The North American Breeding Bird Survey has documented 171 species of birds breeding in the Nebraska Sandhills. Only 46 stay in Nebraska year-round. The late ornithologist Paul Johnsgard noted another 125 species that migrate through the Sandhills to northern breeding grounds. When we add 102 species that rarely wander into the region, our tally comes to 398 species.
The contiguous grasslands and distinctive wetlands offer a variety of habitat types that meet birds’ diverse needs. Likewise, bird-watchers can visit expansive rangelands, wetland complexes, and small forest areas in the same morning in the Sandhills: the vastness of space and feelings of near-wilderness are impressive. Ranches are large and towns are small; the only signs of humanity seen from most dune tops and meadows are small roads, fences, local electric lines, and cattle that must belong to someone. Bird-watchers do not typically come to the Sandhills to see rare or threatened species, because any species of bird in the Sandhills can be seen somewhere else. The unique feature of a Sandhills birding trip is the backdrop, which is positively magnificent.
Birds’ wings allow them to be choosy consumers of landscapes and pioneer new areas quickly. The relatively new geology of the Sandhills provides a chance to ponder the millennia over which birds have been making these decisions. Fossil remains from south-central Nebraska, dated to two million years ago, include species of birds that can be viewed today in the Sandhills: green-winged teal, northern harrier, pied-billed grebe, ferruginous hawk, and wild turkey. Those species were ready to move into the Sandhills as the dunes and wetlands formed.
Upland Grassland Birds
Grasslands dominate the Sandhills, and grassland birds are its most abundant breeding species. Four species—western meadowlark, red-winged blackbird, mourning dove, and grasshopper sparrow—are alone responsible for 51 percent of the observations in the Sandhills on the annual Breeding Bird Survey. Three of these species are grassland birds, and red-winged blackbirds are associated with areas close to wetlands. If we use the survey as a guide, one in every four birds you see in the Sandhills is our state bird, the western meadowlark!
In fact, we can account for 90 percent of all observations on the Breeding Bird Survey in the Sandhills with only 30 of its 171 breeding species, and 20 of those 30 species are grassland birds. My research teams in the Sandhills found that two species—western meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow—accounted for half of our sightings. Grasslands are important systems, but they are relatively simple systems with one level of cover compared to forests.
Hunters and bird-watchers are attracted to the Sandhills with equal interest in two species of grouse: greater prairie-chicken and sharp-tailed grouse. Prairie-chickens moved into the region to escape the plow that removed grasslands in Illinois, Iowa, and eastern Nebraska. Sharp-tailed grouse in the Sandhills are at the southern tip of their range. The two species of grouse look and act in similar fashion. However, prairie-chickens tend to be found in landscapes with large valleys with their dancing grounds in mowed meadows or in areas made bare by livestock near windmills and water tanks, and sharp-tailed grouse are the kings of rolling dunes with few valleys, and males dance on the sparsely vegetated tops of dunes. Prairie-chickens may move to near-field areas to find alfalfa or corn during the late fall and winter, while sharp-tailed grouse seem content to stay in their dunes.
Migratory Water Birds
Before and after winter, the wetlands of the Sandhills become especially busy with the sounds and activity of migratory birds. Management of migratory birds in North America is conducted in four flyways, and the Central Flyway through the Great Plains lacks a north-south geographic feature that the Atlantic, Pacific, and Mississippi Flyways have in the form of coasts and a large river. The wetlands of the Sandhills join with east-west rivers across the plains to serve as rungs on a ladder through which birds climb and descend during their annual migrations to and from their northern breeding grounds.
Ducks and geese make use of open water, and some stay to nest in the Sandhills. Our waterfowl research shows a unique age structure of a large portion of first-year breeding mallards in the Sandhills, suggesting their older colleagues continue to the Prairie Pothole region in the Dakotas and Canada’s prairie provinces. These first-time mothers are apparently on a steep learning curve, as only about 3 to 5 percent of mallard nests are successful in the Sandhills, compared to 15 to 20 percent success in more northerly locations.
The temporary sheets of water provided by spring rains and snowmelt across meadows in the Sandhills are perfect foraging areas for shorebirds such as white-faced ibis, Wilson’s snipe, and lesser and greater yellowlegs. Two shorebird species that stay in the Sandhills for breeding are also a favorite of birders: upland sandpipers often pose for photographs atop fenceposts, and American avocets nest near wetlands in the western Sandhills. Avocets use their unique curved bills to filter invertebrates from the shallows of wetlands and may frequent wetlands with alkaline waters that have high levels of invertebrates.
Concerns for the Future
Conservation planning for birds in the Sandhills is focused on details of land use, such as dynamics of cattle grazing, management and drainage of meadows for haying, and management of lakes. Birds are benefiting from current projects such as restoration of fens that had been previously drained and removal of common carp from lakes. Removing a fish to benefit birds may seem odd, but the non-native carp stir up sediments as they feed in lakes, which reduces the amount of light that can reach into the water column and support the growth of submerged vegetation on which waterfowl feed during migration. One small change in the system can have cascading effects.
Like humans, birds choose homes based on location. Sandhills birds are first attracted to the region for its expansive grasslands and wetlands. Next, birds seek a portion of landscape that provides what they need for survival and reproduction. Last, their focus is on a specific type of clump of grass, shrub, or tree that is best for supporting and protecting their nest. Therefore, the region must retain its breadth, its unique grasslands and wetlands, and its diverse types of microhabitat that appeal to breeding birds. Horned larks, for example, are found in areas with sparse vegetation and bare soil. In an ironic twist of fate, as ranchers have worked to “heal” disturbed blowout areas of bare sand in their pastures and graze in a conservative manner that does not result in overgrazed condition, horned lark sightings on routes of the Breeding Bird Survey in the Sandhills have declined from approximately thirty sightings per route in the 1970s and 1980s to five to ten sightings per route in the last two decades. Despite the large grassland landscape, the specific type of habitat needed by horned larks has declined.
Bird communities constantly change in structure, for a variety of reasons. The fossil remains in south-central Nebraska, for example, contained remains of a ptarmigan, now found in Alaska, and passenger pigeons, now extinct. The Ice Age conditions present when the ptarmigan was found here and a whole-out slaughter of a species during the market-hunting era explain those two changes in our bird community. More recently, only the chestnut-collared longspur has disappeared from annual surveys in the last two decades, while eleven species have appeared during the same period. The increases in tree cover in the Sandhills probably pushed the red-bellied woodpecker and tree swallow into the region, while house finches and Eurasian collared-doves are invasive species that have swept through the plains. Bald eagles have appeared on surveys in recent years, which is a happy story of conservation success following declines from shooting and the ill effect of DDT. It is now possible to spot a massive nest of our national bird in a large cottonwood tree at many locations in the Sandhills.