Bird Conservation Region 17

Badlands and Prairies

Description: This semi-arid rolling plain is dominated by a mixed-grass prairie that lies west and south of the glaciated Prairie Pothole region, east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the true shortgrass prairie. Due in large part to the continued dominance of ranching as a land use, many contiguous grassland tracts of significant size persist in this area. As a result, this area is habitat for some of the healthiest populations of high priority dry-grassland birds on the continent, including Mountain Plover, McCown’s Longspur, and Long-billed Curlew. The relatively small number of wetlands in the region, including small impoundments created to serve as livestock water sources, receives intensive use by upland nesting waterfowl and broods.

Bird Conservation Plans
Landbirds - Montana, Wyoming,
Shorebirds - Northern Plains/Prairie Potholes
Waterbirds - Central Prairies
Waterfowl - Northern Great Plans JV Implementation Plan
All Birds - Northern Great Plans JV Implementation Plan

Joint Venture area: Northern Great Plains

Back to BCR Map | Back Home | Back to International Site

Note: Hawaii (not shown) is BCR 67

Gulf Coastal Prairie Tamaulipan Brushlands Chihuahuan Desert Sierra Madre Occidental Sonoran and Mojave Deserts Coastal California Peninsular Florida New England/MidAtlantic Coasts Piedmont Appalachian Mountains Southeastern Coastal Plain Mississippi Alluvial Valley West Gulf Coastal Plain/Ouachitas Central Hardwoods Prairie Hardwood Transition Eastern Tallgrass Prairie Oaks and Prairies Edwards Plateau Central Mixed Grass Prairie Shortgrass Prairie Badlands and Prairies Southern Rockies Colorado Plateau Sierra Nevada Atlantic Northern Forests Lower Great Lakes/St.Lawrence Plain Boreal Hardwood Transition Prairie Potholes Northern Rockies Great Basin Boreal Softwood Shield Taiga Shield and Hudson Plains Boreal Taiga Plains Northern Pacific Rainforest Northwestern Interior Forest Arctic Plains and Mountains Western Alaska Aleutian/Bering Sea Islands