Books by Paul Johnsgard

This is the BLACK & WHITE FIELD EDITION of The Birds of the Nebraska Sandhills.This book provides basic information on all the species of birds that have been reliably reportedfrom the Nebraska Sandhills region as of 2020. They include 46 permanent residents,125 summer breeders, 125 migrants, and 102 rare or accidental species, totaling398 species. Information on status, migration, and habitats is provided for all but the veryrare and accidental species. There are also descriptions of 46 refuges, preserves, and otherpublic- access natural areas in the region and seven suggested birding routes. The text containsmore than 90,000 words and over 250 literature references along with more than 20drawings, 9 maps, and 32 photographs by the authors.

This book surveys Wyoming?s mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian faunas. In addition to introducing the state?s geography, geology, climate, and major ecosystems, it provides 65 biological profiles of 72 mammal species, 195 profiles of 196 birds, 9 profiles of 12 reptiles, and 6 profiles of 9 amphibians. There are also species lists of Wyoming?s 117 mammals, 445 birds, 22 reptiles, and 12 amphibians. Also included are descriptions of nearly 50 national and state properties, including parks, forests, preserves, and other public-access natural areas in Wyoming. The book includes a text of more than 150,000 words, nearly 700 references, a glossary of 115 biological terms, nearly 50 maps and line drawings by the author, and 33 color photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen.

This book profiles 60 of the most abundant, characteristic, and interesting birds that are regularly reported from the 20,000-acre Ucross Ranch and the adjacent Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming. Ucross is a textbook example of the prairie grassland/ shrubland habitat type referred to as the sagebrush steppe, a landscape that is an icon of Wyoming's vast open spaces. We focus especially on those species that occur year-round or are present as breeders during the summer months, and we place emphasis on a unique group of sagebrush steppe-adapted birds. We provide information on each profiled species' identification, voice, status, and habitats. An introduction describes the history of the Ucross Ranch, followed by essays on the natural environment and habitats of the ranch, including the characteristic sagebrush steppe and its associated bird species. There are 60 color bird photographs, a map of the vegetation communities in the Great Plains, and a Bird Checklist of the Ucross Ranch.

This volume updates and expands a portion of P. A. Johnsgard's 1975 Waterfowl of North America. It includes two species of the perching duck tribe Cairinini: the muscovy duck and the wood duck, which forage on the water surface but perch in trees and nest in elevated tree cavities. It also includes the dabbling, or surface-feeding, duck tribe Anatini, that forage on the water surface but nest on the ground. The species that breed in North America include the familiar mallards, wigeons, pintails, and teal. Descriptive accounts of the distributions, populations, ecologies, social-sexual behaviors, and breeding biology of all these species are provided. Five additional Eurasian and West Indian species that have been reported in North America have also been included with more abbreviated accounts. The updated bibliography contains more than 1,000 references. There are 12 maps, 31 drawings, 28 photos, and 58 anatomical or behavioral sketches.

Part I. The Brinton Museum and Its BirdsPart II. Profiles of 48 Common Local and Regional Birds: Ring-necked Pheasant, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Calliope Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Downy Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel, Western Wood-Pewee, Say's Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, Common Raven, Tree Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, House Wren, American Dipper, Mountain Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Spotted Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, Western Meadowlark, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, House Finch, Cassin's Finch, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch

The 12 species described in this volume are not closely related, but they provide an instructive example of adaptive evolutionary radiation within the much larger waterfowl lineage as to their divergent morphologies, life histories, and social behaviors.The whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna), with three known North American species, are notable for their permanent pair-bonds, extended biparental family care, and strong social cohesion. In contrast, males of the five typical pochards (Aythya) maintain monogamous pair-bonds only long enough to assure that the female's eggs are fertilized. The extreme of this behavior exists among the stifftails (Oxyura). Such diverse reproductive strategies have exerted powerful evolutionary influences on interspecies variations in sexual dimorphism, sexual behavior, anatomy, ecology, and other traits.This volume includes more than 63,000 words, plus some 200 maps, photos, drawings, and sketches, and nearly 650 literature citations.

