GAP Analysis Predicted Distribution Map

Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)

Species Code: GETR

Legend:
= Core Habitat
= Marginal Habitat

Breeding Range Map
The green area shows the predicted habitats for breeding only. The habitats were identified using 1991 satellite imagery, Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA), other datasets and experts throughout the state, as part of the Washington Gap Analysis Project. Habitats used during non-breeding months and migratory rest-stops were not mapped.

Metadata (Data about data or how the map was made)

Click to enlarge distribution map

Map with Breeding Bird Atlas records

Other maps & Information:

Breeding Bird Atlas
NatureMapping observations
during breeding season
NatureMapping observations
throughout the year

This species is common in wetland microhabitats at lower elevations in western Washington. It is a fairly common breeder at low and moderate elevations in eastern Washington where appropriate habitats occur. Absent from southeastern Washington as a breeder.

Core zones were those below Silver Fir (west side) and below the Subalpine Fir zone and above the Oak and steppe zones (east side). This Yellowthroat is local and peripheral in the Oak and steppe zones. Good habitats in west-side zones were water/wetlands (except estuarine mud flats), agriculture, and forest openings and clearings. Forests were contingently suitable, i.e., suitable if appropriate habitat (open wetlands) occurred in the larger mapped habitat. Low-density development was adequate. In east-side core zones, only water/wetlands were good. Low-density development and irrigated agriculture were adequate. In peripheral steppe and Oak zones only water/wetlands were included (as good habitat).

Individuals west of the Cascade crest are G.t.arizela, those east of the Cascade crest are G.t.campicola. Many habitats with moist shrubs (such as sites in clearcuts) support the Common Yellowthroat, although these are hardly considered wetlands. At lower elevations, blackberry brambles in wet meadows will also support this species. Wetlands in the midst of wet, late-seral forests also support this quite adaptable species. In eastern Washington, this bird is more local, occurring in suitable wetlands within forested landscapes and in large wetlands of the Columbia Basin. In the hottests parts of the central Columbia Basin, such as Potholes Reservoir and Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, Common Yellowthroats become increasingly rare or absent. It is rarely found at high elevations, as the lack of the Breeding Bird Atlas records along the Cascade crest and in the high Olympics indicates.

Translated from the Washington Gap Analysis Bird Volume by Uchenna Bright
Text edited by Gussie Litwer
Webpage designed by Dave Lester