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Adult Oregon spotted frogs have moist bumpy skin that is reddish-brown on their topsides. On their heads, backs, sides and legs, they have black spots with light centers that darken with age. They also have red bellies and orange-red underlegs. Adult females grow to four inches in length and males to three inches. Oregon spotted frogs live in wet areas that provide abundant aquatic vegetation such as marshes, permanent ponds, lake edges and slow streams. When frightened, they hide in dense vegetation or under debris at the bottom of shallow wetlands. Adult frogs hibernate during the winter in freeze-free seeps…

Wigeon drakes are beautifully marked with white pate, green eye stripe, purplish breast and flanks, white belly and wing covert patch, and iridescent black/green speculum. The grayish hen shows white on the wing covert patch. Drakes give a three-note whistle and get progressively noisier as spring approaches and courting flights begin. Medium sized flocks are common in fall and winter, and like geese, will be found grazing pastures, park lawns, and golf courses. It is a rare to locally common breeder in eastern Oregon and rare in summer in western Oregon. It is a common to abundant migrant and wintering…

Greater scaup are almost the size of redheads. In hand, they are easily distinguishable from lesser scaup by size and by the white wing stripe extending beyond the secondaries into the primaries. In the field the two species are sometimes difficult to separate. Drakes are black on both ends and white in the middle. Hens are dark brown with a white mask around the base of the bill. The common vocalizations are the discordant scaup and purring pbbbrr of the female. Greater scaups form large flocks, sometimes mingling with lesser scaups in fall and winter. They are an abundant migrant…

Swainson's hawks are medium-sized buteos, smaller than Red-tailed and Ferruginous hawks. Plumage beneath varies along a continuum from very pale to nearly black below. Lighter-plumaged birds have a distinct chest band. They have relatively long, pointed wings that contribute to superior flying skills. The dark flight feathers contrast with paler wing lining in all but the darkest birds. It breeds in the bunchgrass prairies east of the Cascades with the highest concentration in the foothills of the Blue and Wallowa mountains. It prefers open country and has little need for numerous trees since it forages extensively while in flight and…

The Yellow rail is a small, secretive rail that is seen and heard far less than any other rail in Oregon. Males vocalize during the breeding season with a five-note tic-tic, tic-tic-tic repeated incessantly during hours of dark, and call infrequently during the day. The call sounds much like two small rocks being tapped together. Yellow rails are quite small and have a white patch on the trailing edge of the inner wing, more extensive than that on juvenile Soras. Males in the breeding season have a distinct yellow bill and are slightly larger but otherwise sexes are alike. Chicks…

The Red-breasted nuthatch is a happy, jolly little bird, quick and agile in its motions and seemingly always in a hurry to scramble over the branches. It is distinguished from other nuthatches by white eyebrows, black eyelines and cap, reddish breast, and nasal yank yank song. Although males have a blacker cap and redder breast than females, distinguishing sexes in the field is difficult. During winter, is can be observed foraging in mixed-species flocks with Chickadees, Brown creepers, Kinglets, Townsend's carblers, and Dark-eyed junkos. The Red-breasted nuthatch breeds and winters throughout Oregon where conifer or mixed conifer-hardwood forests are present…

Bobolinks summer in Oregon's eastern grasslands and meadows, singing what has been described as a bubbling delirium of ecstatic music that flows from the throat of the bird like sparkling champagne. The yellow-brown female, juvenile or non-breeding male may at first appear to be a sparrow, but the breeding male has an astonishing and diagnostic backwards tuxedo pattern of buff on the nape and white rump and scapulars on an otherwise black body. The Bobolink is a regular, locally common breeder at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and a few scattered pairs occur in northeast Oregon. West of the Cascades…

One of the "winter" finches that appear unpredictably in the state, the White-winged Crossbill wanders in flocks year-round searching for food, and may actually be seen in parts of Oregon in any month of the year. Its peculiar twisted bill, specialized for prying seeds out of conifer cones, is smaller than that of the Red Crossbill, and it prefers smaller, softer cones, mainly spruce. Males are a dull pinkish red, with distinctive broad with bars on black wings. Females are dusty brown and dull yellow with blurry streaks. The White-winged crossbill is a very rare and erratic visitor in Oregon…

