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Wildlife of Napa County
Home to many abundant and diverse wildlife
Napa County's watersheds not only provide a home to over 131,000 people, they also support abundant wildlife representing hundreds of species, several of which hold the unique status of rare, threatened, or endangered.
Napa County is one of the most biologically diverse counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Located at the margins of three major biological regions (the northern reaches of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, the western edge of the Sacramento Valley, and divided north-to-south by several extensions of the Coast Range), the county exhibits a uniquely high level of wildlife diversity.
The forests, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, rock outcrops, riparian corridors, wetlands, and vernal pools in our watersheds provide habitat for a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. Napa County is a stop on the Pacific Flyway, a bird migration route that extends from Mexico to Canada. Approximately 400 bird species make Napa County their home during the year. About 75 bird species live here year round and over 150 bird species breed here. Mammals you might see include bats, raccoon, deer, gray fox, ring-tailed cat, and bobcat. Mountain lions and black bears, the last native species of bear in California, can also be found roaming in the more isolated areas of the County.
Aquatic habitats support fish, frogs, salamanders, snakes, turtles, crayfish, aquatic insects, and even mammals such as the river otter. Two streams in the Napa River Watershed are known to have populations of the federally endangered California freshwater shrimp. Other threatened or endangered species include the California red-legged frog, steelhead trout, vernal pool fairy shrimp, American peregrine falcon, bald eagle, salt-marsh harvest mouse, California black rail, California clapper rail, and the Western snowy plover.
Source: Napa County Resource Conservation District
Photo: Todd Adams
