Everytime I finish up a round of county check-list updates I also update some charts with how many counties has a species been seen in as well as how many counties do we have confirmed breeding for each species: https://www.ksbirds.org/checklist/County_Count_table_November_2024.htm
This round I also took a few minutes to look at breeding species that have been seen in all 105 counties but we are missing confirmed breeding records for. We use the breeding criteria that were utlized for the Kansas Breeding Bird Atlas Project (1992 - 1997) https://ksbirds.org/kbbat/KBBATcriteria.htm Confirmed criteria, and that's what we're looking for, is the last grouping on that page.
Below is a list of 12 species that have been seen in all 105 counties but we are missing breeding records for. For most of them I've included a list of counties where we don't have confirmed breeding records. I have not included that list for Rock Pigeon and Eurasian Collared-Dove as the list is too long. Both of these are routinely seen around the state, but because of their status and abundance they are also overlooked as breeding species.
We are clearly not in the nesting season, but I'm planting this seed now and will hopefully remind you in April. Some of the species may not be nesting in the absent counties, but I'm sure that most are, we just haven't taken the time to confirm them (and that includes myself with no breeding record for Eurasian Collared-Dove in Geary County!)
What information do we need? Species, date of observation, a rough location (i.e., downtown Milford, near the Post Office), and the KBBAT criteria that the observation provided (i.e., young in nest). I'm not adding probables to check-lists, we just want confirmed. Also a thank you to everyone who provided Cliff Swallow nesting records a few months ago and other confirmed nesting records!
If you need a new challenge for 2025, here it is - take a look at the list and go after some of them!
Rock Pigeon, 81 counties - Too many to list (check map at ksbirds.org)
Eurasian Collared-Dove, 33 counties - Too many to list (check map at ksbirds.org)
