Minnesota gets first new bird atlas in 81 years

By John Myers on Nov 6, 2017 at 6:22 p.m.

DULUTH — It took eight years, 700 volunteers and thousands of hours in the field but Minnesota has its first new breeding bird atlas since 1936.

The new, interactive online atlas is considered the bible of Minnesota's native birds, documenting species that nest and raise their young in the state's forests, prairies, suburbs and cities.

Volunteers joined researchers from the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute and Audubon Minnesota, fanning out across 2,353 townships — some 99.5 percent of the state.

They made more than 1 million bird observations, recorded 380,000 different contacts and confirmed 249 species as nesting across the state.

Work began in 2009 with major funding from the Minnesota Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, state lottery profits allocated to natural resource projects. It took four years of field work and then another four years in the office to analyze the data, painstakingly separating good data from lesser stuff.

A nest with young or eggs got an absolute confirmation, males repeatedly singing might be a "probable" and birds hanging around a suitable habitat might be a "possible" or "observed." Whether they made the list of 249 depended on the species, said Jerry Niemi, ornithologist, senior program manager for the NRRI and a lead author of the atlas.

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