Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Central Ohio
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THE BIRDS OF CENTRAL OHIO AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST FROM FRANKLIN AND SURROUNDING COUNTIES © William D. Whan 2017 Updated March 31, 2017 Local bird checklists are an enduring Ohio tradition. In recent decades, many have routinely been compiled for venues like parks and wildlife areas; these usually consist simply of names of birds observed, listed in taxonomic order and without annotations. Checklists have covered the state as a whole, but also individually at least half its 88 counties, many of which offer details beyond species names. These details may include seasonal occurrences both typical and extreme, migrant/wintering/breeding status, records of unusual numbers observed, preferred local habitats and diets, and changes discerned in these data over time. Some works date back more than a century and a half, such as Read’s 1853 list of 146 species for northeastern Ohio counties. A few are products of a lifetime’s effort by a single observer, while most benefit from the work of many. This checklist is one of the latter. Franklin County’s bird records rank very high among Ohio counties for the numbers of species involved, the quality of their verification, and their historical depth. Fifteen Ohio species were first formally recorded there as living birds: king eider, white-winged scoter, cattle egret, Mississippi kite, golden eagle, prairie falcon, rufous hummingbird, red-cockaded woodpecker, Bell’s vireo, black-throated gray warbler, green-tailed towhee, Bachman’s sparrow, Harris’s sparrow, yellow-headed blackbird, and Bullock’s oriole. Central Ohio observers in neighboring Union, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, and Madison counties have added sixteen additional first state records: Eurasian wigeon (1906), cinnamon teal (1895), common eider (1895), black scoter (1876), surf scoter 1917), magnificent frigatebird (1980), Harris’s hawk (1917), purple gallinule 1877), long-billed curlew (1907), ruff (1872), long-tailed jaeger (1928), Sabine’s gull (1926), black-legged kittiwake (1925), Franklin’s gull (1906), spotted towhee (1946), and Henslow’s sparrow (1872). Annotations for additional species verified in the seven counties are included below, yielding a list of the 372 bird species of central Ohio thus defined. Accounts for 24 others—hybrids, exotics, introductions, birds identified only as to genus, several temporarily in limbo as to status, and half a dozen North American species reported but not firmly verified in the region—are included as indented entries without bold-faced names. Unlike other Ohio regions dominated by other major cities—Cleveland (Williams 1950, Rosche 2004), Cincinnati (Kemsies and Randle 1953), Toledo (Campbell 1940 and 1968, Anderson et al. 2002), or Dayton (Blincoe 1964, Mathena et al. 1984)—the central Ohio area has never been covered by a detailed checklist. Accumulated records from such a well-studied area should be of interest to a larger body of observers in the region. Based on this area’s long and extensively documented history, it will also serve to chronicle changes in birdlife in the central region of Ohio over nearly two centuries. Among the first lists of the avifauna of an area dominated by a large American city was “List of the Birds of the District of Columbia,” published as a 22-page pamphlet in 1862, then in 1883 as a 166- page annotated version Avifauna Columbiana, by the eminent Elliott Coues and his friend and collaborator D. W. Prentiss. They, like J. M. Wheaton of Columbus, were among the founders of the American Ornithologists’ Union in the latter year. At that time they offered their view of the changes in birdlife in and near Washington, D. C. in a way a Columbus observer of the day would have found familiar: They have also noted, as far as their knowledge enabled them to do so, the changes in the Avifauna resulting from the growth of a great city. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, with a population of about 60,000, the National Capital was a mud-puddle in 1 winter, a dust-heap in summer, a cow-pen and pig-sty all the year round; there was good snipeshooting within the city limits, and the country all about was as primitive as the most enthusiastic naturalist could desire. But…we have changed all that; Washington has grown up to 180,000, and become "citified" into quite a respectable establishment; the suburban wilderness has been reclaimed from Nature and largely given over to Art; while Ornithology has long been more assiduously and successfully pursued within than without the walls of the Smithsonian Institution. Study of the birds of such a well-defined area, especially when conducted over many generations, must yield knowledge about how habitats and other conditions have been altered, and how the local abundances and behaviors of birds may have changed as a result. Certainly in an area like Franklin County, as in the District of Columbia, environmental changes wrought on the landscape by exploitation of the forests and wetlands, then agriculture, and