Pieter Aer UrbxOoN* 8) UeL Li Evel iN 23 
or pamphlets to collections numbering nearly 10,000 items. 
The Library has been given official support as a repository of natural 
resource reference materials by the American Association for Conservation 
Information, International Association of Game, Fish and Conservation 
Commissioners, Outdoor Writers of America, Conservation Education Asso- 
ciation, and the Forest History Society, Inc. The Center is located in the 
Denver Public Library, 1357 Broadway, Denver, Colorado. 
ft a fi fi 
ARBOR AND BIRD DAY IN ILLINOIS 
Gov. Otto Kerner designated April 24, 1964, as Arbor and Bird Day in 
Illinois. William T. Lodge. Director of the Illinois Department of Con- 
servation, said that Illinois bird populations have undergone marked 
changes, largely because of man’s activities. 
“In primeval times Illinois was a land of forests, marsh, and prairies, 
but civilization has changed it to a land of cities and farms,’ Lodge said. 
At first some of the changes were beneficial to birds. Prairie Chickens: 
found that the small pioneer farms were a new source of food, and they 
prospered until row crop agriculture plowed up the grassland necessary 
for booming grounds and nesting areas. Now the Prairie Chicken is in 
danger of vanishing forever from the Prairie State. 
On the other hand, the Hungarian Partridge and Ring-necked Pheasant, 
birds that are not native in this continent and that do not require extensive 
grassland, have found the fertile soils and intensive farming of northern 
and eastern Illinois to their liking and probably will be a part of Illinois 
fauna as long as they have a little nesting cover. 
A comparison of Illinois bird populations in the early 1900s and late 
1950s has been made by the Illinois Natural History Survey. By the early 
1900s most of the major changes in the environment of the state had oc- 
curred. The forests were cut, the grasslands plowed, and the marshes - 
drained. Technicians find that the total number of birds in the state has 
not changed to any great degree, but the change in population of certain 
species is remarkable. 
House Sparrows, introduced from Europe, are as plentiful now as they 
were 50 years ago. The Starling. another foreign introduction, did not 
invade the state until the mid-1920s, but by the late 1950s the breeding 
population was estimated to be more than three million birds. The winter 
population of birds is higher because of the Starlings in Illinois. 
Starlings nest in hollow trees and other cavities, encroaching on the 
sites of other cavity nesters. such as the Yellow-shafted Flicker and Red- 
headed Woodpecker. The flicker population of Illinois was estimated to 
be more than two million in 1909, but by 1957 had decreased to 300,000. 
Red-headed Woodpecker populations were estimated to be down to 130,000 
birds in 1957, which is only 10 per cent of the 1909 population. Red- 
bellied Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers nest in forests rather than 
in towns and fence rows where they would be in competition with 
Starlings. Populations of these species have increased. probably because 
some of the forest lands that were logged have grown back to trees. 
As the Illinois countryside has changed over the last 50 years, so has 
the breeding range of many kinds of birds. Some have extended their 
range to the north, others to the south and southwest. Red-winged Black- 
birds nested in cattail marshes until they learned that alfalfa fields were 
