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High Desert At-Risk Species

High Desert Chair: Anne Mitchell

Name: Family: Hawk family Accipitridae (ak-sip-IH-try-dee), from the Latin accipiter meaning “hawk or bird of prey.”

Common name: Ferruginous (fer-OO-jin-us) means “rusty color” and refers to the coloration of the birds wing and legging feathers.

Genus: Buteo (BEW-tee-oh), which is from a Latin word meaning falcon or hawk. Commonly describes a group of medium to large birds of prey that have long and broad rounded wings and short tails. These birds are masters at soaring for long periods of time. Twelve species of buteos breed in North America north of the Mexico border.

Species: Regalis (reg-AY-liss), from Latin meaning “kingly” or “royal.” These are the largest of the buteos.

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Steens Mountain - Alvord Basin At-Risk Species

Many species of desert wildlife are threatened by the detrimental effects of grazing, mining, orv use, and invasion of non-native vegetation.

Plants

• Steens Mountain paintbrush (Castilleja pilosa var. steenensis)
• Desert needlegrass (Achnatherum speciosum)
• Alvord milkvetch (Astragalus alvordensis)
• Great Basin downingia (Downingia laeta)
• Narrowleaf black cottonwood (Populus angustifolia)

Mammals

• California bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis ssp.)
• Kit fox (Vulpes macrotis ssp.)
• Pacific Townsend's big-eared bat (Plecotus townsendii ssp.)
• White-tailed antelope ground squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus)

Reptiles

• Desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos)
• Northern sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus)
• Mohave black-collared lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores)

Birds

• Ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis)
• Northern bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
• Northern sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)
• Western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)
• Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)

Fish

• Alvord chub (Gila alvordensis)
• Borax Lake chub (Gila boraxobius)
• Catlow Valley redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss ssp.)
• Inland redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss ssp.)

What You Can Do to Help

For more information about High Desert issues and what you can do to help, consider attending one of our monthly meetings held at the Oregon Chapter office on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM. Joining one of our outings to the desert is another way to become involved.