later by urbanization can be tracked by close study of its birds. Additionally, historical shifts in human attitudes and behaviors toward birds can be recognized by repeated observations, over time, of local species. Finally, as we cannot too often hear, much larger changes in the health of our natural environment may in important ways be assessed by attention to that of our birdlife, especially in areas densely populated by humans. Ornithologist John Maynard Wheaton’s rudimentary first Ohio checklist was published in 1861, and his detailed Report on the Birds of Ohio appeared in 1882, in both cases just a year before Coues and Prentiss’s corresponding works involving nearly the same latitude. Little noted has been Wheaton’s 15- page appendix to his Report titled “Check list of Ohio birds, with dates of their occurrence.” Wheaton said of these entries that “these dates apply to birds observed in the vicinity of Columbus, so that, excluding the birds unnoted, we have a list of the birds of Franklin county.” With adjoining counties we have in effect the first list—now of 372 species—for the region . For their part, Coues and Prentiss were to record 226 for the District of Columbia, where today’s list numbers 335 (Maryland Ornithological Society 2016). The list presented below may be regarded as a modern update of Wheaton’s, including records and annotations made possible by more than a century and a quarter of additional observations in the central counties of Ohio. The sources of this checklist Our region does not possess a remarkable variety or extent of productive bird habitats, but rather owes its extensive list to a history beginning with diligent local work begun in the nineteenth century, led by Wheaton (1840-1887), Theodore Jasper (1814-1897), Oliver Davie (1856-1911), and William L. Dawson (1873-1928). Later, numerous skilled local observers, collectors, curators, and researchers added much to our knowledge. Milton B. Trautman (1899-1991) published in 1940 his monumental work of meticulously conducted field observations, The Birds of Buckeye Lake, valuable far beyond its narrow compass, providing observations and other data available nowhere else; this and other fruits of his seventy years of work with local birds have guided all his successors. Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974) conducted her classic studies of song sparrows in Columbus 1927-1936 in publications exemplifying new approaches to the natural histories of birds. Extensive bird studies spanning the state were conducted by Lawrence E. Hicks (1905-1957), supplying many publications on Ohio records and important specimens to the collections of the Ohio State University Museum of Biological Diversity (OSUM). Edward S. Thomas (1891-1982) curated that collection 1931-1962, published many ornithological papers, and for 59½ years wrote a weekly natural history column in the Columbus Dispatch that often treated bird observations. Donald Borror (1907-1988) accumulated many local specimen records of bird vocalizations, and wrote widely on this and other ornithological topics; the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics at the OSU Museum is but one result of his labors. In 1989 and 2001 local resident Bruce Peterjohn published editions of his authoritative The Birds of Ohio, works that set high standards for accuracy and comprehensiveness in an Ohio monograph. The names of many other important contributors are to be found in the list and the literature cited below. This checklist recognizes records of 372 wild bird species for the seven counties of central Ohio, with at least 162 confirmed as local nesters. Records verified by existing or recorded museum specimens are included, along with nearly all those documented by published peer-reviewed sighting reports, favoring in the case of rarity those accompanied by other physical evidence such as photographs, recordings, or the testimony of trusted witnesses. In a few cases such testimony, obtained via written communication, has 2 alone served to verify records. In the annotations, efforts have been made to include the earliest historical records and specimens, significantly large numbers of individuals recorded, extreme migratory dates, and other details of local interest beyond those to be found in the standard references. Also inserted in this annotated list—indented, in brackets, and without bold-faced names, or in the Appendix―are two dozen other taxa reported or inferred but not accepted for inclusion in the list of accepted species, including the following: --- eight recorded hybrid forms (Ross’s goose x snow goose, mallard x American black duck, cinnamon teal x blue-winged teal, green-winged teal x American wigeon, hooded merganser x common goldeneye, “Brewster’s” and “Lawrence’s” warblers, and eastern meadowlark x western meadowlark). None of these qualifies as a species eligible for the list, but they are included as significant and often recognizable forms, some with multiple regional records; --- two groups of records identified only to the generic level (Selasphorus and Plegadis), deemed important because in certain plumages Allen’s hummingbird S.