Birds so close, birds so far: Part 7 (Minnesota)

A look at provincial and state bird checklists, and the species they have that we (Ontario) don't!

Past states/provinces are archived somewhere on this page:

http://peregrineprints.com/ind__Articles.htm 


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Nothing like comparing our checklist to someone else on the Great Lakes... Gives us an idea of what we're missing, or just HOW CRAZY some possibilities are... Turns out, Minnesota has 12 species on their "official checklist" that Ontario doesn't....

White-tailed Kite

Glaucous-winged Gull
Elegant Tern
White-throated Swift
Coasta's Hummingbird
Calliopie Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker
Pygmy Nuthatch
American Dipper
Curve-billed Thrasher
Macgillivray's Warbler

Not a bad list! Let's break it down.

Category 1: COSMIC INSANE RARE ... when I read their checklist and say "WHAT!?"

Elegant Tern
Pygmy Nuthatch

We've got dozens and dozens of species that would be waay more likely (as a new bird for Ontario) than those megas... Nicely done Minnesota.... 

Category 2: CMF ... below category 2, but still really nutty... 

White-throated Swift
Costa's Hummingbird
Calliopie Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker - MAYBE category 3 worthy?
American Dipper

At the very least, there is some realistic hope we will someday be graced by one of these beauties in Ontario... The Hummingbirds are a funny one, because given our poor hummingbird list, there are a NUMBER we could add here in Ontario... So it was hard to classify a species like Costa's (that is a HUGE rarity, but maybe not category 1 rare? I couldn't decide)... 

Category 3: Overdue New... sure, these birds are super-rare in the fact that Ontario has never seen one... But we want one, and expect one (or more)..... 

White-tailed Kite (appears on a number of these lists)

Glaucous-winged Gull (still my most "overdue" bird for Ontario) 

Curve-billed Thrasher  (ditto)

Macgillivray's Warbler (yyyeah...)

Those 4 species are easily some of the more "overdue" birds for Ontario!!! Heck, these exact same 4 species were on the Wisconsin list as well........ 

Every post could use a picture, right?