A SYNOPSIS OF THE BIRD LIFE OF MINNESOTA 



MINNESOTA AS A HOME FOR BIRDS 



Minnesota, with its vast area of 84,286 square miles of territory 

 and its greatly diversified surface, presents favorable conditions 

 for an abundant and a varied bird life. North and south — four 

 hundred miles — it spans the line which separates the boreal ever- 

 green forests from the deciduous woods and groves of the warmer 

 regions to the southward. Each affords a characteristic assortment 

 of resident and breeding birds. East and west — three hundred 

 fifty-seven miles at the Canadian boundary, one hundred eighty 

 miles at the narrowest part — the state overlaps the wooded area 

 and embraces a considerable portion of the western treeless plains, 

 thus securing a representation of the highly specialized prairie 

 fauna. The Mississippi bottom-land along the southeastern 

 boundary of the state has a relatively high mean temperature, and 

 entices a few species from their proper habitat much farther south. 

 The thousands of lakes, ponds, and streams and the proximity of 

 Lake Superior — aggregating five thousand seven hundred square 

 miles of water area — afford congenial haunts for an immense num- 

 ber of water birds of many species, and while these have deplor- 

 ably decreased with the changes consequent upon the advent of 

 man, there is still an unusually rich aquatic bird life. 



LIFE ZONES AND FAUNAL AREAS OF MINNESOTA 



Naturalists divide the surface of the earth into biological 

 Regions, each distinguished by certain characteristic features of 

 its animal and plant life. These major areas are again divided 

 into Life Zones according to still more detailed groupings of living 

 forms distinctive of each; and these Life Zones are still further 

 subdivided into what are called by zoologists Faunal Areas. The 

 term Biogeography is often used for this particular branch of 

 biological study; with subdivisions into Zoogeography, the geo- 

 graphical distribution of animals, and Phy to geography, the geo- 

 graphical distribution of plants. Minnesota embraces Zones 

 belonging to two Regions. The northeastern portion of the state lies 

 within what is known as the Canadian Zone of the Boreal Region; 

 distinguished by its coniferous forests and associated plant forms 

 and an animal life— especially bird life — distinctively its own. The 

 remainder of the state belongs to the Transition Zone, which is 



