Birding/Nature links

"You cannot see the Front Range from the western border of Kansas, but the effects of the Rocky Mountains modify the biota of lands east to the Mississippi River and beyond. A knowledgeable observer traveling west from Indiana might discern subtle shifts in the composition of forests and in the plants growing along the railroad rights-of-way, but from western Missouri to the far edge of Kansas change becomes obvious. Biotic transition is the theme when moving west into the deepening rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains; it is the phenomenon that makes bird finding in western Missouri and Kansas an adventure in finding the unexpected."

There are 465 species on the official list of Kansas Birds (PDF version), published by the Kansas Ornithological Society. The central position of the state in the continent, and the diversity of habitats (ranging from Ozark forest to sand/sage prairie) ensures a diverse avifauna. Eastern and Western Kingbirds, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, Rose-breasted and Black-headed Grosbeaks, Painted and Lazuli Buntings, and Brown Thrashers and Sage Thrashers epitomize the schizophrenic nature of the avifauna of Kansas. Come visit and see for yourself!

• Kansas Ornithological Society
• Natural Kansas - An excellent website to plan a wildlife watching weekend (or year) in the state of Kansas!
• Birds of the Cimmarron National Grassland - Free bird guide available from the US Forest Service
• Phenological checklist of the Birds of the Northern Flint Hills - updated 1995. This is an Acrobat PDF file, so you need Adobe's free Acrobat reader to read and/or print this file.
• Phenological checklist of the Birds of Konza Prairie - updated from Zimmerman (1985); Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) added in Jan 1996.
• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve - Our newest member of the National Parks System, this jewel of the prairie nestles in the Flint Hills about 50 miles south of Manhattan.
• Quivira National Wildlife Refuge - One of the underappreciated jewels of the federal refuge system, and the "adopted refuge" of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society.
• Breeding Birds of the Platte River Valley - Check out this well-designed and very useful compendium of data, authored by Gary Lingle and Craig Faanes. The body of the latter is in exile just outside the Washington Beltway, but his soul remains on the Great Plains. Thanks, Craig!
• Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and Parks
• Missouri Dept. of Conservation's Birding Page - check out the Winter Sparrow ID pages and many other useful resources!
• Bird Habitat Construction - plans for building nest boxes, purple martin houses, bird (and squirrel) feeders, photo blinds and more!
• Sandhill Cranes - Pictures, data, and conservation thereof. Maintained by the Nebraska Dept. of Game and Parks.
• Konza Prairie Information, including pictures of prairie fires and grazing bison
• Environmental Education at Konza Prairie - includes checklists of fauna, and a Quicktime movie of a Greater Prairie Chicken booming ground!
• Kansas Prairie Wildflower pictures - maintained by C. Owensby, KSU Range Research
• The Kansas Paddler Home Page - T.J. Hittle's links to canoeing, kayaking, and other resources that might interest river runners, stream conservationists, and just plain folks who are interested in protecting and appreciating our native streams.
• Western Hemisphere Shorebird Gallery - lots of pictures of shorebirds, useful for browsing or for learning.
• The Eskimo Curlew page - The best site for learning about this extremely rare species, which used to be "abundant" during March and April in Kansas.

Bookstores, Publishers, and Bibliographies relevant to Nature and Birding

• Albatross Books - An excellent and well-designed web resource for book lovers who also happen to be conservationists!
• Natural History Mail Order Bookstore - from the UK, so you might want to order your books from someplace a bit closer to home. But this is an great place for browsing.
• American Association of University Presses - You can search here for lots of good books about birds, etc.
• Searchable bibliography of avian research - heavily biased toward waterfowl, but a very useful resource
• Alice Rasa's excellent bibliography on Birding and Ecotourism - Use these facts and figures to convince your local Chamber of Commerce that birders spend money!
• Birding Magazines - list with addresses
• Audubon's Birds of North America - Hypertext version, with full text and all plates, as well as audio files of the calls and songs of the birds depicted. Truly a site where you can spend hours just browsing over this pioneering masterpiece of art and literature!

Other Birding and Nature Links

• Jack Siler's Birding Links - The first, and still the best.
• Over 6100 links to bird related pages - Denis LePage's comprehensive and well organized list of links (in English and Francais). If you can't find a birding fact here, it probably doesn't exist on the Web!
• This comprehensive wild bird page with links to newsletters, checklists, trip lists, and lots more, comes from Norway, and is well worth a visit (perhaps even an extended stay!).
• Checklist of Bird of USA/Canada (excluding Hawaii) - 909 species, incorporating the latest AOU splits and lumps, courtesy of Pete Thayer.
• Bird Checklists of the United States - a growing and useful resource from the Northern Prairie Science Center
• The Birds of North America page - check out the progress on this monumental work - especially if you are a reference librarian!
• ECO-O.K. Home page Learn how your coffee consumption habits are affecting bird populations in Central and South America
• Windows software that allows you to convert English bird species names into Latin binomials. Excel spreadsheets by David Sarkozi.
• Backyard Birding homepage
• Bird Monitoring in North America - Maintained by the National Biological Service, this informative site will provide you with data, maps, and lots of other useful information about North American bird populations, gleaned from the hard work of dedicated volunteers.
• Patuxent Wildlife Research Center - Home of the Breeding Bird Survey, the Banding Lab, and the Patuxent Bird Quiz. A great resource!
• Bird Identification Information from the Patuxent Lab - maps, songs, photos and more!
• The Australian Pelagic Bird Page Got an urge to go down under to see scores of pelagic birds you will never see in Kansas? Take a look at this virtual tour of the Southern Ocean, and you might never come back!
• Alvaro Jaramillo's Home Page - Full of interesting links to bird, butterfly, dragonfly and other natural history internet resources. Includes a bird ID section. Check this one out!
• Birds, Birds, Birds - comprehensive list of links to many bird-oriented web sites, including pictures of Middle Eastern Birds, veterinary information, and lots more!
• North American Bluebird Society - For beautiful pictures and lots of information about one of North America's most beloved birds.
• Louis Aggasiz Fuertes bird sketches from Cornell - Unpublished sketches from one of the greatest wildlife artists, from his field notebooks for a trip to the Pacific Northwest/Alaska in the early 1900's
• List of birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Birder's Home Page - A marvelous collection of birding stuff, including other newsletters, links to bird photo galleries, checklists, and lots more!
• Bird-related Citizen Science projects, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Birdwatching.com - A new web site with beginning and advanced birding information
• BirdingPal.com - Find a fellow birder anywhere you plan to travel! Also has links for birding hotspots near your destination.

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