Nests are usually placed on horizontal surfaces in barns, sheds, or other such structures; more rarely they are put on bridges, and less frequently yet on vertical walls of culverts or sheds.
Purple Martin: Progne subis subis (Linnaeus).—This summer resident is common in the east but rare in the west. The only documented colony west of the 99th meridian was in Oberlin, Decatur County (Wolfe, 1961), occupied some 50 years ago. Temporal occurrence is indicated in [Table 14].
Breeding schedule.—The breeding season spans the period May 11 to June 20 ([Fig. 6]); the modal date of egg-laying is June 5, and 57 per cent of all clutches are laid in the period June 1 to 10.
Number of eggs.—Clutch-size is 5 eggs (4.2, 3-6; 33). Mean clutch-size is 4.3 eggs in May and 4.2 in June. Adults tend to lay clutches of 5 eggs and first-year birds clutches of 4. Replacement clutches by birds of any age tend to be of 3 eggs.
Nests are built of sticks and mud placed in cavities; in Kansas these are almost always in colony houses erected by man. Use of holes and crevices in old buildings is known to have occurred on the campus of The University of Kansas in the nineteen thirties (W. S. Long, 1936, MS), in Oberlin, Decatur County in 1908-1914 (Wolfe, loc. cit.), and presently in Ottawa, Franklin County (Hardy, 1961).
Blue Jay: Cyanocitta cristata bromia Oberholser.—This resident is common throughout Kansas in woodland habitats. Most first-year birds move south in winter, but adults tend to be strictly permanent residents. Groups of ten to more than 50 individuals can be seen moving south in October and north in April. All individuals taken from such mobile groups are in first-year feather.
Breeding schedule.—Eighty-three records of breeding span the period April 10 to July 10 ([Fig. 7]); the modal date of egg-laying is May 15, and about 50 per cent of all clutches are laid in the period May 11-31.
Number of eggs.—Clutch-size is 4 eggs (4.1, 3-6; 15).
Nests are placed from eight to 70 feet high (averaging 24 feet) in forks, crotches, and on horizontal limbs of elm, maple, osage orange, cottonwood, and ash.
Black-billed Magpie: Pica pica hudsonia (Sabine).—This resident is common in western Kansas, along riparian groves and woodland edge. Records of nesting are from as far east as Clay County. Wolfe (1961) outlines the history of magpies in Decatur County as follows: the species was purported to have appeared in rural districts near Oberlin in 1918, but Wolfe saw the birds only by 1921, at which time he also found the first (used) nests. The first reported occupied nest was one in Hamilton County in 1925 (Linsdale, 1926). Earlier records, chiefly of occurrence in winter, can be found in Goss (1891).