Birds of Nebraska: Their Distribution & Temporal Occurrence

Rating:
Summary: The bird book Nebraska deserves
Review: Nebraska is known to the North American birding community almost exclusively for a single phenomenon: the spectacular spring migration of waterfowl and cranes along the Platte River in late March. The state is otherwise largely terra incognita to all but locals, who have managed to keep its ornithological riches a relative secret. But anyone who has spent time in the forests of the southeast, the wooded buttes of the northwest, or the vast prairies of the sandhills knows that here lie treasures. Few other states boast such a large and varied avifauna, its components drawn from east, west, north and south; regular breeders include Acadian Flycatcher and Cordilleran Flycatcher, Blue Jay and Pinyon Jay, Long-billed Curlew and American Woodcock, and the birder with time and a full tank of gas can find all these and many more such pairs in a single day in the field.
Finding out about these treasures has been difficult. Birding in Nebraska in most of the twentieth century was a particularist affair, meaningful communications generally oral and private. All this has changed, however, with the publication of Ross Silcock et al.'s new Birds of Nebraska, an exemplary production providing native and visitor alike with a comprehensive introduction to the state's birds. Each of the 440+ species so far recorded is treated fully, with detailed summaries of its temporal and geographic distribution, abundance, and status in the state. For out-of-staters, rudimentary bird-finding information is provided, its usefulness varying with its specificity: for some species, directions are provided to likely sites, while for others the advice consists solely in the identification of promising habitat types.
The book is handsomely and well produced by the University of Nebraska Press. Editorial slips are remarkably few for a work of this scope and detail; spelling errors ("Ulnus" for "Ulmus," for example) are nearly non-existent, and the prose is generally clear and readable. Nebraska birders, it goes without saying, will find this the most useful book on their birding bookshelf, but the rest of us too will profit from the impressive new standard set by this work.