Within British Columbia, this is the ecoregion of the Rocky Mountains, from just south of Prince George southward, including the Cariboo and Selkirk Mountains. In Alberta, most of the Rocky Mountains east of the border (the continental divide) are excluded but it does include the Lewis Range Mountains and foothills southwest of Calgary. In the US, it covers the northeast corner of Washington state and extends in two broad fingers: one south into northern Idaho and Montana along the Bitterroot Range and the second eastern finger south to the high altitude areas of Montana southwest of Helena.
The confusing complex of adjacent ecoregions, beginning at the northernmost point of the ecoregion and proceeding clockwise, are: i) to the northeast in BC are the Central British Columbia Mountain Forests (NA0509); ii) to the northeast in Alberta, south to the northwest corner of the “Tyrannosaurus rex head” just west of Cremona, AB, are the Alberta Mountain Forests (NA0501); iii) the Alberta foothills to the north and south of the “T. rex head” are the Alberta-British Columbia Foothills Forests (NA0502) (but east of the ecoregion for only a short distance, south to about Highway 40); iv) due east of the eastern side of the “T. rex head” and east of the ecoregion for a short distance from about Highway 40 south to about the area of the Black Creek Heritage Rangeland Natural Area, we find the Canadian Aspen Forests and Parklands (NA0802); v) the remaining part of the ecoregion in Alberta and in Montana (including the entire Helena area fingers), to the southern tip in the Bitterroot Range, is bordered by the Montana Valley and Foothill Grasslands (NA0808); vi) the high altitude areas to the southwest of the Bitterroot Range in Montana are the South Central Rockies Forests (NA0528); to the southwest of the ecoregion, to the border with Washington state, are the Palouse Grasslands (NA0813); vii) to the east, proceeding north to about Mahood Falls, BC, are the Okanagan Dry Forests (NA0522); and finally viii) the remaining ecoregion, to the northwest in BC, is the Fraser Plateau and Basin Complex (NA0514).
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.
WWF states of this ecoregion: “In addition to expansive conifer forests, the ecoregion contains several other vegetation communities. Mountain meadows, foothill grasslands, riparian woodlands, and upper treeline/alpine communities exist throughout the ecoregion. The ecoregion is characterized by dramatic vertical zonation of vegetation and asssociated fauna. This zonation is a consequence of abrupt elevational gradients between flatlands and mountains.”
The conifer forests are very varied including forests with species more typical of more westerly mountain ecoregions (hemlocks, Pacific yew) but depending on altitude, also including montane and sub-alpine forests. It is not clear to me what really distinguishes this ecoregion from other adjacent montane coniferous forest ecoregions.
At least in Washington, representing a very small part of the ecoregion, the EPA’s “Canadian Rockies Ecoregion”, as mapped and described at Bird Web of the Seattle Audubon Society (SAS), is essentially the same as this WWF ecoregion.
Birds of the Ecoregion
The list below of characteristic species includes 222 species of which 23 are only there as migrants, 8 during winter, and the remaining 191 are breeding (117 in the summer only). None of the species are exclusive to the ecoregion, nor even nearly so. In general, the ecoregion boundary between the mountains and foothills/grasslands corresponds well with ranges of many birds, as might be expected. There is however little to no distinction of the avifaunas between this ecoregion and adjacent high altitude ecoregions.
The Seattle Audubon site (see above) includes an excellent guide to the main birding sites (Big Meadow Lake, Bunchgrass Meadows, Little Pend Oreille NWR, and Salmo Mountain) of their “Canadian Rockies Ecoregion” in Washington, and a detailed month by month listing of 202 bird species to be expected. Although a small part of the overall area of interest, these monthly occurrence data are likely fairly representative of most of the ecoregion.
At WWF’s site, they list in alphabetical order 219 bird species for this ecoregion.
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:
- 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 has good information on the BC portion of the ecoregion.
- Seattle Aubudon Society’s Bird Web is a terrific resource for Washington state (see notes above).
List of Characteristic Bird Species of the Ecoregion
My list below of the “characteristic species” of the ecoregion (see an explanation on the About page) are those that are of regular occurrence and thus excludes very rare or accidental species. The species are classed as residents (r), summer breeders (s), 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. The peripheral species are not included in the ecoregion total.
