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Biodiversity - Species of Interest in King County
Each species group page features information relevant to the species of King County.
- Birds
- Mammals
- Reptiles and Amphibians (Collectively known as Herps)
- Freshwater Fish
- Invertebrates - Marine, Freshwater, and Terrestrial
- Pollinators
Regulated Species
Many wildlife and invertebrate species found in King County are protected under the County's Critical Areas Ordinance and policies found in the King County Comprehensive Plan. Lists of King County Species of Local Importance are on our Regulations page (it changes based on State and Federal status of animals). The Regulations page also discusses Federal wildlife laws, which also apply to wildlife in the County.
Urban Wildlife
Urbanization is a primary threat to our native biodiversity, and our Urbanization and Biodiversity page discusses the problems associated with urbanization, as well as what King County is doing about it. It also addresses wildlife issues in both urban areas and those areas that are currently being developed ("urbanizing"). Read about how to intentionally create wildlife habitat as well as learn what wildlife may show up in your back yard when you least expect it.
Wildlife Databases (external web sites)
- eBird, provides a rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
- iNaturalist, an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature.
- NatureServe, a non-profit conservation organization whose mission is to provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action. NatureServe Explorer is an authoritative source for information on more than 70,000 plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada.
- Amphibians on the IUCN Red List. The IUCN Red List includes data on each of the 6,830 amphibian species currently known to science (as of 2020).
- Streamnet.org, a cooperative information management and data dissemination project focused on fisheries and aquatic related data and data related services in the Pacific Northwest.