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

395 Pages·2016·13.24 MB·English

by  Swanson S., Smith M.

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 page 242.
Maps by Allison Berg Published in 2013 by Timber Press, Inc.
The Haseltine Building
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527
timberpress.com
2 The Quadrant
135 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RJ
timberpress.co.uk
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. Birds—Northwest, Pacific. 2. Birds—Northwest, Pacific—Identification. 3. Bird watching—Northwest,
Pacific. I. Smith, Max, 1978– II. Title.
QL683.P16S93 2013
598.072′34795—dc23 2013004183
TO OUR FAMILIES, FOR GIVING US CHILDHOODS FULL
OF EXPLORATION AND NATURE. WE LOVE YOU MORE THAN
PILEATED WOODPECKERS LOVE TO EAT ANTS.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: Birding in the Pacific Northwest

The Birds BEACH BIRDS: Denizens of the Waves, Rocks, and Sand
BIG BIRDS: Easy to See and Fun to Watch
COLORFUL BIRDS: Brightening the Pacific Northwest
FISH-EATING BIRDS: Diving, Paddling, and Stabbing to Catch Swimming
Prey
KILLER BIRDS: Birds of Prey and Other Meat-eaters
MARATHON BIRDS: Racking up the Frequent Flyer Miles
SINGING BIRDS: Memorable Calls and Songs
TREE TRUNK BIRDS: Living the Vertical Life
URBAN BIRDS: Making a Living in the Big City
Weekend
Winter Weekends, North to South
Birding
Trips 1. VALLEY OF THE SWANS: Skagit and Island Counties, Washington, in Winter
2. SHELTER FROM THE STORM: The Salish Sea in Winter
3. GRAY SKIES AND GREAT BIRDS: The Northern Oregon Coast in Winter
Spring and Summer Weekends, North to South
4. URBAN BIRDIN’: Springtime in Puget Sound
5. BIRDING AMONG THE WINERIES AND ORCHARDS: The Canyon Country of
Central Washington
6. STANDING ROOM ONLY: Nesting Season on the Central Oregon Coast
7. RED ROCKS, BLUE WATER, AND WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS: Central
Oregon in Summer
8. IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO: Dancing and Breeding Season in the Klamath
Basin, Oregon
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Photo Credits
Western Oregon and Washington
Introduction
BIRDING IN THE PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
In 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 basins—enough 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 you’re 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 can’t guarantee that the birds we mention will be present