Sage Sparrow
Amphispiza
belli
Fairly common but local in shrub-steppe of southeastern Kittitas County, mostly within Yakima Training Center and southern portion of Quilomene Wildlife Area. True breeding range, as revealed by BBA surveys, somewhat smaller and more compact than that predicted and mapped by Washington Gap report (Smith et al. 1997), with no supporting records west of Yakima River and none along Columbia River north of Skookumchuck Creek drainage. Declines in Washington populations appear to correlate with disappearance of high-quality stands of mature big sagebrush, yet Sage Sparrow not recorded in some seemingly appropriate sagebrush stands.
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