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122 C Street NW, Suite 240 Washington, DC 20001,U.S.A Phone: 202-544-5205 Fax: 202-544-5197 cindy@alaskawild.org |
Alaska Wilderness League |
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Some 135 species of birds are known to use the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge for breeding and nesting. These birds are shorebirds, waterfowl, loons, songbirds, and raptors. Many of the migratory birds travel from as far away as Asia, Antarctica, and the Chesapeake Bay.
Many of these migratory birds follow flyways that traverse the entire United States. Among the migratory birds are pintail, oldsquaw, scoter, and harlequin ducks, eider, Canadian and snow geese, tundra swans, red-throated loons, and sandhill cranes. In addition to waterfowl, many other birds also inhabit the area: ruddy turnstones, golden plovers, lapland longspurs, and a variety of sandpipers and other shorebirds. Golden eagles, arctic peregrine falcons, snowy owls and ptarmigan are among the few that stay in the Arctic Refuge through the winter. Possibly the most dramatic annual bird event on the Arctic Refuge is the noise-filled arrival of up to 300,000 snow geese. Having nested on Canada’s Banks Island, the snow geese fly 500 miles out of their way to feed on cottongrass at the Refuge’s coastal plain for several weeks each fall. The snow geese will eat up to one-third of their body weight each day; the rich vegetation of the arctic tundra lets them increase their fat reserves by 400% in only a few weeks. They then fly south to California for the winter. Snow geese are especially sensitive to disturbances. Scientists with the Department of the Interior predict that oil activity will drive up to half of the birds away from their prime feeding area of the Coastal Plain. (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) |
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