You can read the history of our state in the pages of The Birds of Illinois by H. David Bohlen. Species by species, Bohlen lays out the effects our remaking of the state has had on the birds who share this land with us.
Of the loggerhead shrike he writes, “An interesting and unique bird, the Loggerhead Shrike unfortunately is losing in its struggle to survive in a world dominated and manipulated by people. The northern and central Illinois populations are already mere remnants, and even the southern Illinois population has started to decline.”
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In between, the land in its natural state was a mosaic of forest, savanna, and prairie. The Mississippi and Illinois rivers and their backwater lakes must have been some of the richest environments in the temperate zone in their natural states. Add to this our location on a major migration route and at the border between eastern and western avifauna, and you have an ideal set of circumstances for seeing lots of birds.
Under each heading is a brief introduction to the bird, a presentation of notable facts about its appearance, behavior, habitat requirements, and status. Following this introduction is a listing of sightings that records such information as earliest spring arrival (for migrants), high counts, and nesting data.
The creative financing is commendable, because without it we would not have this excellent work. Bohlen has been a birder since childhood, and his job as assistant curator of zoology at the Illinois State Museum at Springfield puts him in a perfect position to observe bird life in Illinois. He wrote An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Illinois in 1978, and he is exactly the right person to create a definitive picture of the present status of the birds of our state.
