A Pioneer History of Becker County. 
159 
Chapter VIII. 
LIST OF BIRDS OF BECKER COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 
Compiled by Thos. S. Roberts, M. D. 
DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT OF BIRDS, MINN. NAT. HIST. SURVEY. 
Becker County, lying as it does between the great forest region 
of northwestern Minnesota and the treeless plains to the westward, 
is ideally situated for presenting within its boundaries a great 
variety of bird life. The western one-third of the county is rolling 
prairie, sloping from elevations of 1400 to 1500 feet along the 
forest border, toward the Red River Valley in the tier of counties 
adjoining it on the west. This, with several isolated areas of 
prairie in the forests farther east, provides congenial homes for a 
large number of prairie loving birds. Among these are a few 
species belonging more appropriately to the high Cotcau regions 
of North Dakota, as, for example, the Lark Bunting, Sprague's 
Pipit, Chestnut-colored Longspur, Burrowing Owl and several oth¬ 
ers. The remaining: two-thirds of the county are more or less 
thickly covered with forest. Pine trees, spruces and fir balsams 
are found throughout much of this area. Deciduous trees of 
many species are abundant or predominate in the southern and cen¬ 
tral portions of the county, but in the northeastern quarter the 
forest becomes more distinctly coniferous and both the fauna and 
the flora present the typical Canadian aspect. Thus there is 
presented in the timbered regions of the county a diversity of con¬ 
ditions which attracts almost all the avian forest dwellers of the 
state. 
The prairies and forests of Becker County are diversified by over 
88,000 acres of water in the form of lakes and ponds and many 
streams. Thus an immense number of aquatic birds here find con¬ 
genial surroundings and ample opportunity to disport themselves, feed 
and raise their young. With the advent of man and the inevitable 
and largely unavoidable destruction of primitive conditions, there 
has been a widespread and wholesale diminution in the numbers 
of the water birds, extending in some instances to almost the en¬ 
tire disappearance of species once conspicuous features of the 
bird life. Some of these birds, as the swans, geese, pelicans, cur¬ 
lews, avocet and godwits cannot live in the wild state in associa- 
