First Documented Nest of Northern Saw-whet Owl in Nebraska

Authors

Wayne J. Mollhoff, Nebraska Ornithologists' Union

Date of this Version

12-2014

Citation

Mollhoff, "First Documented Nest of Northern Saw-whet Owl in Nebraska," from Nebraska Bird Review (December 2014) 82(4).

Comments

Copyright 2014 Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union. Used by permission.

Abstract

Northern Saw-whet Owl was added to our avifauna with a list prepared by Taylor and Van Vleet (1889). The first suggestion of breeding was a second-hand report included in a paper presented at the first meeting of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union in 1899 by M. A. Carriker, Jr., who "was told of a set of five eggs collected near Nebraska City about seven years ago" (1900), but which included no other details. At the next meeting, Bruner (1901) cited that report to include the species on a list of birds that breed in the state. Bruner, Swenk, and Walcott later referred to the report in their "A Preliminary Review of the Birds of Nebraska" (1904). The 1904 publication was the basis for breeding citations in the A.O.U. Checklist, Third Edition (1910) and Fourth Edition (1931), although it was dropped from subsequent AOU Checklists. It has also been cited by Bent (1938), as well as N.O.U. Checklists of 1945 (Haecker et al. 1945) and 1958 (Rapp et al. 1958) and by Sharpe et al. (2001).