Eastern Washington supports a bird community far richer and more ecologically complex than first-time visitors to its brown, open landscapes might expect. The region east of the Cascade crest encompasses shrub-steppe grasslands, dry ponderosa pine forests, irrigated farmland, river corridors, and scattered wetlands, each hosting distinct assemblages of species. Researchers have documented roughly 80 breeding bird species in the dry forests of the eastern Cascades alone, and the broader Columbia Basin adds dozens more tied to sagebrush, grassland, and wetland habitats. What makes this part of the state especially interesting for birders and biologists alike is how quickly conditions change across short distances and how sensitive many resident species are to fire, agriculture, and a warming climate.
A Landscape Defined by Shrub-Steppe
The single largest habitat type in eastern Washington is shrub-steppe, a semi-arid ecosystem dominated by big sagebrush, bitterbrush, and native bunchgrasses. This landscape supports a suite of birds found almost nowhere else in the state. Species commonly associated with intact sagebrush include Brewer’s sparrow, sagebrush sparrow, sage thrasher, loggerhead shrike, gray flycatcher, vesper sparrow, horned lark, and green-tailed towhee, among others.1Rangelands. Effects of Conversion From Sagebrush to Non-Native Grasslands on Sagebrush-Associated Species Many of these birds are called sagebrush obligates because they depend on the structure that sagebrush provides for nesting, foraging, and shelter. Remove the shrubs, and these species largely disappear.
The problem is that a huge portion of the original shrub-steppe has already been lost. Both greater sage-grouse and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse have declined substantially in Washington, primarily because native shrub-steppe has been converted to agriculture.2The Journal of Wildlife Management. Habitat selection and use by sympatric, translocated greater sage‐grouse and Columbian sharp‐tailed grouse These gallinaceous birds are among the most visible casualties, but smaller passerines face the same pressure. When sagebrush is replaced by non-native annual grasses like cheatgrass, fire frequency increases dramatically, and functioning sagebrush communities struggle to re-establish after burning.3Rangelands. Effects of Conversion From Sagebrush to Non-Native Grasslands on Sagebrush-Associated Species The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: more cheatgrass means more fire, which means less sagebrush, which means fewer birds that depend on it.
Dry Forests on the Eastern Cascades
Move west from the Columbia Basin and you climb into the dry forests on the east slope of the Cascades, where ponderosa pine and dry Douglas-fir dominate. These forests get more rainfall than the steppe below but far less than the wet forests on the western slope, creating a distinctive open, park-like structure. Researchers surveying breeding birds across riparian and upland dry forests along six streams in this zone detected 80 species from more than 12,000 observations. About 18 species accounted for three-quarters of all detections, and species richness was similar across forest types, with roughly 35 species and high evenness in each.4The Journal of Wildlife Management. Breeding Birds in Riparian and Upland Dry Forests of the Cascade Range
That evenness finding is worth pausing on. It means the bird community in these forests is not dominated by one or two superabundant species; instead, individuals are spread relatively evenly across many species. For birders, this translates to a walk through eastern Cascade ponderosa stands yielding a steady variety of sightings rather than flocks of one thing. Common species here include mountain chickadees, pygmy nuthatches, white-breasted nuthatches, and several woodpecker species adapted to foraging on pine bark and excavating nest cavities in standing dead trees, known as snags.
Woodpeckers and Fire-Adapted Forests
One of the most sought-after birds in eastern Washington’s dry forests is the White-headed Woodpecker, a striking black-and-white species that depends heavily on mature ponderosa pine. White-headed Woodpeckers nest in cavities in large-diameter snags and live trees, and their reproductive success is influenced by the structure of the surrounding vegetation. Research in managed ponderosa pine forests of the Pacific Northwest found that nest survival for White-headed Woodpeckers dropped as shrub cover increased. At sites with no shrub cover, the probability of a nest surviving the full season was about 79 percent, but at 50 percent shrub cover that probability fell to roughly 48 percent.5Ornithological Applications. Woodpecker Nest Survival in Burned and Unburned Managed Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Northwestern United States
This matters for forest management. Dense shrub layers grow in when fire is excluded from ponderosa pine stands for decades. Historically, low-intensity fires swept through these forests every 10 to 25 years, keeping shrubs and small trees thinned out and maintaining the open structure that White-headed Woodpeckers prefer. Modern fire suppression has allowed understory fuels to accumulate, which paradoxically hurts the very species that evolved alongside frequent fire. Prescribed burns and mechanical thinning in eastern Washington’s national forests aim to restore that open structure, and woodpecker populations are one of the benchmarks managers track to measure success.
