page_title: Ana River
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Ana River / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Sandhill craines at Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge in Oregon
context_page_description: The Ana River is a short spring-fed river in south-central Oregon. It is on the northwestern edge of the Great Basin drainage. It flows 7 miles from springs at the foot of Winter Ridge through high desert, range, and wetlands before emptying into Summer Lake. For most of its course, the Ana River flows through the Summer Lake Wildlife Area, which is maintained by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The river provides habitat for many mammal and bird species, as well as several fish species, including the rare Summer Lake Tui chub. The largest hybrid striped bass ever caught in Oregon was taken from Ana Reservoir in 2009.
context_section_description: The Ana River is extremely important because it provides the only riparian habitat in the Summer Lake valley.  It also feeds the wetlands that host hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.  In 2005, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife joined with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ducks Unlimited, Oregon Hunters Association, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Council to enhance approximately 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of seasonally flooded wetland habitat in the River Ranch area of the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.  The project replaced a series of diversion structures along the Ana River that supply water to the adjacent wetlands.  The project significantly improved the efficiency of the water management system, benefiting both the river and wetland habitats.  Today, Ana River habitat supports 40 species of mammals, at least 280 species of birds, 15 species of reptiles and amphibians, and eight fish species.
  The Ana River provides habitat for river wildlife such as beaver and muskrats. The river also supports non-aquatic animals. Common animals in the Ana River area include Nuttall's cottontail, black-tailed jackrabbits, yellow-bellied marmot, chipmunks, Belding's ground squirrels, California ground squirrels, long-tailed weasels, mink, raccoons, striped skunks, mule deer, coyotes, and bobcats.  There are also three bat species that live in the Ana River area.
  Ana River habitats support a diverse population of upland game birds, songbirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, and birds of prey.  In the dry high desert country along the upper Ana River, California quail and mourning doves are very common.  There is also a small breeding population of ring-necked pheasants in that area along with greater sage grouse, and chukars. Songbirds common to the upper Ana River area include bullock's orioles, sage thrashers, canyon wrens, rock wrens, and sagebrush sparrows. Songbirds commonly found in the marshy areas of the lower Ana River include Brewer's sparrows, lark sparrows, marsh wrens, red-winged blackbirds, and yellow-headed blackbirds.
  Numerous shorebirds nest along the Ana River and in the wetland it feeds.  These include American avocets, black-necked stilts, western snowy plovers, spotted sandpipers, Wilson's phalaropes, Wilson's snipes, long-billed curlews, western willets, and killdeer.  In the marshes along the lower Ana River, there are large nesting populations of Canada geese, mallards, cinnamon teal, blue-winged teal, gadwall, American coots, and redhead ducks.  Great egrets, snowy egrets, black-crowned night herons, white-faced ibis, double-crested cormorants, Caspian terns, American white pelicans, Forster's terns, and sandhill cranes also nest in the Ana River wetlands.  Additional bird species stop in the Ana River area during their spring and fall migrations.  These include trumpeter swans, tundra swans, lesser snow geese, greater white-fronted geese, long-billed dowitchers, Baird's sandpipers, red-necked phalaropes, and dunlins.
  Because of the large numbers birds found in the Summer Lake basin, owls, hawks, and other birds of prey are common in the Ana River area.  Native owls include great horned owls, barn owls, and short-eared owls. Other birds of prey include prairie falcons, American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, Swainson's hawk, golden eagles, and bald eagles.
  The Ana River habitat supports stocked populations of hybrid striped bass and rainbow trout as well native Summer Lake Tui chub and non-native Goose Lake Tui chub.  The river's Tui chub range in size from less than an inch to about ten inches in length.  Both species of Tui chub are found throughout the Anna River system and provide an important food source for a wide variety of mammals and birds as well as other fish.  Hybrid striped bass were introduced into the Ana River in 1982.  Hybrid striped bass are sterile so the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the river with approximately 2,000 fingerings every two years.  Like the bass population, all of the river's rainbow 
caption: Sandhill cranes in meadow near Ana River
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