Flora & Fauna

Plants and Animals Depend on Clean Water

The San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary is home to a wide array of plants and animals.

Plants

More than 400 plant species inhabit the Bay-Delta, not including agricultural crops. 51 plant species in the area are listed on the federal threatened or endangered list, including the Delta button celery and the soft-haired birds beak, which survives in only 19 scattered sites around the Bay-Delta.

Plankton and Invertebrates

Tiny floating plants and animals called plankton provide food for invertebrates, such as California's Dungeness crab and the Olympia oyster. These two groups form the basis of the food chain in the Bay-Delta Estuary.

Fish

More than 130 species of fish live in the Bay-Delta Estuary, including staghorn sculpin, white sturgeon, Pacific herring, California halibut, Chinook salmon, Caspian tern, leopard shark, shiner surfperch, and the endangered Delta smelt.

Birds

More than 200 species of birds inhabit the Bay-Delta Estuary. Millions of waterfowl including the endangered California least tern and Califonia clapper rail use the Bay shallows as a refuge on their annual migration through the Pacific Flyway (a major north-south route of travel for migratory birds in the Americas).