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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsA Nebraska farm documented 100 bird species through repeated observation—not because all 100 birds were present at once, and not because the property represents every farm. The list is a historical record from a September 23, 2020 Agriculture.com feature about a Buffalo County farm. Its real lesson is that varied habitat and patient, organized birding can reveal an extraordinary amount of wildlife on working land.
A Nebraska farm documented 100 bird species through repeated observation—not because all 100 birds were present at once, and not because the property represents every farm. The list, reported in a September 23, 2020 Agriculture.com feature by John Walter, is a historical record of birds observed on one Buffalo County farm. Its value is less about reaching a round number than about showing what becomes visible when someone repeatedly watches field edges, prairie, shelterbelts, crop margins, and farmstead trees.
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The story also offers a practical lesson: a working farm can support remarkably varied birdlife when it contains a patchwork of habitats. Trees, native prairie, pollinator plantings, hay, field borders, and less-disturbed grass can provide nesting sites, food, cover, perches, and migration stopovers that a uniform field cannot.
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How the farm reached 100 species
Bill Flack, the Nebraska farmer featured in the article, did not create the list from a single unusually productive birding day. He built it over repeated visits and careful observation. His routine included recording the date, start time, elapsed time, weather, route, species, individual counts, and notable behavior.
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That distinction matters. A property list is a record of what an observer documented under particular conditions. It is not automatically a list of breeding birds, year-round residents, or species currently present. Migrants may have stopped briefly, while some birds may have been seen only once. The total should therefore be described as 100 species documented on the farm, not as a permanent census of the property.
The complete 100-species list
The Agriculture.com article presents the species in reverse order of discovery:
- Loggerhead Shrike
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Tree Swallow
- American Redstart
- Yellow-headed Blackbird
- House Sparrow
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Chimney Swift
- Swainson’s Thrush
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Western Kingbird
- Least Flycatcher
- Franklin’s Gull
- Wood Duck
- Long-billed Curlew
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Ring-billed Gull
- Bald Eagle
- Swainson’s Hawk
- Merlin
- Blue-headed Vireo
- Sedge Wren
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Fox Sparrow
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Bobolink
- Wild Turkey
- Say’s Phoebe
- White-crowned Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow
- Northern Harrier
- American Kestrel
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Vesper Sparrow
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Bank Swallow
- Osprey
- Canada Goose
- Willow Flycatcher
- Lazuli Bunting
- Lark Sparrow
- European Starling
- Sandhill Crane
- Dark-eyed Junco
- American Tree Sparrow
- Harris’s Sparrow
- LeConte’s Sparrow
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Horned Lark
- Clay-colored Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Lincoln’s Sparrow
- Blue Jay
- Downy Woodpecker
- Turkey Vulture
- American Crow
- Spotted Towhee
- Eurasian Collared-Dove
- Blue Grosbeak
- Cliff Swallow
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Killdeer
- House Finch
- Grasshopper Sparrow
- Great Blue Heron
- Northern Cardinal
- Mallard
- Northern Bobwhite
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Mourning Dove
- Upland Sandpiper
- Great Horned Owl
- Northern Flicker
- Eastern Kingbird
- Bell’s Vireo
- Barn Swallow
- House Wren
- Gray Catbird
- Brown Thrasher
- Eastern Bluebird
- American Robin
- American Goldfinch
- Chipping Sparrow
- Field Sparrow
- Western Meadowlark
- Orchard Oriole
- Baltimore Oriole
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Common Grackle
- Yellow Warbler
- Dickcissel
Why a farm can attract so many kinds of birds
The farm’s diversity came from several generations of land management that left the property with multiple habitat types. The article describes trees, shelterbelts, native prairie enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, pollinator habitat, a prairie-grass strip within cropland, small crop fields, and prairie hay. Conservation tillage was also part of the farm system.
Each feature solves a different problem for birds:
- Trees and shelterbelts provide nesting sites, shade, insects, fruit, song perches, and protection from wind.
- Native prairie and unmown grass offer seeds, insects, ground cover, and nesting space for grassland birds.
