[38] BIRDS OF OREGON 



Among the characteristic birds one may look for in this section are the 

 Sage Grouse, Brewer's Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee, Sage Thrasher, 

 Pygmy Nuthatch, MacFarlane's Screech Owl, and the Northern White- 

 headed Woodpecker. 



CANADIAN ZONE 



THE CANADIAN Zone in Oregon is much smaller than the Transition or 

 Sonoran. As the yellow pine and Douglas fir forests mark the Transition 

 Zone, so the lodgepole pine and spruce forests mark the Canadian. 

 Roughly, it is the zone of lodgepole pine (Pinus murrayana), western white 

 pine (Pinus monticola), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannt), fir (^Abies 

 amabilis), Alaska cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis), and quaking aspen 

 (Populus tremuloides). It covers a comparatively narrow belt that includes 

 the summit of the Cascades, except for a few of the highest peaks, most of 

 the tops of the Blue Mountains, except in the Elkhorns and Wallowas, 

 and a few other scattered peaks. Curiously enough, a thin strip of almost 

 pure Canadian Zone is found along the coast as far south as Cape Blanco. 

 At some places it disappears, at others it opens out to a width of a mile 

 or more, though more frequently it is only a few rods wide. 



The strip of Canadian, or almost pure Canadian, flora on the coast is a 

 curious phenomenon. It is dominated by the lodgepole pine, about the 

 bases of which thickets of Vaccinium ovatum, rhododendron (Rhododendron 

 calif ornicuni), and less commonly Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum and 

 L. glandulosum). Along exposed points on the coast are to be found such 

 characteristic Canadian Zone indicators as the dwarf juniper Qunipems 

 communis^) and crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), the latter not being found in 

 abundance elsewhere in the State. Associated with these are Oregon Jays 

 and Sitka Crossbills, which are to be found more consistently along this 

 narrow coast strip than anywhere else in Oregon. In sharp contrast with 

 this strong Canadian infusion, on the cliffs directly beneath some of these 

 exposed points, southern plants, including Cotyledon farinosa and the 

 curious figmarigold (Mesembryanthemum equilateral^^ are to be found cling- 

 ing to the face of the rocks barely above tide line. 



Similarly on the eastern side of the Cascades, local conditions may cause 

 an almost complete inversion of the zones. The best example of this is in 

 the vicinity of Lapine along The Dalles-California highway. Here the 

 combination of a poor pumice soil and cold-air drainage has pulled the 

 lodgepole pine of the Canadian Zone below its normal level into this 

 extensive enclosed basin, where it has prospered, frequently to the exclu- 

 sion of other vegetation. It has brought such birds as Clarke's Crow, and 

 the Arctic and Alaska Three-toed Woodpeckers with it. All around the 

 sides of the basin the slopes are covered with yellow pine, in pure Transi- 

 tion type. Even a slight increase in elevation will change the balance, 

 and consequently there are small knobs and ridges through the valley 



