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Features: Spiny dogfish are gray or brown with white spots on their back and a white belly. They can grow to be 5-feet long. They are called "spiny" as they have a spine behind each of the fins on their backs. Habitat: Spiny dogfish are widely dispersed, traveling from Alaska to Chile, and from intertidal waters down to 3,000 feet. They mostly eat small fish, squid, and octopus. Techniques: Being relatively small, spiny dogfish can be taken with light tackle. They tend to school around prey over soft bottoms. A good amount of weight will probably be necessary to keep…

Features: Both males and females have a bluish bill with a black tip. Drakes are white on the top of the head, green eye stripes, purplish breast and flanks, white belly and wing covert patch, and have an iridescent black/green speculum. The grayish hen shows white on the wing covert patch. Habitat: An abundant overwintering duck, especially in the Willamette Valley and coastal areas. Prefer shallow habitats like wet meadows or marshes where, like geese, they feed on green grass and sedges. Techniques: These ducks are early migrants (September) but can be common in mixed duck bags throughout the season…

This bat, found in older forests, has a wingspan of about 10 inches. Its fur is glossy black, tipped with white. It forages over ponds, streams, meadows and roads, often flying very low and roosting behind loose tree bark. Maternity roosts of the silver-haired bat are found in trees. This bat usually bears twins. The silver-haired bat occurs statewide in Oregon except for most of the Columbia Basin and is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in all ecoregions except the Nearshore ecoregion. It is primarily associated with coniferous forests, including the juniper woodlands in the southeastern portion of the state…

Of Oregon's breeding seabirds, Leach's storm-petrel is the smallest, most pelagic, and flies the farthest offshore of any of Oregon's breeding seabirds to feed. It spends the non-breeding season in the subtropical and equatorial Pacific. It is the second most abundant breeding seabird in Oregon, and is rarely seen from land or close to shore. It comes to its breeding islands, where it nests in burrows, only under the cover of darkness. Its plumage is black and Oregon populations have a distinct white rump. Leach's storm-petrels are long lived birds characterized by long-term pair bonds and may breed yearly for…

The Turkey vulture, known locally as a "buzzard," is a common sight spring through fall throughout the state, except in the highest mountains and featureless desert expanses in summer where they are uncommon. Seeing Turkey vultures returning is a welcome sign of spring. Turkey vultures are large-winged soaring birds with overall dark plumage except for a silvery sheen on the undersides of the flight feathers. Adults have small, featherless, red heads, while juveniles have gray heads. The Turkey vulture is a common to abundant transient throughout the state and an uncommon to common summer resident except in high mountains. It…

With short pointed wings and long narrow tails, these small falcons are well built for fast pursuit and mid-air attacks. Sexes differ in color and size, with adult males about 25 percent smaller by weight than females. Males range from blackish gray to pale blue-gray on the back with a reddish wash along sides of the breast and a banded tail; females have brownish backs. In winter, it can be found throughout the state in open or semi-open habitats, but it is most regular near major estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, and occasionally in cities where food supplies are reliable. For nesting…

Cryptically colored, usually solitary and somewhat secretive, the Wilson snipe is often flushed before being seen, sometimes exploding from practically underfoot and rocketing off in a corkscrew flight. This plump-bodied, long-billed bird of open marshland is primarily crepuscular, peaking in feeding activity at dusk and dawn, and often sleeping during the day. In breeding season they become more flamboyant, appearing atop fence posts and displaying their unique winnowing flights from high in the air, their outer tail feathers vibrating with an eerie whistling sound. They are uncommon and local west of the Cascades in the summer and uncommon and local…

Features: In breeding plumage, green-winged drakes have a cinnamon-colored head with a green eye-stripe, gray back, flanks, and a bright patch of iridescent green on the rear of the wing (speculum). Hens are brown with a green speculum. Habitat: Green-winged teal are primarily winter migrants in Oregon. They are puddle (dabbling) ducks that prefer shallow areas like ponds and marshes, where they feed on or near the surface of the water by tipping up. Techniques: Teal are early migrants that begin arriving in Oregon in August but will continue to arrive into November. There are good early season hunts in…

Features: Canada geese come in many sizes and colorations. All have the same general long, black neck and white chinstrap. Their breast color can range from light gray to a dark brown. Habitats: Canada geese have become abundant in many city parks and agricultural fields where forage grasses are available. They can be found floating in bays, estuaries, rivers, reservoirs and lakes as well. Techniques: Canada geese can be hunted like other waterfowl. From jump shooting to calling birds into a decoy spread, Canada goose hunting can be productive. Note: If you want to hunt geese in Northwest Oregon, a…

A white form on the distant water may be the sides and breast of an adult male, whose deep green head and dark back are less visable when far away. The pearl gray bodies and white breasts of females, subadults, and eclipse males are starkly delineated from their full-crested chestnut heads. Long, slender, saw-tooth bills are held horizontally during surface swimming and grip squirming prey after an underwater chase. From coastal bays to the high Cascades, in all corners of Oregon and far beyond, common mergansers ply the rivers and peer into still waters in their efficient pursuit of fish…

Features: Coastal cutthroat trout are typically are blue/green on top, red along the lateral line, and white on the belly. They are lightly or heavily spotted and adults have a red slash mark on the throat. Habitat: The most common variety of trout in Oregon is the coastal cutthroat, found in the streams and beaver ponds in coastal drainages. They also are stocked in high mountain hike-in lakes where the water stays cool throughout the summer. Techniques: Cutthroats that are year-round residents of small streams may not get any bigger than 8- or 9-inches, but can reward the angler with…

This stocky, medium-sized shorebird is a denizen of Oregon's rocky shoreline, foraging as close to the crashing waves as possible, hence its name. It uses the rocky intertidal zone which includes jetties, offshore rocks and rocky shorelines, sea stacks, and tidal pools and is occasionally found on sandy beaches interspersed with groups of rocks, and on mudflats near the mouth of the Coquille River. It sometimes uses freshwater outfalls for bathing. Birds wintering in Oregon have the upperparts, head, neck, and breast slate gray with a whitish eye-ring. Indistinct supercilium and chin are white, wheres the belly and abdomen are…

These small, fast flying seabirds are unique among alcids in North America in their use of coastal coniferous forests, primarily old-growth trees, as nesting habitat. Their solitary nests are usually concealed within the forest canopy, and breeding birds are cryptic and primarily crepuscular at nest sites. Because of their secretive behavior and elusive nests, Marbled murrelets were considered the "enigma of the Pacific" and were one of the last ornithological mysteries in North America, as the first nest was not discovered until 1974. Distribution at inland nesting sites is fragmented, as birds occur only in areas where suitable habitat remains…

The European starling is considered an invasive species in Oregon. It was introduced from Europe. They most closely resemble blackbirds, with which they often flock in fall and winter. While both have iridescent plumage, starlings can be told from blackbirds by their two-toned wing pattern - dark upperwing, pale underwing - and during the breeding season by the bright yellow bill. Starlings adapt readily and quickly to human habitation and are highly efficient and successful breeders. However, the abundance of the bird, the rapidity with which it has spread across North America, and its propensity to cause damage to crops…

Features: Adult males' plumage is black except for white patches on the forehead and nape. The most distinguishing feature is the bill, a swollen white, red-orange, yellow, and black wedge. This highly visible standard advertises male's presence for up to a mile. Dark-billed adult females and subadults are dark brown above and paler brown below, with two indistinct light patches on the cheeks and sometimes on the nape Habitat: The surf scoter does not breed in Oregon but is abundant on salt water along the coast from fall through spring. Look for surf scoters in the Columbia River estuary and…