- Field borders and fence lines create transition zones between crops, grass, and woody vegetation.
- Pollinator plantings can supply insects and seeds while adding another layer of plant structure.
- Hay fields and small crop fields create a more varied landscape than one large, uniform production block.
- Wet spots, ponds, or nearby water can draw water-associated birds such as herons, ducks, geese, gulls, and cormorants.
The most transferable lesson is the importance of rough edges. A completely uniform field may be efficient for one crop, but a border with grass, shrubs, old fence posts, scattered trees, and unmown vegetation can provide more food and cover. Nebraska Game and Parks guidance cited in the feature makes the broad point that properties with more diverse habitats are likely to host more species than uniform properties.
That is a habitat principle, not a promise that adding one hedgerow will produce a particular bird count. Birds have different requirements, and results depend on the surrounding landscape, vegetation age, water availability, weather, management, and regional species pool.
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What prairie strips can do—and what they cannot guarantee
Prairie strips are narrow plantings of native perennial vegetation incorporated into row-crop landscapes. They can function as nesting habitat, cover, food-producing areas, movement routes, and buffers that break up otherwise continuous cropland.
Initial STRIPS research in Iowa found roughly a 2.1-fold increase in native bird species richness and a 2.1-fold increase in the abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need when native prairie vegetation was integrated into row-crop catchments. Later research examining Iowa fields from 2015 through 2020 also found greater bird richness and abundance in fields with prairie strips than in comparison fields, with strong positive responses among grassland birds. Prairie-strip age was an important predictor of grassland-bird density.
Those findings support prairie strips as a useful conservation practice, but they come from Iowa research settings. They should not be rewritten as “prairie strips double bird abundance on every farm.” A landowner considering a strip should consult local USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service or conservation-district staff about native plant selection, soil, drainage, weed control, planting dates, mowing, grazing, and program eligibility.
Does no-till help birds?
The farmers interviewed in the source article viewed no-till as potentially beneficial because some prairie-associated birds may nest in relatively undisturbed corn and soybean stubble. That is a practical observation, not a universal rule.
No-till by itself does not create the nesting, feeding, or cover conditions required by every bird on the list. A grassland sparrow, woodland-edge warbler, heron, swallow, and hawk use the landscape differently. Tillage decisions also involve soil health, erosion, weeds, crop rotations, equipment, moisture, and local economics. Conservation tillage may be one part of a broader habitat plan, but it should not be treated as a complete bird-conservation strategy.
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How to build a bird list on your own farm
1. Choose a repeatable route
Walk or drive the same practical route through the habitats you want to compare: field edges, shelterbelts, prairie strips, ponds, farmstead trees, crop margins, hay fields, and woodland edges. You do not need to cover every acre. A consistent route makes it easier to recognize seasonal changes and notice when management alters bird use.
2. Record the conditions
For every outing, note the date, start time, duration, weather, wind, route, habitat visited, species, number of individuals, and any relevant behavior. “Three meadowlarks along the west field border at 7:15 a.m.” is far more useful than an undated note that says only “meadowlark.”
3. Use binoculars that suit birding
Birds often reveal themselves through small details: a wing bar, beak shape, tail length, eye stripe, crown color, or the way they hold their wings. 7x or 8x binoculars for birding are a practical starting point because they provide useful magnification while remaining relatively easy to hold steady. Choose equipment that is comfortable enough to carry and use repeatedly; a complicated or heavy setup is less useful if it stays in the truck.
4. Carry a field guide or identification aid
A portable regional field guide can help compare range maps, plumage, habitat, and seasonal appearance. A phone-based aid such as Merlin Bird ID can also suggest identifications from descriptions, photographs, and sounds, with offline functions available in supported regions.
Identification apps are aids, not authorities. Sound suggestions can be wrong when recordings are noisy, a species is outside its expected range, or several birds have similar calls. Confirm an unusual identification with visible field marks, habitat, season, geographic range, and—when possible—another observer or a reputable field reference.
