Blogs posted from this ecoregion:
Adjacent ecoregions include the following (except for the first, all are taiga ecoregions): i) all of the area to the north and west (on the north side of Great Slave Lake) is the Low Arctic Tundra (NA1114); ii) to the southwest, from the stretch between Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca, are the Mid-Continental Canadian Forests (NA0608); iii) to the south, from the eastern tip of Lake Athabasca eastward to the southeastern corner of the ecoregion, are the Midwestern Canadian Shield Forests (NA0609); and iv) to the southeast, adjacent to Hudson Bay, is the Southern Hudson Bay Taiga (NA0616).
The ecoregion occupies a good part of the southeast corner of the Northwest Territories, south of the tree line. It also juts into Nunavut in a few places to the north and occupies the entire southwestern corner of that territory. Finally, the ecoregion also occurs in extreme northeastern Alberta, the far northern reaches of Saskatchewan, and the northwest corner of Manitoba (it approaches Hudson Bay but does not reach the shoreline).
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 ecoregion as a whole consists of broad, sloping uplands and lowlands, with numerous small lakes and eskers that in the west, drain into Great Slave Lake. Bedrock outcrops are common, and maximum elevation reaches about 490 m above sea level. Generally, it is a transition zone between the tundra and the boreal forest. It abuts nearly one quarter of the linear extent of the tree line in North America. Vegetation consists of open and stunted stands of black spruce (Picea mariana) and tamarack (Larix laricina), with areas of white spruce (Picea glauca), dwarf birch (Betula sp.), ericaceous shrubs (Ericaceae), cottongrass (Eriophorum spp.), lichen and moss. Drier sites can support open stands of white spruce, ericaceous shrubs and a ground cover of mosses and lichens. In the Tazin Lake Upland in the southwestern part of the ecoregion, there are medium to tall closed stands of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), with white spruce, balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and black spruce occurring in late successional stages. Fire is an important renewal agent.
Notable among many of its typical mammal species (moose, black bear, wolf, etc.), is caribou (both woodland and barren-ground); the ecoregion is perhaps the most frequented area in northwestern Canada for caribou in terms of their winter range.
Birds of the Ecoregion
No bird species are endemic to any of the taiga ecoregions. Notable elements of the avifauna in this ecoregion, according to WWF, are the Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus), Rock Ptarmigan (L. mutus), Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis), Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), Common Raven (Corvus corax), Spruce Grouse (Dendragapus canadensis), and waterfowl.
There are many species, particularly passerines, that are included below in the list of characteristic breeding species, which however only occur in extreme northeastern Alberta and on the very southwestern edge of the ecoregion in the Great Slave Lake (e.g., Blue-headed Vireo, Clay-colored Sparrow). One could be tempted to call them peripheral, but many of them are fairly common breeders in the small parts of the ecoregion they do occupy. If the ecoregion boundaries had been drawn just a small bit northward, many species would have dropped off the list.
Resources for the Ecoregion Birder
Other than typical resource books for birds of northern Canada, I am not aware of any resources targeted to the birds of the ecoregion.
List of Characteristic Bird Species of the Ecoregion
My list below of the “characteristic species” of the ecoregion (see a more detailed explanation on the About page) are those that regularly occur in the ecoregion 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.
The total for this ecoregion is 156 species, of which 23 are resident year round, 112 are summer breeders, 20 are only to be found during migration, and 1 (Hoary Redpoll) is a wintering species only.
