Well, a good question. If you want intriguing answers, you might want to look at the Partners in Flight database, with query for Ohio available at http://rmbo.org/pif_db/laped/PED3.aspx . All bird population estimates have their quirks and failings, but this one, based mostly on recent Breeding Bird Survey routes, boasts an enormous bank of data collected in comparable standardized ways. Its shortcomings are well enough known that results can be adjusted in an attempt to minimize them. Because it uses BBS data, it counts only breeding landbirds. Its estimate of the total number of them in North America? Five billion, which, it is pointed out, roughly matches the population of a single species--the passenger pigeon--in historical times. A search for Ohio produces plenty of thought-provoking numbers. In order to understand them more fully, it is necessary to read the introductory material, which explains the categories and all the adjustments and various reliabilities of the data. You can click the column heads to get ranked versions. Some numbers that jumped out at me included: --American robin commonest breeder in Ohio, more than starlings or house sparrows or grackles. --the ten breeders with highest percentages of global numbers in Ohio: cerulean warbler 13.4, blue-winged warbler 13.2, Henslow's sparrow 7.8, Acadian flycatcher 6.1, field sparrow 5.6, chimney swift 5.3, gray catbird 5.1, Cooper's hawk 4.6, scarlet tanager and yellow-throated vireo 4.5. We hear about the cerulean all the time, but not about the blue-winged. Cooper's hawk? Acadian flycatcher? Field sparrow? Swift? Wow. --among other interesting population estimates: bald eagle (70), Bewick's wren (80), black vulture (180), blue grosbeak (3,000), blue-headed vireo (170), common nighthawk (6,000), eastern screech-owl (4,000), golden-winged warbler (60), least flycatcher (1800), loggerhead shrike (300), mourning warbler (1), northern harrier (1100), osprey (50), prothonotary warbler (300), purple finch (6,000), vesper sparrow (150,000), western meadowlark (200), and no numbers for dark-eyed junco or short-eared owl at all. Some of these are explained by changes since the '90s. Bewick's wrens and loggerhead shrikes and golden-wings have all but disappeared here; bald eagles have continued their recovery, ospreys have been successfully reintroduced, and protho warblers are more successfully supported. The blue grosbeak and northern harrier numbers seem kinda high; do we really have anywhere near 1500 breeding pairs of the former and 550 of the latter? The vesper sparrow number may surprise many people who don't listen for them. Anyway, just some stray thoughts; have a look at the numbers (and read the user guide) and you'll have plenty of your own. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]