The ecoregion\u00a0is exclusive to the state of Texas.<\/p>\n
Adjacent ecoregions include the following: i) the eastern half of the northern border blends into the Central Forest-Grasslands Transition<\/a> (NA0804); ii) to the east we find the Texas Blackland Prairies<\/a> (NA0814); iii) the south is bordered by the Tamaulipan Mezquital<\/a> (NA1312); iv) to the west is the Chihuahuan Desert<\/a> (NA1303); and finally, v) to the northwest are the Central and Southern Mixed Grasslands<\/a> (NA0803).<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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. The ecoregion has been highly impacted, with at least 90% of the ecoregion converted to urban or agricultural areas. Suppression of fire and grazing by native animals has resulted in many areas in a proliferation of dense shrubby juniper-oak. Only small patches of original habitat remain; one of the largest is the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge near Austin, TX.<\/p>\n The avifauna of the ecoregion is relatively rich and according to WWF is among the top ten North American ecoregions for number of bird species. Lockwood’s checklist of the Plateau (see below) includes 431 species and my list below of characteristic species includes 276 species.<\/p>\n When looking at\u00a0bird distribution ranges relative to this ecoregion, the ecoregion generally appeared to be well defined with respect to birds, ranges of many species\u00a0corresponding well to\u00a0the ecoregion limits. The ecoregion extends in a small point down to the US\/Mexican border, jutting into a thin band along the Rio Grande Valley; excluding this tiny part of the ecoregion would eliminate many “borderline species” associated with the Valley and better define the avifauna of the ecoregion (for the most part I did not include these very peripheral species as “characteristic species”). Similarly, a lot of species have distribution ranges that just barely cross into\u00a0the northeastern corner\u00a0of the ecoregion; this would suggest that for birds anyway, the ecoregion could be better defined by reducing its\u00a0extension to the northeast.<\/p>\n Within the US, this ecoregion offers the best opportunities for seeing two rare and endangered species. Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia<\/em>) nests in mature oak-juniper savannas of the plateau and\u00a0is a near endemic in the breeding season, only spilling over slightly into adjacent ecoregions. In July 2015 I blogged<\/a> about this species and this ecoregion. The Black-capped Vireo (Vireo atricapilla<\/em>) breeds all through the ecoregion as well as a bit northward into the Central Forest\/Grassland Transition Zone ecoregion and southward into several Mexican ecoregions of the Sierra Madre Oriental just south of the border.<\/span><\/p>\n Without any pretence to completeness, the following resources have caught my attention and would be of value to the birder traveling to this ecoregion:<\/p>\n My list below of the “characteristic species” of the ecoregion (see a more detailed explanation on the About<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Summer breeders (s) 53<\/p>\n Resident breeders (r) 71<\/p>\n Migrants (m) 65<\/p>\n Wintering (w) 87<\/p>\n Peripheral (x) [not in Total] 13<\/p>\n TOTAL 276<\/p>\n DJG: 40\u00a0spp. (July 11, 2015)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blogs posted from this ecoregion: Golden cheeked Warblers of the Edwards Plateau Savannas (July 2015) The ecoregion\u00a0is exclusive to the state of Texas. Adjacent ecoregions include the following: i) the eastern half of the northern border blends into the Central Forest-Grasslands Transition (NA0804); ii) to the east we find the Texas Blackland Prairies (NA0814); iii)… Continue reading Edwards Plateau Savannas (NA0806)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":85,"menu_order":5806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/208"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/208\/revisions\/1662"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NA0806\"](\"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/NA0806.jpg\")
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Description of the Ecoregion<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Briefly, the ecoregion is\u00a0more or less equivalent to the “Texas Hill Country”, and occurs on the uplifted limestone Edwards Plateau. It is distinguished from adjacent ecoregions by its distinctive mollisols, and a vegetation that was originally juniper-oak savanna and mesquite-Acacia savanna, underlain by mid- to short grasslands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Birds of the Ecoregion<\/span><\/h3>\n
Resources for the Ecoregion Birder<\/span><\/h3>\n\n
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List of Characteristic Bird Species of the Ecoregion<\/span><\/h3>\n\n