- Greater White-fronted Goose m
- Canada Goose r
- Trumpeter Swan w
- Tundra Swan m
- Wood Duck s
- Gadwall r
- American Wigeon r
- Mallard r
- Blue-winged Teal s
- Cinnamon Teal s
- Northern Shoveler s
- Northern Pintail s
- Green-winged Teal s
- Canvasback s
- Redhead s
- Ring-necked Duck r
- Greater Scaup w
- Lesser Scaup s
- Harlequin Duck s
- Bufflehead r
- Common Goldeneye r
- Barrow’s Goldeneye r
- Hooded Merganser r
- Common Merganser r
- Red-breasted Merganser x
- Ruddy Duck s
- Gray Partridge r
- Ring-necked Pheasant r
- Ruffed Grouse r
- Spruce Grouse r
- Willow Ptarmigan x
- White-tailed Ptarmigan r
- Dusky Grouse r
- Wild Turkey r
- Common Loon s
- Pied-billed Grebe s
- Horned Grebe w
- Red-necked Grebe s
- Eared Grebe s
- Western Grebe s
- Double-crested Cormorant m
- Anhinga x
- American Bittern s
- Great Blue Heron s
- Turkey Vulture s
- Osprey s
- Bald Eagle r
- Northern Harrier s
- Sharp-shinned Hawk s
- Cooper’s Hawk r
- Northern Goshawk r
- Swainson’s Hawk s
- Red-tailed Hawk r
- Rough-legged Hawk w
- Golden Eagle r
- Virginia Rail s
- Sora s
- American Coot s
- Sandhill Crane s
- American Avocet x
- Semipalmated Plover m
- Killdeer s
- Spotted Sandpiper s
- Solitary Sandpiper m
- Greater Yellowlegs m
- Lesser Yellowlegs m
- Long-billed Curlew x
- Dunlin x
- Baird’s Sandpiper m
- Least Sandpiper m
- Pectoral Sandpiper m
- Semipalmated Sandpiper x
- Western Sandpiper m
- Short-billed Dowitcher m
- Long-billed Dowitcher m
- Wilson’s Snipe s
- Wilson’s Phalarope s
- Red-necked Phalarope m
- Bonaparte’s Gull m
- Franklin’s Gull s
- Ring-billed Gull s
- California Gull m
- Herring Gull m
- Thayer’s Gull m
- Caspian Tern m
- Black Tern s
- Common Tern m
- Forster’s Tern x
- Rock Pigeon r
- Eurasian Collared-Dove r
- Mourning Dove s
- Flammulated Owl s
- Western Screech-Owl r
- Great Horned Owl r
- Snowy Owl m
- Northern Hawk Owl r
- Northern Pygmy-Owl r
- Barred Owl r
- Great Gray Owl r
- Long-eared Owl s
- Short-eared Owl m
- Boreal Owl r
- Northern Saw-whet Owl r
- Common Nighthawk s
- Black Swift s
- Vaux’s Swift s
- White-throated Swift s
- Black-chinned Hummingbird s
- Rufous Hummingbird s
- Calliope Hummingbird s
- Belted Kingfisher s
- Lewis’s Woodpecker s
- Williamson’s Sapsucker s
- Red-naped Sapsucker s
- Downy Woodpecker r
- Hairy Woodpecker r
- American Three-toed Woodpecker r
- Black-backed Woodpecker r
- Northern Flicker r
- Pileated Woodpecker r
- American Kestrel s
- Merlin r
- Peregrine Falcon s
- Prairie Falcon s
- Olive-sided Flycatcher s
- Western Wood-Pewee s
- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher x
- Alder Flycatcher s
- Willow Flycatcher s
- Least Flycatcher s
- Hammond’s Flycatcher s
- Dusky Flycatcher s
- Pacific-slope Flycatcher s
- Cordilleran Flycatcher s
- Say’s Phoebe s
- Western Kingbird s
- Eastern Kingbird s
- Northern Shrike w
- Cassin’s Vireo s
- Gray Jay r
- Steller’s Jay r
- Blue Jay r
- Clark’s Nutcracker r
- Black-billed Magpie r
- American Crow r
- Common Raven r
- Horned Lark r
- 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
- Mountain Chickadee r
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee r
- Boreal Chickadee r
- Red-breasted Nuthatch r
- White-breasted Nuthatch r
- Pygmy Nuthatch r
- Brown Creeper r
- Rock Wren s
- Canyon Wren x
- House Wren s
- Pacific Wren r
- Marsh Wren s
- American Dipper r
- Golden-crowned Kinglet r
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet s
- Western Bluebird s
- Mountain Bluebird s
- Townsend’s Solitaire r
- Veery s
- Swainson’s Thrush s
- Hermit Thrush s
- American Robin s
- Varied Thrush r
- Gray Catbird s
- European Starling r
- American Pipit s
- Bohemian Waxwing r
- Cedar Waxwing r
- Lapland Longspur w
- Snow Bunting w
- Northern Waterthrush s
- Tennessee Warbler s
- Orange-crowned Warbler s
- Nashville Warbler s
- MacGillivray’s Warbler s
- Common Yellowthroat s
- American Redstart s
- Magnolia Warbler x
- Yellow Warbler s
- Blackpoll Warbler x
- Yellow-rumped Warbler s
- Townsend’s Warbler s
- Wilson’s Warbler s
- Yellow-breasted Chat s
- Spotted Towhee s
- American Tree Sparrow w
- Chipping Sparrow s
- Clay-colored Sparrow s
- Brewer’s Sparrow s
- Vesper Sparrow s
- Savannah Sparrow s
- Le Conte’s Sparrow x
- Fox Sparrow s
- Song Sparrow r
- 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 s
- Bobolink s
- Red-winged Blackbird s
- Western Meadowlark s
- Yellow-headed Blackbird s
- Rusty Blackbird s
- Brewer’s Blackbird s
- Brown-headed Cowbird s
- Bullock’s Oriole s
- Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch r
- Pine Grosbeak r
- House Finch r
- Purple Finch s
- Cassin’s Finch s
- Red Crossbill r
- White-winged Crossbill r
- Pine Siskin r
- American Goldfinch r
- Evening Grosbeak r
- House Sparrow r
Summer breeders (s) 117
Resident breeders (r) 74
Migrants (m) 23
Wintering (w) 8
Peripheral (x) [not in Total] 13
TOTAL 222
76 spp. (June 1, 2015)