Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Breeding Range. (Fig.13). Rare and local in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region and on the Northeastern Drift Plain, Southern Drift Plain, and Missouri Slope --definite nesting records for Walsh, Barnes, Benson, Ramsey, and Morton Counties.
Breeding Habitat. Deep-marsh zones of fresh or slightly brackish ponds and lakes, particularly those that are dominated by cattails and bulrushes.
Nesting. Extreme records of seasonal occurrence in breeding habitat ranged from May 19 [1970] in Stutsman County (M. A. Howe) to August 28 [1942] in Burleigh County (Cottam 1943). Details concerning five nests are as follows:
June 15, 1954--Nest with one fresh egg on Lake Patricia Refuge, near Flasher, Morton County (B. Fashingbauer).June 18, 1902--Nest with five fresh eggs on Sweetwater Lake, Ramsey County; nest in heavy grass over water three feet in depth (C. W. Bowman).
June 26, 1968--Nest with three eggs in Barnes County on a marsh about five miles north-northeast of Valley City (C. L. Cink).
June 28, 1902--Two nests, each with five partially incubated eggs, on Mauvaise Bay of Devils Lake; both situated in bulrush, one eight inches and the other four inches above the water surface (Bishop egg collection catalog, Peabody Museum).
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| Figure 13. Breeding Range of Least Bittern. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/bbofnd/species/1910.htm
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