Foundation Island is on the Columbia River upstream of McNary Dam near the Town of Burbank (WA), and is owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of McNary National Wildlife Refuge. It is a long and very narrow wooded island of about 5 acres that is just below the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Foundation Island is the site of the largest double-crested cormorant colony on the mid-Columbia River. The earliest nesting record we have for double-crested cormorants on Foundation Island was in 1998, when ca. 100 breeding pairs were counted in the trees at the southern (down-stream) end of the island. Since then the colony has grown to 309 breeding pairs in 2009. All the cormorants in this colony nest in trees, and black-crowned night-herons and great blue herons also nest in trees near the cormorant colony.
