page_title: Sourland Mountain
section_title: Wildlife
hierarchical_section_title: Sourland Mountain / Wildlife
caption_attribution_description: English: An early spring flower with showy, large blooms and interesting foliage. Usually found growing on slopes in rich forests, sometimes along Sourlands roadsides near forest. Pollinated by native bees and flies, seeds dispersed by forest ants.
context_page_description: Sourland Mountain is a 17 miles long ridge in central New Jersey, extending from the Delaware River at Lambertville to the western end of Hillsborough Township near the community of Neshanic, through Montgomery Township and into Hopewell Township in Mercer County. It comprises the largest contiguous forest in Central Jersey, nearly 90 square miles in area. The highest point is only 568 feet above sea level, but the way it rises steeply from the surrounding farmland has earned it the title of 'mountain'. The ridge itself sits within a larger area of rough terrain called The Sourlands.
context_section_description: Sourland Mountain is in the Northeastern coastal forests ecoregion It is an environmentally sensitive area and is home to several rare and threatened plants and animals, including: trout lilies, wood anemones, ginseng, spotted salamander, pileated woodpecker, bobcat, wood turtle, barred owl, bobolink, Cooper's hawk, grasshopper sparrow, Savannah sparrow, upland sandpiper, and the scarlet tanager.
  The Sourlands serve as a stopover area for migratory birds that travel between South and Central America and the Arctic as well as forest birds migrating between Washington, D.C., and Boston. The area also supports a large population of deep-woods birds such as scarlet tanagers and barred owls.
  Being the largest contiguous forest between the Pine Barrens and the New Jersey Highlands, it is critical to the survival of neotropical migrant birds and other rare species of plants and animals. D&R Greenway Land Trust's partner in Mexico, Amigos de Calakmul, protects bird habitat at the southern end of the migratory flyway.
caption: Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in the Sourland Mountain Range
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