Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Vol. 50 No. 1 (2019)

BLACK ROSY-FINCH: UTAH BREEDING RANGE UPDATE AND SURVEY RECOMMENDATIONS

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21199/WB50.1.4
Submitted
September 15, 2025
Published
January 1, 2019

Abstract

 The Black Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte atrata) is one of the least studied North American birds, owing to the inaccessibility and remoteness of its habitat (Johnson 2002). It breeds along cliffs and in talus in alpine areas from central Idaho east to western Montana and Wyoming, south to southern Utah, and west to Nevada and southeastern Oregon (Johnson 2002; Figure 1). The Wildlife Action Plan Joint Team of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (2015) has designated the Black Rosy-Finch a “species of greatest conservation need” in Utah because of inadequate understanding of its ecology and life history, particularly its breeding distribution. The species is threatened by climate change, as breeding habitat already constrained by mountain summits is predicted to rise in elevation (Romme and Turner 1991, Conrad 2015, Elsen and Tingley 2015). Here we summarize and update current knowledge of the Black Rosy-Finch’s breeding distribution in Utah and provide recommendations for survey protocols throughout the state.

References