‘Iowa Yellowbook’ provides answers on birds

Editor's note: Rick Hollis of rural North Liberty is past president and newsletter editor for the Iowa City Bird Club.

The 'Iowa Yellowbook, a Field Checklist of the Birds of Iowa,' is a booklet of interest to even casual bird-watchers in the state.

Of course, I'm biased. I spent the winter and spring working on the project. So please excuse me for a bit of self-promotion.

Do you want to know when Baltimore Orioles arrive, without remembering my Grandma's birthday (that is how we do it in our house), check the Yellowbook. Is it likely you saw a black-throated Blue Warbler, check the Yellowbook.

The Yellowbook contains information about the seasonal occurrence of 422 species of birds that are on the Iowa Checklist. For all 309 regular species (seen every year or nearly every year) there are the bar charts detailing weekly occurrence and the early and late dates on which the species have been seen. Less detailed information is provided about the 24 casual (seen many years but not all) and 89 accidental species (seen once to several times).

'Rick's book is useful to both novice and experienced birders,' said Lorie Leo of North Liberty. 'The beginner can check to see if a tentative identification is likely, and a veteran looking to add a bird to his/her life list can easily see the best time of year to head out and spot one.'

For all species, it is noted whether there are breeding records. The Iowa Checklist contains 426 species, but two are extinct and two are extirpated from Iowa. The data contained in the Yellowbook comes from sightings submitted to the IOU Field Reports and to eBird.

Field guides are pretty vague about when birds arrive and leave, mainly maps with blue and yellow or blue and pink areas for seasonal occurrence. Of course, it should be noted birds do not read bird books and we always are adding birds to our state's list.

For many years, birders in Iowa could rely on a wonderful hardback book 'Birds of Iowa' by Kent and Dinsmore. This book is sadly out of print. Another source of information is the 'early and late dates' file found on the IOU website (www.iowabirds.org) and is updated several times a year. But early and late records often are pretty extreme — the orange-crowned warbler found on the Iowa City Christmas Bird Count is one such record — but orange-crowneds are not expected in late December.

'We're going to give one of these books to our young birders attending field trips,' said Carl Bendorf, executive director of Iowa Young Birders. 'It's an easy to use resource that teaches so many things about Iowa's birds,'

Karen Disbrow, president of the Iowa City Bird Club, said 'having the early and late dates along with the bar charts make it easy to decide if you need to document a sighting.'

Linda Scarth, photographer and bird-watcher said 'one of the special things about the Iowa Yellowbook in your pocket or bag is that you have a way to decide that the bird you thought you saw is likely or unlikely because of the monthly bar charts.'

The booklet is a slim 20 pages long and is sized to fit with most field guides. It is available for $3 from the IOU website (www.iowabirds.org/IOU/Merchandise.aspx). The price of the book goes to the IOU and not to the author.