Hello, Birders. Tony Leukering says:
> On 5 June before we went to Lake Cheraw, Steve Mlodinow, > Mark Peterson, and I hit Tempel Grove, Bent Co. Highlights > there were late migrants (two Olive-sided Flycatchers and a > singing Western Tanager) and two different female Black-chinned > Hummingbirds gathering spider webbing for nests. There was > also a male Black-chinned there. This represents the > northeasternmost record of breeding by the species on the > CO plains. The rapidity with which the species is expanding > its range in the southeast and along the Front Range is nothing > short of spectacular. I would suggest that Kansas birders be > on the lookout for breeding in and around Elkhart. First off, I always appreciate these tips and insights from Tony. Keep 'em coming! Also, Tony has unwittingly given me the opportunity to plug an absolutely magnificent, totally indispensable, brand-new reference for all birders in Colorado. I refer to Birds of Kansas, by Max C. Thompson and 6 coauthors, published a few days ago by the University of Kansas Press. My initial impression is that Birds of Kansas is, quite simply, one of the greatest "state books" of all time. Like the classics from the 20th century, Birds of Kansas contains immense amounts of data. But it's also modern in many ways. For starters, I just looked up "Leukering" in the sprawling "Literature Cited" section, and I see that Tony's 27 January 2000 post to the ID-Frontiers listserv is cited; that's cool. On a more serious note, though, each species has a range map showing presence or absence, including breeding status, for *every county in Kansas*. That's awesome. At a glance, you can tell that Lark Bunting has bred in Ness County, has occurred but without documentation of breeding in Osborne County, and is unrecorded in Republic County; and so forth. So much information--and so efficiently presented. (A quibble: Why did they settle on open circles for counties with breeding records, but dark circles for counties with occurrences but no breeding records?? I woulda done it just the opposite.) I wonder if such a reference could be created for Colorado--maybe online for now. Speaking of Colorado, birders in our own state will really benefit from checking out the range maps of all those Midwestern and even "Eastern" species that get a lot farther west in Kansas than perhaps many of us realize. Oh, and Tony mentioned Black-chinned Hummingbird. Birds of Kansas notes that an unidentified Archilochus hummingbird built a nest and unsuccessfully incubated an egg in Elkhart (see Tony's exhortation above). As Birds of Kansas states, "The few spring records and the apparent nesting attempts suggest that [Black-chinned Hummingbirds] may breed, at least casually, in the southwest [of Kansas], so any summer sighting of a hummingbird should be investigated." Here's one other point to ponder. Last fall, at the Oklahoma Ornithological Society conference, there was a really interesting presentation on apparent extensive hybridization between Black-chinned and Ruby-throated hummingbirds. A male Archilochus hummingbird with red on the gorget isn't necessarily a Ruby-throated. Beware! ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Blog: http://tinyurl.com/4n6qswt Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2ejzlzv Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/2wkvwxs ------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
