Swanson S. - Must-See Birds of the Pacific Northwest: 85 Unforgettable Species, Their Fascinating Lives, and How to Find Them

Must-See Birds OF THE
PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Frontispiece: Pacific Wren

Copyright 2013 by Sarah Swanson and Max Smith. All rights reserved.

Photo credits appear on .
Maps by Allison Berg

Published in 2013 by Timber Press, Inc.

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Printed in China
Book design by Laken Wright

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Swanson, Sarah, 1979

Must-see birds of the Pacific Northwest/Sarah Swanson and Max Smith.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60469-337-9

1. BirdsNorthwest, Pacific. 2. BirdsNorthwest, PacificIdentification. 3. Bird watchingNorthwest,

Pacific. I. Smith, Max, 1978 II. Title.

QL683.P16S93 2013

598.07234795dc23 2013004183

TO OUR FAMILIES, FOR GIVING US CHILDHOODS FULL
OF EXPLORATION AND NATURE. WE LOVE YOU MORE THAN
PILEATED WOODPECKERS LOVE TO EAT ANTS.

Western Oregon and Washington

Introduction

BIRDING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

I n the Pacific Northwest, a seabird lays its egg in a nest on the mossy branch of an old-growth tree and flies out to the ocean each day in search of fish. Songbirds sing throughout the year, and tubenosed birds visit our shores from as far away as New Zealand. Even our largest cities attract spectacular flights of migratory birds. Birding hotspots include forested mountains, valley wetlands, Pacific shores, inland seas, and desert basinsenough to provide a lifetime of birding adventures.

The geographic boundaries of the Pacific Northwest vary widely depending on your purposes. This book is for people interested in birding opportunities unique to Oregon and Washington. For this reason, we include the portions of each state that contain types of natural areas that are unique to this part of the country. They include the Pacific Coast, the Salish Sea (Puget Sound and surrounding waters), the Willamette Valley and Puget Trough, the Cascade Range, and the eastern Cascade foothills. We do not include the easternmost portions of each state, because those areas include plant and bird communities that are characteristic of other regions such as the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin.

We include several sites in Oregon and Washington where youre most likely to find interesting birds. We do not list sites for very common birds. These sites are not, by any means, the only places to find these birds in the Pacific Northwest. And we cant guarantee that the birds we mention will be present when you are, but thats part of what makes birding exciting. Most of these sites are specific, well-traveled locations such as parks, wildlife refuges, and waterways. Some locations require a parking or admission fee. A few are along rough roads, so always use discretion when it comes to road conditions and your vehicles abilities.

This book introduces you to 85 of the Pacific Northwests must-see birds and shares some remarkable information about their lives and must-visit places to find them. Although this book does not include all of the birds youll see in the Pacific Northwest, we hope that it gives you the inspiration and information you need to go out and enjoy the many must-see birds of Oregon and Washington.

Male Williamsons Sapsucker

Essential Equipment

Birding is a wonderfully simple activity with only two critical steps: number one, find some birds, and number two, identify them. Here are some tips to help you succeed.

Binoculars and field guides are perhaps the only essential items for birding. The beginning birder will find a confusing array of options for both items. Binoculars, for example, range in price from less than $100 to more than $2000. When considering binoculars, you should test a few pairs by viewing objects close and distant to find which magnification (typically 8- or 10-power) works best for you. Ask the salesperson to help you figure out the eye adjustment, which is unique to each pair of eyes. Although no particular brand or price range is essential for bird sighting success in the Pacific Northwest, waterproof binoculars certainly are required.

Every birder has a favorite field guide, and a few own them all. One guide featuring all birds regularly found in North America (north of Mexico) is all you need to identify any bird you see in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Such guides typically come in two forms: photographic or illustrated. For use in the field, we prefer illustrated guides, because each bird is placed in the position in which you are most likely to encounter it, and the artists are able to depict the features of each bird that are most helpful to identification. Books with photographs, such as ours, are helpful for getting to know birds before a birding trip or for confirming identification in concert with an illustrated guide.

A spotting scope is a helpful piece of equipment for identifying shorebirds, waterfowl, and seabirds at coastal and wetland sites, where your targets are a great distance away. If you have attended a field trip with a leader who provided a high-quality spotting scope, you know what a difference it makes. An all-weather notebook and pen or pencil are also useful for taking notes on a difficult-to-identify bird or for listing species found at a location so you can relocate them on a future visit.

The marine-influenced, temperate climate of western Oregon and Washington is conducive to year-round birding, provided you own waterproof binoculars, a rain jacket, and a pair of rubber boots. With so much to see hereso many fascinating birds that live in beautiful placeswhat are you doing inside? Grab your binoculars and go find some birds!

The Birds

All of our regions birds are appealing in some way, and it is difficult and somewhat arbitrary to assign must-see status to some but not others. However, we want to help you begin or expand your birding experience by steering you toward certain birds that are likely to spark your interest because they are eye-catching or unusual. In selecting species to include, we recalled the highlights of our own birding experiences and the birds that have excited people in the classes and walks that weve led. We hope youll agree that all the birds weve included here are worth a look or a listen.

To make this book accessible to beginning and intermediate birders, we excluded some species that we find fascinating but that are too rare to find reliably, that are already familiar, or that are too challenging for most nonexperts to identify. These excluded birds include Gyrfalcons, American Robins, and the flycatchers of the genus Empidonax, respectively.

For each bird discussed in these pages, we provide one or more photos and list some field marks that are useful in identification. We describe the birds calls and songs if they are helpful in locating and identifying it. We also share natural history facts in each birds description, gleaned from recent ornithological literature. Finally, we tell you when and where you have the best chance of finding each species and provide a list of other birds to look for while you are there.