Pulich's map was largely arbitrary as he says himself, but the eastern counties, Van Zandt and Rains counties (in blue), were added by Pulich because Lake Tawakoni straddled three counties and the analyzing of reports was much easier when all of the lake was included. The deletion of the western counties in the Pulich map was largely about some slight changes in vegetation.

The deletion of the western edge counties by Pulich is largely negligible because there are no unique species that I am aware of coming from those eight counties that haven't been recorded elsewhere in the study area. The addition of the two eastern counties, however, is more useful and adds a few species to his data set than would normally occur in the regional recordings using the TOS North American Birds Region II map for Texas.

Combining the Two Maps - This website combines the two maps (below). We add the eight western counties and the two eastern counties. We add the western counties because most of the TOS reporting archives for Region II make it a simple process of collecting record information from those reporting boundaries. There is a long recording history of TOS\North American Birds seasonal reports which include the four western counties within the North-central Texas definition.

We have also added the two eastern counties, as Pulich did, because it makes sense. Trying to procure records from only part of a very large lake like Lake Tawakoni was illogical. Birds on a lake move around. Trying to figure out whether a Western Grebe is floating within your area or outside your area just creates an unnecessary headache.

In a nutshell, the map below was used because it provides the best boundary system for seeking records - using both Pulichs extensive research in the eastern counties and the TOS archived records which include the four western counties.

The website creators have also added color-coded designations to this map that are not part of the Pulich system. The following color-coded zones define east, west, far east, and far west as they relate to the area checklist on the left sidebar. The checklist will occasionally use abbreviated references to identify specific regions (see checklist compass points below).

The area checklist on the left sidebar will frequently use abbreviations like the ones below in the checklist's "Likely" column to help designate where some of the species are most commonly found.

Bird Checklist Compass Points

FE = Far East (Blue Counties)
FW = Far West (Orange Counties)
E = East (Green Counties)
W = West (Yellow Counties)

Many of the typical eastern birds will sometimes show up sporadically in the western counties. Eastern-type birds like Blue Jays and Carolina Wrens can be found around streams and rivers as they follow riparian habitat to the west. Western birds may stray occasionally into the eastern habitats particularly during periods of drought.

For any formation about the nature of the checklist - total numbers, birds photographed, birds added, etc., see "about the checklist."

A few other maps from places like Texas Parks and Wildlife do not use such a map to define North-central Texas. Instead they use vegetative zones and geological maps in outlining this area rather than political county boundaries. That would be the most precise way of understanding the area's avifauna, but obviously individuals submitting bird reports cannot use this model when describing where a bird was seen. Submitting reports using county boundaries still remains the most effective way of processing records when bird sightings are worthy of submission.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife map of vegetative zones and their bird checklist can be downloaded on this website.

The TOS\NAB Region II seasonal reports can be found at http://texasbirds.org/