The 21 species of sea ducks are one of the larger subgroups (Tribe Mergini) of the waterfowl family Anatidae, and the 16 species (one historically extinct) that are native to North America represent the largest number to be found on any continent. This book is an effort to summarize succinctly our current knowledge of sea duck biology and to provide a convenient survey of the vast technical literature on the group, with over 900 literature references. It includes 90,000 words of text (more than 40 percent of which is new), 15 updated range maps, 31 photographs, over 30 ink drawings, and nearly 150 sketches. Lastly, the North American sea ducks include the now extinct Labrador duck, the only northern hemisphere waterfowl species to have gone extinct in modern times. Considering recent population crashes in other sea ducks, such as the Steller's eider and spectacled eider, it should also offer a sobering reminder of the fragility of our natural world and its inhabitants, including us.

There are eight currently recognized species of North American geese: emperor, greater white-fronted, snow, Ross's, Canada and cackling, barnacle, and brant geese. This book describes each species' geographic range and subspecies, its identification traits, weights and measurements, and criteria for its age and sex determination. Ecological and behavioral information includes each species' breeding and wintering habitats, its foods and foraging behavior, its local and long distance movements, and its relationships with other species. Reproductive information includes each species' age of maturity, pair-bond pattern, pair-forming behaviors, usual clutch sizes and incubation periods, brooding behavior, and postbreeding behavior. Mortality sources and rates of egg, young, and adult losses are summarized, and the past and current populations of all species are estimated. The book includes 8 maps, 21 line drawings, 28 photographs by the author, and more than 700 literature citations.

"En un sábado mágico de marzo, maneje con un estudiante de postgrado hasta el valle central del Platte, al oeste de Grand Island, tanto para ver la migración primaveral de aves acuáticas como la de las grullas grises..."

The seven species of swans are an easily and universally recognized group of waterfowl, which have historically played important roles in the folklore, myths and legends in many cultures. Among the largest of all flying birds, they have been used as symbo

These fourteen essays originally appeared in Prairie Fire, a monthly newspaper that for seven years has carried important messages of social, environmental, and economic issues to residents of Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, and South Dakota, and subscribers in the rest of the world. They discuss the North American east-west ecological boundaries, spring migration events, bird feeders, feathered survivors of a glacial past, the threatened sharp-tailed grouse, the effects of climate change, some "sacred places"-Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the Ashfall Fossil Beds, Squaw Creek Refuge, the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Sanctuary, and Yellowstone National Park-, our troubles with mountain lions and grizzly bears, and crane season in Wyoming. There is also an expanded informal autobiography, "My Life in Biology" and a current and comprehensive list of all publications of a writer described as "probably the world's most prolific living author of ornithological and natural history literature."

This book summarizes the evidence from 47 years (1967-2014) of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts and finds that bird populations and winter ranges have changed for many species in the Great Plains states (the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas panhandle). The book offers quantitative descriptions of the winter abundance for 147 of the most commonly encountered regional species, illustrating their changes in geographic distributions and relative abundance between 1967 and 2014. As winters have become progressively warmer, the winter distributions of many birds have moved northward, by as much as two states for some species. Birds are responding to milder temperatures and longer periods of ice-free water and snow-free foraging sites in the Great Plains, and the shifts in their distribution provide critical indicators of the acceleration of global warming.

The great North-South migratory pathway across the North American Great Plains-from the tropic wintering grounds to the high arctic breeding areas-is analyzed for the first time. Describes 114 U.S. and 21 Canadian localities of special importance to migrating birds. Discusses nearly 400 species of 50 avian families. Includes 7 maps, 49 figures and over 100 literature citations.

This 100,000-word monograph summarizes the distribution, abundance and breeding biology of the 183 species of wetland-adapted birds reliably reported from South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas through 2011. These include 91 species known to breed or have historically bred in the region, 51 species that migrate through the region but are not yet known to breed or have bred there, and 41 species that are extremely rare, probably extinct, or for which evidence as to their current occurrence is questionable. Brief summaries of the breeding biology of all the regionally nesting species are provided, and information for all species is summarized as to seasonal migrations, habitats, and (in most cases) population status. There is an introductory account of the topography, climate and vegetation of the region insofar as these environmental factors influence wetland birds, six regional maps, and more than 500 references.

Bird enthusiasts will find viewing loca­tions and updated contact information for hundreds of sites in Wy­oming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Alberta, and British Columbia. Part 1 outlines the habitats, ecology, and bird geography of the Rocky Mountains north of the New Mexico-Colorado border, including recent changes in the ecology and avifauna of the region. It provides detailed lists of major birding locations and guidance about where to search for specific Rocky Mountain birds. Part 2 considers all 328 regional species individually, with information on their status, habitats and ecology, suggested viewing locations, and population. Includes 3 maps and 11 drawings by the author.