanent resource, but it took them six years to complete.
The massive coffee-table book is 685 pages and weighs about nine pounds. The book includes maps, population graphs, photos, and detailed natural histories, including breeding habitat, population abundance, and conservation for each bird species known to breed in the state.
So, what are the most abundant birds in Minnesota? The top three are the common yellowthroat (estimated at 14.7 million adults), the horned lark (12.2 million adults), and the song sparrow (10.4 million adults). The most common birds in Minnesota, the ones you are most likely to have an encounter with, are the American robin (spotted in 59 percent of surveys), common yellowthroat (51 percent) and the red-winged blackbird (49 percent).
Looking specifically at northeastern Minnesota, our most abundant birds were the Nashville warbler, American redstart, black-and-white warbler, red-eyed vireo, chestnut-sided warbler, and ovenbird.
Some birds breeding only in this region include the golden-crowned kinglet, Swainson’s thrush, dark-eyed junco, Cape May warbler, magnolia warbler, blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler, and the Canada warbler.
Niemi said several species are in a perilous state, including black-crowned night-herons, piping plovers, loggerhead shrikes, and cerulean warblers. Some secretive nocturnal species such as the eastern whip-poor-will and eastern screech owl have seen declines as well.
On a more positive note, conservation efforts for bald eagle, peregrine falcon, osprey, and trumpeter swan have been successful. Wild turkeys, sandhill cranes, and red-bellied woodpeckers have expanded their territories. Gradually, some species that had previously disappeared in southern Minnesota are reappearing, such as the common loon, northern harrier, and clay-colored sparrow.
To explore the data online, go to mnbirdatlas.org or purchase the book at local bookstores, including the Piragis Bookstore in Ely, or by ordering from the University of Minnesota Press.