Wildfire in the Shrub-Steppe
If fire is a natural part of ponderosa pine forests, its role in the shrub-steppe is more complicated. The intensity, frequency, and extent of wildfire have increased drastically in the sagebrush region of Washington over the last few decades.6Ecosphere. Effects of wildfire on the distribution of mammals and birds in a working shrub‐steppe landscape Unlike pine forests, where big sagebrush can take 30 to 50 years or more to recover from a burn, and in landscapes already fragmented by roads and cropland, a large fire can permanently remove sagebrush from a site if cheatgrass colonizes the burn scar first.
Long-term monitoring in the Columbia Basin of south-central Washington using avian point counts recorded over four years before and seven years after a large, severe wildfire found significant effects of fire on the population trends or mean abundance of nearly all species investigated.7The Condor: Ornithological Applications. Avian Response to Wildfire in Interior Columbia Basin Shrubsteppe Sagebrush obligates declined after the fire, as expected. Some open-country species like horned larks initially increased where shrub cover was removed, but the longer-term picture depended on whether the burned areas recovered as sagebrush or converted to annual grassland. The study’s multi-year pre-fire baseline is unusual and valuable, since most wildfire-and-bird studies begin only after the fire, making it hard to know what was there before.
Researchers examining how fire and vegetation characteristics of sagebrush patches influence the distribution of sagebrush-dependent mammals and birds across the Columbia Basin confirmed that wildfire on a landscape already modified by agriculture and other disturbances challenges the persistence of wildlife that depend on continuous shrublands and grasslands.8Ecosphere. Effects of wildfire on the distribution of mammals and birds in a working shrub‐steppe landscape The key word there is “continuous.” Many sagebrush birds need large, connected patches of habitat, not scattered remnants. Fire breaks those patches apart.
Wetlands Under Climate Pressure
Eastern Washington is not all dry ground. The Columbia Basin contains a network of seasonal and permanent wetlands, potholes, irrigation return flows, and managed wildlife areas that together form critical stopover and breeding habitat for waterbirds. Ducks, geese, shorebirds, American white pelicans, sandhill cranes, and a variety of herons and egrets use these sites, some year-round and some during spring and fall migration along the Pacific Flyway.
Climate change is reshaping these wetlands in ways that cascade through the bird community. Research on arid-landscape wetlands documented that climate-induced shifts in water volume drive changes in wetland salinity, which determines the composition of aquatic invertebrate and plant communities, which in turn determines which waterbirds use the area. As the regional mix of wetlands shifts toward more saline conditions and fewer freshwater wetlands, waterbirds experience increasing water stress, degrading a continental migration route and an important breeding area.9PubMed Central. Climate-Altered Wetlands Challenge Waterbird Use and Migratory Connectivity in Arid Landscapes For species that need fresh or only slightly brackish water to forage and raise young, the loss of those conditions can make an entire region unusable even if the water itself is still physically present.
This is a subtler form of habitat loss than a field being plowed or a forest being logged. The wetland still exists on a map, but its ecological function for birds has changed. For birders visiting areas like the Potholes Reservoir complex or the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, the practical effect is that species composition at familiar sites can shift over just a few years as water conditions change.
Raptors and Wind Turbines
Eastern Washington’s open terrain and steady winds have made it a prime location for wind energy development. The ridgelines and plateaus above the Columbia Basin now host hundreds of turbines, which raises questions about interactions with resident raptors. Ferruginous hawks, Swainson’s hawks, and red-tailed hawks all nest in the region, and their foraging flights take them through the same windy corridors where turbines are sited.
A study tracking nesting hawks with satellite telemetry in southeastern Washington between 2011 and 2013 found that hawks displayed no large-scale avoidance of turbine projects. In fact, they flew adjacent to or within rotor-swept zones at high rates, averaging about 0.8 visits per hour during observation periods, timed to morning and afternoon foraging peaks. Passes directly through rotor zones accounted for roughly 10 percent of responses. Hawks visited turbines less than 800 meters from their nests at rates higher than expected, and two of ten breeding males tracked were killed by turbine collisions, one during the study and one the following year.10The Journal of Wildlife Management. Behavioral accommodation of nesting hawks to wind turbines
The hawks did show evasive behavior. As rotor speed increased, they were more likely to fly between turbine rows rather than through the rotor sweep, and distracted hawks (those actively hunting or chasing rivals) tended to increase avoidance flights over and between turbines. But even with these adjustments, the close and frequent interaction with turbines kept collision risk high. The researchers concluded that pre-construction siting needs to account for nest locations and the expectation that hawks will visit turbines near nests at high rates. This is especially urgent for ferruginous hawks, a species already declining in parts of its range and one of the largest buteo hawks in North America.
