Birding Colorado

Douglas County
Author(s):  Hugh Kingery
County Seat: Castle Rock
Size: 841 square miles
Low Elevation: 5,370 ft. - South Platte River below Chatfield
High Elevation: 9,836 ft. - Thunder Butte
Best Birds: Arctic Loon (2002), Long-billed Thrasher (1993)
Checklist: Douglas County Checklist
Introduction: Despite its fast-growing people population Douglas County offers a diversity of habitats and hence of birds. Spread from 5,370 feet below Chatfield Dam to 9,836 feet at the top of Thunder Butte, habitats include high-elevation prairie in its southeast, riparian stream bottoms, scrub oak and other shrubby thickets, ponderosa pine woodlands, and mixed conifers. The county embraces three state parks (each an Important Bird Area), numerous county open space parcels, and the Pike National Forest, which covers a third of its territory. The South Platte River serves as the northwest-side county line, and Douglas shares with Jefferson several top-notch bird sites. The most important of these are Waterton Canyon and Chatfield State Park (one of the IBAs), both of which are covered under Jefferson County.

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