JRC CUe UES OoNreoei lh ered lan 31 
BIRD NESTING RECORDS, 1967-1968 
By John R. Paul, Curator of Zoology 
The 1967 bird nesiing season in Illinois has now ended. All individuals 
who have recorded observations of nests during this past season are urged 
to forward their report cards to the Illinois State Museum to tacilitate our 
compilation of the data. The 1967 summary wil! be published in the June, 
1968 issue of The Audubon Bulletin. 
To those of you unfamiliar with the nesting records program in Illinois, 
I will outline its history. Programs of this type date back to a Briush 
project initiated in 1939. The success of this initial program prompted the 
organization of a similar endeavor in Maryland in 1949. Since that time, 
about a dozen programs of state or regional coverage have been started. 
The program for Illinois began in 1957 at the suggestion of Milton D. 
Thompson, then Assistant Director of the Illinois State Museum. In that 
first year, only 38 species and less than 200 nests were reported. In 1966 
over 70 species and 513 total reports were filed. This is good progress, but 
it does not reflect the potential that lies in The Illinois Audubon Society. 
The future of the Nesting Records program shows great promise. 
Starting with 1968, the Illinois program will be allied with the North 
American Nest-Record Card Program (NANRCP) sponsored by the Cornell 
Laboratory of Ornithology. We (in Illinois) will use the NANRCP report 
card, a form almost identical to the one now in use. All data will be 
summarized by the Nest-Records Editor for Illinois and duplicate infor- 
mation will be channeled to the NANRCP. Thus, separate summaries for 
Iilinois and nationwide use will become available. 
Nesting report cards for 1968 will be available from the Illinois State 
Museum and will be sent free of charge upon request. Now is not too 
early to begin organizing for the next breeding season—write for your 
cards! Since the Illinois Audubon Society has 1700 interested birders, 
we should easily be able to make 2,000 observations in 1968. That is only 
slightly more than one nest per member. Surely most of us could do 
better than that without any great effort. 
Observers should not hesitate to report on the common species in 
residential areas. Robins, cardinals, mourning doves, etc. are just as im- 
portant as rare species. Much of the value in the accumulated data lies in 
the large quantities of records for any one species. A single record of a 
rare species may offer so little reliable information as to be almost worth- 
less. Many of Illinois’ most common species, such as the Horned lark and 
Meadowlark, are rarely reported. A little work in the field at the right 
time should produce numerous records of many species. 
The nest-records program in Illinois offers all bird enthusiasts an 
opportunity to contribute some important information to the science of 
ornithology. The all-out effort will provide a basis for many types of studies. 
_ A second program, called the Breeding Birds Survey, is being conducted 
_ by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. This is a count of breeding 
birds rather than observations of nests and is a more complicated project. 
Persons interested in participating in the Breeding Bird Survey should 
contact Dr. Chandler S. Robbins, Division of Wildlife Research, Migratory 
Bird Populations Station, Laurel, Maryland. 
Let’s make 1968 a decisive year for Illinois birders. All-out participa- 
tion in the Nest-Records program will be a good start. 
Illinots State Museum, Springfield, Illinois 62706 
