Customer Reviews

Missouri Breeding Bird Atlas: 1986-1992 (Natural History Series No. 6)

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Basics: 1997, softcover, 430 pages, 160+ species, breeding atlas maps

This atlas represents the field work carried out in Missouri between 1986 and 1992 to document all species that breed in the state. As typical of most atlases, the primary focus of this book is to provide a map of where the birds breed and to offer an account of the natural history of each bird. The state was divided into 1,210 blocks and all but 3 were surveyed during the study period.

A full-page map of Missouri is given for each of the 160+ breeding birds. The map contains boundaries for all counties. Blocks of three shades of gray are placed over the map to designate the location and status of a breeding bird. Nineteen different codes were used in the field surveys and then arranged into three distinct categories reflected on the map. These three status types are confirmed, probably, and possible breeding.

Another small map of Missouri displays the six primary phsyiographic regions of the state, which are shaded to represent the relative abundance of sightings of the bird. Another table shows nicely the seasonal timing for four types of breeding categories.

The text offered for each bird encompasses four key topics: habitat, code frequency, distribution, and abundance. Each receives a brief paragraph to give a basic synopsis of each subject. The information offered in the text is a bit on the generic side and is somewhat sparser in comparison to other state atlases I've examined.

I've listed several related books below...
1) Birds in Missouri by Jacobs
2) Birds of Illinois by Bohlen
3) Birds in Iowa by Kent/Dinsmore
4) Iowa Birds by Dinsmore et al.
5) Iowa Breeding Bird Atlas by Jackson et al.
6) Birds of Nebraska: Their Distribution and Temporal Occurrence by Sharpe
7) Arkansas Birds: Their Distribution and Abundance by James/Neal