Kansas Breeding Bird Atlas

Given its central location and favorable habitats, Kansas is blessed with a surprising diversity of birds: 453 species documented within its borders. This book focuses on the 203 species that breed in the state—from the Green-Winged Teal to the Great-tailed Grackle—to create an accurate and timely reference based on standardized methods of data collection.

The Kansas Breeding Bird Atlas represents the efforts of 180 volunteers who diligently sought out birds over six years, observing their behavior and searching for active nests and fledged young throughout the state, whether in tallgrass prairies, riparian forests, or wetlands. In addition to these volunteers’ efforts, Busby and Zimmerman gathered a wealth of information relating the observations to ecological factors affecting the birds’ habitat selection.

In the book, each species is conveniently presented in a two-page spread containing a line drawing, descriptive account, data summary table, distribution map, and, in most instances, a table of breeding status by physiographic region and BBS (Breeding Bird Survey) map. Breeding codes—possible, probable, or confirmed—are assigned in accordance with recommendations of the North American Ornithology Atlas Committee. The illustrations consist of classic drawings by Orville Rice and Robert Mengel, plus over one hundred new drawings by Dan Kilby.

This is the definitive guide for anyone, amateur or professional, concerned with the activities of Kansas’s breading birds, and it provides information essential to environmental and conservation planning as well. The Kansas Breeding Bird Atlas is your one source for complete and authoritative data on these avian species that breed in Kansas.

William H. Busby is Associate Scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey and a coauthor of An Illustrated Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species in Kansas, also published by the University Press of Kansas.

John L. Zimmerman, former professor of biology at Kansas State University, is author of The Birds of Konza: The Avian Ecology of the Tallgrass Prairie and Cheyenne Bottoms: Wetland in Jeopardy, and coauthor of A Guide to Bird Finding in Kansas and Western Missouri. He lives in Virginia.