General Information
The Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area (FWA) was aquired by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in August 2000. It consists of 2532 acres of strip-mine land which is a mix of grasslands, wetlands, scrub-shrub, and strip pits. There are 19 strip pits on the property totalling about 600 acres.
This list of birds of the Bluegrass FWA in southern Indiana is the result of a qualitative survey I did from 2002-2006. I identified 154 species of birds that use the Bluegrass FWA for breeding habitat, migration stopovers or as wintering areas. The total number of birds using the Bluegrass FWA is a bit higher if you consider the species I have not seen, but reported by others (some of which are included in this list).
The qualitative survey consisted of both walking and driving parts of the Bluegrass FWA Area (see map). Four plots, located in grassland and brushy habitat (red circles on map), were walked once every 7-10 days during the breeding season, and birds seen and heard were identified. The driving survey was a 20 mile route (in green on the map) covered once every 10-14 days year round. All birds seen or heard along the roadside, in fields and in strip pits were identified.
I have broken the bird list into four pages which you can get to by following the links in the sidebar. The first page includes waterfowl through herons; the second page includes hawks and falcons through woodpeckers; the third page includes the tyrannt flycatchers through starlings; and the fourth page includes pipits through weaver-finches.
You will notice that some species will have a link to a species page where I give a brief description, comments on habits and habitats, information on occurrence at the Bluegrass FWA, and a description of songs or calls. I am currently in the process of recording bird songs and analyzing these songs, so you will find, in addition to a picture of the bird, a spectrograph and one or more recordings of the bird. I will continue to add links to species as my analyses for each is complete.