The golden-mantled ground squirrel doubtlessly is the most distinctively marked ground squirrel in Oregon; a white stripe bordered on both sides by a black stripe extends from the shoulder to the hip. From nose to nape above the eye, the head is russet. The back between the stripes is grizzled dark grayish-brown becoming less grizzled on the rump; lateral to the stripes the color grades to a light buffy-gold on the venter. The face, shoulders, front legs, and feet are a bright orangish-gold. This ground squirrel occupies the east slope of the Cascade Range and most of central Oregon, and…

The California sea lion is the mid-sized Oregon otriid. The body is slender and tapering, the flippers are relatively small, and the rear flippers can be rotated beneath the body for moving on land. The short, course pelage lacks dense underfur; when dry, it usually is chocolate brown, but individuals with light-tan pelage are known to occur. The pelage appears black when wet. In older males, the pate is tan. The occurrence of the California sea lion along the Oregon coast is seasonal. The primary areas where it comes ashore are Cascade Head, Tillamook County; Cape Argo, Coos County; and…

The minke whale is one of the smallest baleen whales, growing to about 35 feet. They feed along the coast in the same area as gray whales. It is close enough in size to a gray whale that you could mistake one for the other at a distance. At close range, however, the difference is apparent. Minkes have a dark black or gray, sleek body with a white underside. They are often recognized by surfacing snout first and a small, weak, but visible, bushy blow that is about six to 10 feet high. When diving, they do not display their…

Features: Male cinnamon teal have a cinnamon-red head, neck, breast and belly. Like blue-winged teal, t hey have a bright patch of iridescent green on the rear of the wing and a bright blue patch on the front of the wing . They also have a distinctive red eye, a black bill and yellow legs and feet. Female and young male cinnamon teal are often confused with female blue-winged teal. Habitat: Prefer shallow, alkaline lakes where they dabble on aquatic plans. Techniques: Most cinnamon teal in Oregon are taken in eastern Oregon in the early season. They are not common…

The Cascade torrent salamander generally has numerous medium-sized black spots and white-gray flecking along its tan back and sides and a bright yellow belly that has fewer spots. Adults can grow to just over four inches in total length. Cascade torrent salamanders spend their lives in and near permanent, cold, fast-flowing and clear water including headwater streams, waterfall splash zones and seeps in older coniferous forests. Adults need gravel streambeds or other gravel areas with constant and shallow water flow for foraging and cover. The Cascade torrent salamander is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in the West Cascades and Willamette…

The ring-necked duck, which would have been better named "ring-billed duck" and is called "blackjack" in the southeastern United States, frequents different habits than the scaups with which is is often confused. The black back, white crescent on the side just in front of the wing, and white-ringed bill separate the drake ring-neck from the scaups. The brownish neck ring of the male in alternate plumage is not prominent. The hen is a small dark brown duck with a buff face. Drakes in courtship give a head-throw accompanied by a wow note while hens utter a growling purr. Ring-necks are…

This restless diver of cold oceans and bays is one of the prize waterfowl to see on a coastal winter day. Although the loud, musical call of males is seldom heard in Oregon, we can still be cheered on a chilly day by this energetic visitor from the north. The winter males' body is mostly white except for a black breast and central back; the wings are dark, scapulars long and gray, and the dark central tail feathers elongate. Winter females are darker above with a light head; scapulars and tail feathers are short and dark. Dark areas mark females'…

As the winter day turns to dusk, White-tailed kites drop into their roosts and Short-eared owls rise to take their place on the local hunting grounds. White-tailed kites in Oregon often roost communally in winter, but they disperse in early spring and are more difficult to find during the breeding season. By day, they are conspicuous as they hover over rural fields searching for prey, in part because of their pale appearance. The tail is entirely white, as are the head and the underparts. Dark crescents on the underwing can be seen when a bird is flying or hovering. Above…

In length, the Great gray owl is Oregon's largest owl, though it weighs less than the Great horned and Snowy owls. It is sooty gray to brownish above and lacks ear tufts. The prominent facial disc, outlined in black, contains a series of fine concentric rings that surround piercing yellow eyes. Despite its large size, both feet and bill are small. Sexes are similar. It is an uncommon to rare inhabitant of forests adjacent to openings above 3,000 feet in the Cascades, Blue, and Wallowa mountains. Most observations in the Cascades are from east of the crest, though they have…