This ecoregion consists of the eastern slope of the Coastal Range Mountains in British Columbia, south approximately from Atnarko, BC; as the leeward side, the ecoregion is drier than the ecoregions to the west. Across the border in Washington it similarly covers the eastern slope of the Cascade Range, south to the Yakima River.
Adjacent ecoregions include the following: i) to the west, the entire ecoregion is bordered by the British Columbia Mainland Coastal Forests (NA0506); ii) to the northeast, south almost to Cache Creek, BC, is the Fraser Plateau Basin and Complex (NA0514); iii) continuing southward to the US border, the ecoregion to the east is the Okanagan Dry Forests (NA0522); iv) continuing southward to about Orondo, WA, the ecoregion to the southeast is the Palouse Grasslands (NA0813); v) the small indent in the ecoregion surrounding the Wenatchee River abuts the Snake-Columbia Shrub Steppe Ecoregion (NA1309); and finally, vi) the southern tip of the ecoregion, to about the area of Cle Elum, WA is next to the Eastern Cascades Forests (NA0512).
Description of the Ecoregion
The ecoregion was described in the WWF publication “Terrestrial ecoregions of North America” (Ricketts, et al., 1999); essentially the same text can be found on-line at WWF’s site: www.worldwildlife.org. The map above is a screen shot from WWF’s Wildfinder site, now offline. There may also be additional information to be found on this ecoregion’s page at Wikipedia or at other sites.
Briefly, drawing from WWF’s description, the Chilcotin Ranges make up the northern half of the ecoregion, and reach elevations of up to 2700 m. The Okanagan Range in the south runs to the Canada-United States border and the southern half of the ecoregion is made up of the Cascade Ranges, a mountainous upland within the southern Pacific Ranges.
Alpine tundra communities consist of Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanii), subalpine fir (Abies lasciocarpa), and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). Montane forests are made up of lodgepole pine, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), white spruce (P. glauca), and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) with a pine grass understory. At the lowest elevations in the eastern region there is a parkland of scattered ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) in a matrix of bluebunch wheatgrass (Agropyron spp.) and sagebrush (Atremesia tridentata) grasslands.
Birds of the Ecoregion
WWF notes only Sooty Grouse and Spotted Owl as being notable for the ecoregion. No bird species are endemic to this ecoregion.
Below I present a list of the characteristic bird species of the ecoregion. Because the ecoregion is narrow in many places, and bird ranges are so sensitive to small changes in altitude on east-west transects, it was difficult to look at small range maps and come up with this list. A second look using more precise range maps from this area would likely improve the list.
Because of the ecoregion’s great north-to-south distance, most species showed differences in status as to whether they were resident, breeding, migrants, or wintering. The bulk of the ecoregion being more northerly, status was skewed in many cases toward being classed primarily as summer breeders. The same exercise carried out just for WA, for example, would yield quite different results, with a greater number of species resident or wintering.
Resources for the Ecoregion Birder
I am not aware of any publication specifically targeting this ecoregion. Without any pretence to completeness, the following resources have caught my attention and would be of value to the birder traveling to this ecoregion:
- Cannings, Russell and Richard Cannings, 2013. Bird finding in British Columbia. Greystone Books (see review at http://blog.aba.org/2014/07/birding-british-columbia.html). This guide should have good information on the BC portion of the ecoregion.
List of Characteristic Bird Species of the Ecoregion
The following list does not include very rare or accidental species (it excludes anything other than Category 1or 2 on the ABA list). Species are classed as summer breeders (s), resident (r), migrants (m), wintering (w), or peripheral (x) (that is, occurring in the ecoregion but only on its periphery and more characteristic of an adjacent ecoregion). For a fuller definition of characteristic species of an ecoregion, see the About tab.
