This survey will provide basic information on the current breeding status of birds throughout the state. These data not only have intrinsic value regarding the distribution of our avifauna, they have practical import in their use for the assessment of ecological impacts resulting from proposed projects for industrial, commercial, and agricultural purposes, as well as facilitating the determination of the population status of species considered for listing as threatened or endangered within the state. Using the current atlas as a baseline, subsequent atlasing projects on a proposed interval of 25 years will document change in bird populations in correlation with longer term changes in the environment, for example, global warming.
Kansas is not alone in attempting to develop a breeding-bird atlas. Some state and provincial atlases have already been published, for example, New York, Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, and Vermont. Atlasing efforts are complete or nearing completion in the neighboring states of Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado. Some of these results can even be found on the World Wide Web! So far the most amazing effort has to be the Kentucky Breeding Bird Atlas! Check it out.
And order your KBBAT volume here.