New Arrivals in the Columbia Basin
Not every story in eastern Washington birding is about decline. Some species are expanding into the region, though even those stories come with complications. The Tricolored Blackbird, a species strongly associated with California’s Central Valley, was first confirmed breeding in Washington in 1998. Since then, reliable breeding has been documented at six locations, all in the Columbia Basin, with additional reports of nonbreeding birds in 11 counties statewide. Breeding colonies have been small, averaging about 34 birds.11Western Birds. Status and population trends of the Tricolored Blackbird in Washington State
All known Washington colonies nested in emergent vegetation at wetland sites, and birds moved among colony locations over the 24-year assessment period. The relatively arid environment, limited extent of suitable nesting wetlands, and intensification of agriculture (which likely reduces insect prey populations) all constrain further expansion.12Western Birds. Status and population trends of the Tricolored Blackbird in Washington State So while it is tempting to see a new breeding species as good news, the Tricolored Blackbird’s foothold in Washington is tenuous. Colony sizes are tiny compared to the thousands-strong aggregations the species forms in California, and the habitat limitations in eastern Washington make rapid population growth unlikely.
The Tricolored Blackbird is worth watching as a case study in how range expansions work in practice. A species reaches a new area, finds marginal habitat, establishes small populations, and then either grows or stalls depending on whether the local landscape can support it. In the Columbia Basin, the answer so far seems to be “barely.”
What Conservation Programs Contribute
One of the most widespread conservation tools in eastern Washington is not a wildlife refuge or a wilderness area but a farm program. The Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, pays agricultural landowners to take marginal cropland out of production and plant it with perennial grasses and sometimes shrubs. In the Intermountain West, CRP fields have become important habitat for grassland and shrubland birds that have lost native habitat to farming.
Research on bird reproduction in CRP fields compared to native shrub-steppe found encouraging results. The daily survival rate of over 1,300 nests in CRP was equal to or greater than that for nests in shrub-steppe, and survival was similar regardless of whether CRP fields were planted with native or exotic grasses. Seasonal reproductive success for Brewer’s sparrows and Savannah sparrows was also similar between CRP and native shrub-steppe.13Wildlife Society Bulletin. Avian abundance and reproductive success in the intermountain west: Local‐scale response to the conservation reserve program The study concluded that CRP has the potential to significantly increase habitat available to shrubland and grassland birds in the Intermountain West and to increase local populations.
This does not mean CRP fields perfectly replicate native shrub-steppe. The plant composition differs, the structural complexity is usually lower, and true sagebrush obligates like sage thrasher and sagebrush sparrow tend to prefer actual sagebrush over a CRP field planted with wheatgrass. But for generalist grassland species and for some shrubland species like Brewer’s sparrow that tolerate a wider range of conditions, CRP fields serve as functional habitat in a landscape where most of the alternatives are active cropland. Given that millions of acres of CRP exist across the western United States, even modest per-acre benefits add up to meaningful landscape-scale effects for bird populations.
Birding the East Side
For practical birding, eastern Washington offers a calendar that looks very different from the wet, forested western half of the state. Spring migration in the Columbia Basin peaks in April and May, when shorebirds, waterfowl, and songbirds move through the region’s wetlands and agricultural fields. Summer brings breeding activity in sagebrush, grasslands, and dry forests, with species like Say’s phoebe, western kingbird, Bullock’s oriole, and lazuli bunting joining the sagebrush specialists. Fall pushes raptors through the region, including rough-legged hawks arriving from the north, and winter concentrates waterfowl on ice-free river stretches and reservoirs.
Some of the best-known birding sites are publicly accessible. The Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge in the Yakima Valley, the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Othello, and Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge south of Spokane each offer a mix of wetland, grassland, and shrub-steppe habitats accessible by car or on foot. The channeled scablands, a dramatic landscape carved by Ice Age floods, host a patchwork of basalt cliffs favored by nesting prairie falcons, canyon wrens, and white-throated swifts alongside remnant shrub-steppe draws with their own passerine communities.
What consistently surprises first-time visitors is the sheer number of singing birds in intact sagebrush habitat at dawn in late May or early June. The steppe looks quiet and barren from a distance, but step out of a car at sunrise at a site with good shrub cover and you are likely to hear Brewer’s sparrows, sage thrashers, western meadowlarks, and horned larks layering their songs across the landscape. That auditory experience depends on the same sagebrush structure that the research cited above keeps identifying as critical. It is, in a very direct sense, a sound that exists only because the habitat does.