Birds of Ohio checklist grows from 420 to 443 species in 14 years

Harlequin ducks, rare in Ohio, grace the cover of the new Checklist of the Birds of Ohio/Jim McCormac

Birds of Ohio checklist grows from 420 to 443 species in 14 years

Columbus Dispatch
April 2, 2023

NATURE
Jim McCormac

In the olden days of ornithology, shotguns were the lethal equivalent of binoculars. Ornithologists collected specimens of birds that they saw, and these provided indisputable documentation of a region’s bird life. Carefully preserved and stored in musty museum drawers, scores of old bird skins are still available for study.

As optics and observational techniques improved, collecting fell out of vogue. Today, rare is the scientist with a collecting permit. Almost all bird documentation is done visually and photographically.

The Ohio Bird Records Committee (OBRC) is a group of ornithology experts that arbitrates records of very rare birds that appear in Ohio. They are, in effect, the scientific peer review team that evaluates evidence for unusual or unprecedented sightings.

One of the OBRC’s crowning achievements is publication of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ohio. It includes all species officially accepted on the state list. The first edition came out in 2008, spearheaded by David Dister, Joe Hammond, Robert Harlan, Bernard Master and Bill Whan. This first edition included 420 species.

In the fall of 2022, the second edition was released and the checklist has grown significantly. Rob Harlan is sole author, and has made improvements to the format. It is indexed, and color photos grace front and back covers. An eye-catching pair of harlequin ducks is on the front, and a swallow-tailed kite is on the back.

The meat of the 65-page checklist is the birds themselves: all 443 species. Twenty-three species have been added in the 14 years since the inaugural checklist’s publication. Each species has a short description of its status in the state, and a bar chart of its seasonal frequency. The checklist is the easiest, most up-to-date publication for a quick and accurate overview of Ohio’s birds.

Of the 443 species, nine are non-native. Especially familiar among this crowd are the abundant European starling, house sparrow and rock pigeon. Sadly, two native species that historically bred in Ohio are extinct: Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon.

Waterfowl – ducks, geese, swans – is the largest family, with 43 species. The ever-popular warblers follow with 40 species and sandpipers are the third largest family at 37 species.

A whopping 216 species are listed as nesters, although some of them have only bred once or a few times, and some species, such as Bewick’s wren, no longer breed in Ohio. One additional species, the black-bellied whistling-duck, was confirmed as breeding shortly after the checklist’s publication. I wrote about that strange occurrence in my Oct. 2, 2022 column.

Rarities always cause a stir among birders, and 124 species in the checklist are boldfaced, meaning verifiable evidence is required for acceptance of reports. Of those, 37 species have but one record – the rarest of the rare. This group includes some amazing records such as Atlantic puffin, Eurasian woodcock and painted redstart.

Checklists soon need to be updated, and this one is no exception. Four species have been added to the state list since its publication: ash-throated flycatcher (western U.S.), broad-billed hummingbird (Mexico, southernmost U.S.), common gull (Eurasia) and glaucous-winged gull (Pacific coast).

Ohio’s 447 bird species make the Buckeye state holder of one of the largest state lists in the eastern U.S. Of the surrounding states, only one surpasses us, and only by a mere 12 species. That state, to our north, shall go unnamed.

The Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Ohio is indispensable to anyone interested in our birds. It is available from Time & Optics, and copies are $5. To order, call 330-674-0210, or email robert@timeandoptics.org.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature atwww.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.