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5. Learn songs and calls as well as appearances
Many farm birds are heard before they are seen. Pay attention to song pattern, call quality, repetition, timing, and the direction of the sound. Combine what you hear with clues such as beak shape, wing bars, tail length, flight style, and the vegetation where the bird appeared.
6. Keep complete checklists
For a more useful personal record, list every bird you could identify by sight or sound—not only the rare, colorful, or photograph-worthy species. Services such as eBird are designed around recording the location, date, observation type, species, and number of individuals. A complete checklist can show whether a prairie strip is being used, when migrants arrive, and which habitats deserve closer attention.
When submitting an unusual record, include enough detail for others to evaluate it. Uncommon sightings may require documentation or review. Do not include captive, domestic, dead, or escaped birds as wild observations.
7. Visit during spring and fall migration
Migration can bring birds that do not breed or winter on the property. Watch field edges, tree lines, ponds, and open sky during spring and fall, when weather and migration timing may produce a changing mix of species. The exact dates and species will vary with geography, wind, temperature, and habitat.
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What the list can tell you about land health
A species list can be a useful starting point for stewardship. It may reveal that a shelterbelt is an important stopover, that an unmown border supports grassland birds, or that a pond attracts species absent from drier fields. Repeating the same observations over several seasons creates a baseline against which future habitat changes can be noticed.
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But a list of 100 species cannot, by itself, measure population trends, nesting success, reproductive output, or cause and effect. It cannot prove that one practice produced the entire total. Formal ecological questions require consistent protocols, comparison sites, longer-term data, and sometimes help from conservation professionals or agencies.
The broader context makes careful observation worthwhile. A USGS summary of peer-reviewed research reported a net loss approaching three billion birds in North America—about 29% of 1970 abundance—across multiple monitoring networks and biomes. That continental statistic does not establish a trend for this particular Nebraska farm. It does show why local observations and habitat decisions can matter, especially when they are recorded consistently and shared responsibly.
A practical habitat checklist for farms
- Keep or restore native perennial vegetation where it fits the farm plan.
- Consider field borders, hedgerows, riparian buffers, prairie strips, or shelterbelts rather than managing every margin identically.
- Retain suitable trees and snags where safety and farm operations allow.
- Coordinate mowing and grazing with local wildlife goals so nesting cover is not removed unnecessarily.
- Use locally appropriate native plants and plan for invasive-plant control.
- Protect water edges and wet areas from avoidable disturbance.
- Ask local NRCS or conservation-district staff about technical and financial assistance, since programs and eligibility vary by location.
- Track birds before and after a habitat change instead of assuming the result.
The Nebraska farm’s achievement is therefore both impressive and attainable in spirit. The goal does not have to be exactly 100 species. Start with one route, one notebook or checklist, a pair of binoculars, and enough patience to return in different weather and seasons. Over time, the farm’s edges, grass, trees, and water will become a living record of how wildlife uses the land.
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Were all 100 bird species on the farm at the same time?
No. The list was documented through repeated observations over time, and the birds were not necessarily present simultaneously. It is a historical property list from a September 2020 Agriculture.com feature, not a current census.
Do prairie strips really attract more birds?
Prairie strips can provide nesting cover, food, shelter, and movement habitat. Iowa research found substantially higher bird richness and abundance in fields with prairie strips, but those results should not be treated as a guarantee for every farm or region.
Does no-till automatically improve bird habitat?
No. No-till can leave stubble and soil less disturbed, which may benefit some ground-nesting or prairie-associated birds, but it does not meet the habitat needs of every species. Results depend on the whole farm system and local conditions.
How can I start recording birds on my farm?
Use a repeatable route, record date and weather, identify birds by sight and sound, and keep complete checklists with location, species, and counts. Binoculars and a regional field guide or identification app can help, but unusual identifications should be verified.
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The Bottom Line
The 100-bird total is a historical, property-specific observation list—not a current 2026 census or proof that every conservation practice caused the result. Its practical lesson is that repeated birding and varied habitat make farm wildlife easier to see, understand, and protect.
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