The Blue Mountains are a more or less isolated mountain range separating the two huge chunks of the Columbia-Snake Shrub Steppe ecoregion to the north and south and is bordered by the Cascade Range to the west and the Bitterroot Range to the east. It is primarily an Oregon ecoregion but extends a bit into Washington state southwest of Lewiston and into a small part of western Idaho north of Boise.
Description of the Ecoregion
A detailed description of the ecoregion can be found at WWF’s site (the map above is a screen shot from that Wildfinder site). There may also be additional information to be found on this ecoregion’s page at Wikipedia.
Briefly, the ecoregion is characterized by… [under construction]
At least in Washington, representing a very small part of the ecoregion, the EPA’s “Blue Mountains Ecoregion”, as mapped at Bird Web of the Seattle Audubon Society (SAS), is essentially the same as this WWF ecoregion, with some minor differences.
Birds of the Ecoregion
The avifauna of the ecoregion… [under construction].
The Seattle Audubon site includes an excellent guide to the main birding sites of their “Blue Mountains Ecoregion” in Washington and a detailed month by month listing of all the bird species to be expected.
Resources for the Ecoregion Birder
Without any pretense to completeness, the following resources have caught my attention and would be of value to the birder traveling to this ecoregion:
- Seattle Aubudon Society’s Bird Web is a terrific resource for Washington state (see also above).