- Snow Goose x
- Cackling Goose m
- Canada Goose s
- Trumpeter Swan w
- Tundra Swan m
- Wood Duck s
- Gadwall r
- American Wigeon s
- Mallard r
- Blue-winged Teal s
- Cinnamon Teal m
- Northern Shoveler s
- Northern Pintail s
- Green-winged Teal s
- Canvasback m
- Redhead m
- Ring-necked Duck m
- Greater Scaup m
- Lesser Scaup s
- Harlequin Duck s
- Surf Scoter m
- White-winged Scoter m
- Bufflehead s
- Common Goldeneye w
- Barrow’s Goldeneye m
- Hooded Merganser s
- Common Merganser s
- Red-breasted Merganser m
- Ruddy Duck m
- California Quail r
- Chukar r
- Ring-necked Pheasant x
- Ruffed Grouse r
- Spruce Grouse r
- Willow Ptarmigan r
- Rock Ptarmigan r
- White-tailed Ptarmigan r
- Sooty Grouse r
- Common Loon s
- Pied-billed Grebe r
- Horned Grebe m
- Red-necked Grebe m
- Western Grebe m
- Double-crested Cormorant m
- American Bittern s
- Great Blue Heron r
- Turkey Vulture s
- Osprey s
- Bald Eagle r
- Northern Harrier s
- Sharp-shinned Hawk r
- Cooper’s Hawk r
- Northern Goshawk r
- Red-tailed Hawk r
- Rough-legged Hawk m
- Golden Eagle r
- Virginia Rail m
- Sora s
- American Coot s
- Sandhill Crane m
- American Avocet x
- American Golden-Plover x
- Semipalmated Plover m
- Killdeer s
- Spotted Sandpiper s
- Solitary Sandpiper m
- Greater Yellowlegs m
- Lesser Yellowlegs m
- Long-billed Curlew x
- Dunlin m
- Baird’s Sandpiper m
- Least Sandpiper m
- Pectoral Sandpiper m
- Semipalmated Sandpiper m
- Western Sandpiper m
- Short-billed Dowitcher x
- Long-billed Dowitcher m
- Wilson’s Snipe s
- Red-necked Phalarope m
- Bonaparte’s Gull m
- Mew Gull s
- Ring-billed Gull r
- California Gull m
- Herring Gull m
- Glaucous-winged Gull x
- Caspian Tern m
- Common Tern m
- Rock Pigeon r
- Band-tailed Pigeon s
- Eurasian Collared-Dove r
- Mourning Dove s
- Flammulated Owl s
- Western Screech-Owl r
- Great Horned Owl r
- Snowy Owl w
- Northern Hawk-Owl x
- Northern Pygmy-Owl r
- Spotted Owl r
- Barred Owl r
- Great Gray Owl r
- Long-eared Owl x
- Short-eared Owl m
- Boreal Owl r
- Northern Saw-whet Owl r
- Common Nighthawk s
- Common Poorwill x
- Black Swift s
- Vaux’s Swift s
- Rufous Hummingbird s
- Calliope Hummingbird s
- Belted Kingfisher s
- Lewis’s Woodpecker s
- Williamson’s Sapsucker s
- Red-naped Sapsucker x
- Red-breasted Sapsucker s
- Downy Woodpecker r
- Hairy Woodpecker r
- White-headed Woodpecker r
- American Three-toed Woodpecker r
- Black-backed Woodpecker r
- Northern Flicker s
- Pileated Woodpecker r
- American Kestrel s
- Merlin s
- Peregrine Falcon m
- Olive-sided Flycatcher s
- Western Wood-Pewee s
- Willow Flycatcher s
- Least Flycatcher s
- Hammond’s Flycatcher s
- Dusky Flycatcher s
- Pacific-slope Flycatcher s
- Say’s Phoebe x
- Western Kingbird x
- Eastern Kingbird s
- Northern Shrike w
- Cassin’s Vireo s
- Warbling Vireo s
- Red-eyed Vireo s
- Canada Jay r
- Steller’s Jay r
- Clark’s Nutcracker r
- Black-billed Magpie r
- American Crow r
- Common Raven r
- Horned Lark s
- Tree Swallow s
- Violet-green Swallow s
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow s
- Bank Swallow s
- Cliff Swallow s
- Barn Swallow s
- Black-capped Chickadee r
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee r
- Boreal Chickadee r
- Red-breasted Nuthatch r
- Pygmy Nuthatch r
- Brown Creeper r
- Rock Wren s
- Canyon Wren x
- House Wren s
- Pacific Wren r
- Marsh Wren m
- American Dipper r
- Golden-crowned Kinglet r
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet s
- Western Bluebird s
- Mountain Bluebird s
- Townsend’s Solitaire r
- Swainson’s Thrush s
- Hermit Thrush s
- American Robin r
- Varied Thrush s
- European Starling r
- American Pipit s
- Bohemian Waxwing x
- Cedar Waxwing s
- Lapland Longspur m
- Snow Bunting w
- Northern Waterthrush s
- Orange-crowned Warbler s
- Nashville Warbler s
- MacGillivray’s Warbler s
- Common Yellowthroat s
- American Redstart s
- Yellow Warbler s
- Yellow-rumped Warbler s
- Black-throated Gray Warbler x
- Townsend’s Warbler s
- Wilson’s Warbler s
- Spotted Towhee s
- American Tree Sparrow m
- Chipping Sparrow s
- Vesper Sparrow x
- Savannah Sparrow s
- Fox Sparrow s
- Song Sparrow s
- Lincoln’s Sparrow s
- White-throated Sparrow m
- White-crowned Sparrow s
- Golden-crowned Sparrow s
- Dark-eyed Junco r
- Western Tanager s
- Black-headed Grosbeak s
- Lazuli Bunting x
- Red-winged Blackbird s
- Western Meadowlark m
- Brewer’s Blackbird s
- Brown-headed Cowbird s
- Bullock’s Oriole m
- Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch r
- Pine Grosbeak r
- Purple Finch s
- Cassin’s Finch r
- Red Crossbill r
- Common Redpoll w
- Pine Siskin r
- American Goldfinch x
- Evening Grosbeak r
- House Sparrow r
Summer breeders (s) 91
Resident breeders (r) 60
Migrants (m) 44
Wintering (w) 6
Peripheral (x) [not in Total] 19
TOTAL 201
DJG: 9 spp. (July 21, 2015)