This grasslands ecoregion curls around the Washington/Oregon northern part of the Columbia-Snake Shrub Steppe ecoregion. It conveniently starts at the Canada-US border and follows the Okanagan River southward, and then swings around to the east and south of the steppe area. It overlaps into western Idaho.
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, the EPA’s “Columbia Plateau Ecoregion”, as mapped at Bird Web of the Seattle Audubon Society (SAS) includes this WWF ecoregion (which essentially constitutes the external rim to the north and west). The northern finger of WWF’s ecoregion extending northward along the Okanagan River is also placed by EPA in a different ecoregion.
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 “Columbia Plateau Ecoregion” in Washington and a detailed month by month listing of all the bird species to be expected. Since however only a small part of their ecoregion covers this WWF ecoregion, the list of sites and the bird list will need to be carefully interpreted.
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).
66 spp. (August 1, 2014)