WASHINGTON STATE

SPECIES AT RISK

    The Species at Risk list was generated from eight existing databases relating to the conservation status of birds compared with the Washington Ornithological Society's (WOS) Checklist of "regularly occurring" Washington Birds.  The eight databases were as follows:

  1. International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species
  2. National Partners in Flight Species Assessment Database
  3. National Shorebird Conservation Assessment
  4. North American Conservation Status Assessment for Colonial Waterbirds
  5. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2002 list of Birds of Conservation Concern
  6. Audubon WatchList
  7. List of species classified as endangered, threatened, candidates for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
  8. List of species classified as endangered, threatened, sensitive, or candidates for listing under the Washington State Endangered Species Act.

    The following species were designated by at least one of these databases as being at risk, or needing special conservation attention:

Common Loon

Yellow-billed Loon

Western Grebe

Laysan Albatross

Black-footed Albatross

Pink-footed Shearwater

Buller's Shearwater

American White Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brandt's Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Brant

Trumpeter Swan

Barrow's Goldeneye

Hooded Merganser

Bald Eagle

Northern Goshawk

Swainson's Hawk

Ferruginous Hawk

Golden Eagle

Merlin

Peregrine Falcon

Prairie Falcon

Greater Sage-Grouse

Blue Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Mountain Quail

Sandhill Crane

American Golden-Plover

Pacific Golden-Plover

Snowy Plover

Black Oystercatcher

American Avocet

Solitary Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Ruddy Turnstone

Black Turnstone

Surfbird

Red Knot

Sanderling

Rock Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper

Short-billed Dowitcher

Wilson's Phalarope

Heermann's Gull

Caspian Tern

Elegant Tern

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Common Murre

Marbled Murrelet

Cassin's Auklet

Tufted Puffin

Band-tailed Pigeon

Flammulated Owl

Burrowing Owl

Spotted Owl

Short-eared Owl

Black Swift

Vaux's Swift

White-throated Swift

Calliope Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Lewis's Woodpecker

Williamson's Sapsucker

Red-naped Sapsucker

White-headed Woodpecker

Black-backed Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Willow Flycatcher

Loggerhead Shrike

Purple Martin

Pygmy Nuthatch

Sage Thrasher

Hermit Warbler

Brewer's Sparrow

Sage Sparrow

Harris's Sparrow

Rusty Blackbird

 

    The databases also listed four subspecies of Washington birds that need to be watched closely. These are Aleutian Canada Goose, Streaked Horned Lark, Slender-billed White-breasted Nuthatch, and Oregon Vesper Sparrow.  Two species didn't appear on the WOS Checklist because they are, for all practical purposes, extinct in Washington: Upland Sandpiper and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Tim Cullinan

Director of Science and Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society, Washington State Field Office, Olympia, Washington