- Greater White-fronted Goose m
- Snow Goose m
- Ross’s Goose m
- Cackling Goose m
- Canada Goose s
- Tundra Swan m
- Gadwall x
- American Wigeon s
- Mallard s
- Blue-winged Teal x
- Northern Shoveler s
- Northern Pintail s
- Green-winged Teal s
- Canvasback s
- Ring-necked Duck s
- Greater Scaup s
- Lesser Scaup s
- Surf Scoter s
- White-winged Scoter s
- Long-tailed Duck s
- Bufflehead x
- Common Goldeneye s
- Common Merganser s
- Red-breasted Merganser s
- Ruddy Duck x
- Ruffed Grouse r
- Spruce Grouse r
- Willow Ptarmigan r
- Rock Ptarmigan r
- Sharp-tailed Grouse r
- Red-throated Loon s
- Pacific Loon s
- Common Loon s
- Yellow-billed Loon m
- Pied-billed Grebe x
- Horned Grebe s
- American White Pelican x
- American Bittern s
- Osprey s
- Bald Eagle s
- Northern Harrier s
- Sharp-shinned Hawk s
- Northern Goshawk s
- Red-tailed Hawk s
- Rough-legged Hawk m
- Golden Eagle s
- Yellow Rail s
- Sora x
- American Coot s
- Sandhill Crane s
- Black-bellied Plover m
- American Golden-Plover m
- Semipalmated Plover s
- Killdeer x
- Spotted Sandpiper s
- Solitary Sandpiper s
- Greater Yellowlegs s
- Lesser Yellowlegs s
- Stilt Sandpiper m
- Baird’s Sandpiper m
- Least Sandpiper s
- White-rumped Sandpiper m
- Pectoral Sandpiper m
- Semipalmated Sandpiper m
- Short-billed Dowitcher s
- Long-billed Dowitcher x
- Wilson’s Snipe s
- Red-necked Phalarope s
- Parasitic Jaeger s
- Long-tailed Jaeger s
- Sabine’s Gull m
- Bonaparte’s Gull s
- Mew Gull s
- Ring-billed Gull s
- California Gull s
- Herring Gull s
- Black Tern x
- Common Tern s
- Arctic Tern s
- Great Horned Owl r
- Snowy Owl m
- Northern Hawk-Owl r
- Great Gray Owl r
- Short-eared Owl s
- Boreal Owl r
- Common Nighthawk s
- Belted Kingfisher s
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker s
- Downy Woodpecker r
- Hairy Woodpecker r
- American Three-toed Woodpecker r
- Black-backed Woodpecker r
- Northern Flicker s
- Pileated Woodpecker x
- American Kestrel x
- Merlin s
- Gyrfalcon r
- Peregrine Falcon m
- Olive-sided Flycatcher s
- Western Wood-Pewee x
- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher s
- Alder Flycatcher s
- Least Flycatcher s
- Eastern Phoebe s
- Eastern Kingbird s
- Northern Shrike s
- Blue-headed Vireo s
- Warbling Vireo s
- Red-eyed Vireo s
- Canada Jay r
- Black-billed Magpie r
- American Crow s
- Common Raven r
- Horned Lark s
- Tree Swallow s
- Bank Swallow s
- Cliff Swallow s
- Barn Swallow s
- Black-capped Chickadee r
- Boreal Chickadee r
- Red-breasted Nuthatch s
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet s
- Gray-cheeked Thrush s
- Swainson’s Thrush s
- Hermit Thrush s
- American Robin s
- American Pipit m
- Bohemian Waxwing s
- Cedar Waxwing x
- Lapland Longspur m
- Smith’s Longspur s
- Snow Bunting m
- Ovenbird x
- Northern Waterthrush s
- Black-and-white Warbler s
- Tennessee Warbler s
- Orange-crowned Warbler s
- Common Yellowthroat x
- American Redstart s
- Cape May Warbler s
- Magnolia Warbler s
- Bay-breasted Warbler x
- Yellow Warbler s
- Blackpoll Warbler s
- Palm Warbler s
- Yellow-rumped Warbler s
- American Tree Sparrow s
- Chipping Sparrow s
- Clay-colored Sparrow s
- Vesper Sparrow s
- Savannah Sparrow s
- Le Conte’s Sparrow s
- Fox Sparrow s
- Song Sparrow s
- Lincoln’s Sparrow s
- Swamp Sparrow s
- White-throated Sparrow s
- Harris’s Sparrow s
- White-crowned Sparrow s
- Dark-eyed Junco s
- Western Tanager s
- Red-winged Blackbird s
- Rusty Blackbird s
- Common Grackle x
- Brown-headed Cowbird s
- Pine Grosbeak s
- Purple Finch s
- Red Crossbill r
- White-winged Crossbill r
- Common Redpoll r
- Hoary Redpoll w
- Pine Siskin s
- House Sparrow r
Summer breeders (s) 112
Resident breeders (r) 23
Migrants (m) 20
Wintering (w) 1
Peripheral (x) [not in Total] 18
TOTAL 156
DJG: 7 spp. (March 4, 2020)