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List of birds of Alaska facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
WillowPtarmigan23
The willow ptarmigan is Alaska's state bird!

This page lists all the wild bird species ever seen in Alaska, a state in the United States. This list is based on information from the Alaska Checklist Committee. As of January 2022, there were 534 different kinds of birds on the official list. Some of these birds are seen often, while others are very rare visitors.

Only birds that live and reproduce on their own in Alaska are included here. This means birds that might have escaped from captivity, even if seen flying free, are not on the list. Also, birds that rely completely on humans for food, like common pigeons, are not included.

The birds are organized in a special order, like how scientists group them. This order comes from the American Ornithological Society. The common names and scientific names (the Latin names) are also from their list.

Here are some special codes you'll see next to some bird names:

  • R = Rare: These birds are seen every year, or almost every year, but only in small numbers. They often appear near the edges of Alaska.
  • C = Casual: These birds don't show up every year. They are usually outside their normal range but visit Alaska sometimes, often at certain times of the year or in specific areas.
  • A = Accidental: These birds have only been seen once or twice in Alaska, or haven't been seen in the last 30 years. They are very unusual visitors!
  • U = Unsubstantiated: There's a report of these birds in Alaska, but there's no solid proof like a photo or a specimen.
  • En = Endemic: This means the bird species is found only in Alaska (except if it wanders to another place by accident).

Ducks, Geese, and Swans

Branta-canadensis-004
The Canada goose is a common sight.

Order: Anseriformes | Family: Anatidae

This family includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are great at living in water. They have webbed feet for swimming, flat bills for feeding, and special oily feathers that shed water easily.

Grouse and Pheasants

Order: Galliformes | Family: Phasianidae

This family includes pheasants and similar birds. They live on the ground and are usually plump with short, wide wings. Many of these birds are hunted for sport or raised for food.

Grebes

Order: Podicipediformes | Family: Podicipedidae

Grebes are diving birds that live in freshwater. They have lobed toes, which make them excellent swimmers and divers. However, their feet are set far back on their bodies, so they are clumsy on land.

Pigeons and Doves

Order: Columbiformes | Family: Columbidae

Pigeons and doves are birds with sturdy bodies, short necks, and thin bills.

Cuckoos

Order: Cuculiformes | Family: Cuculidae

This family includes cuckoos and roadrunners. These birds vary in size and have slender bodies, long tails, and strong legs. Some cuckoos are known for laying their eggs in other birds' nests.

Nightjars and Allies

Order: Caprimulgiformes | Family: Caprimulgidae

Nightjars are medium-sized birds that are active at night. They usually nest on the ground. They have long wings, short legs, and very short bills. Their soft feathers are colored to help them blend in with tree bark or leaves.

Swifts

Order: Apodiformes | Family: Apodidae

Swifts are small birds that spend most of their lives flying. They have very short legs and almost never land on the ground. Instead, they perch on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long, swept-back wings that look like a crescent moon.

Hummingbirds

Order: Apodiformes | Family: Trochilidae

Hummingbirds are tiny birds that can hover in the air by flapping their wings very fast. They are the only birds that can fly backward!

Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Fulica americana3
The American coot.

Order: Gruiformes | Family: Rallidae

This is a large family of small to medium-sized birds, including rails, crakes, coots, and gallinules. They usually live in thick plants near lakes, swamps, or rivers. They are often shy and hard to spot. Most have strong legs and long toes, which help them walk on soft, uneven ground. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are not very strong fliers.

Cranes

Order: Gruiformes | Family: Gruidae

Cranes are large birds with long legs and long necks. Unlike herons, which look similar, cranes fly with their necks stretched out, not pulled back. Many cranes have fancy and loud dances they perform during mating season.

Stilts and Avocets

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Recurvirostridae

This family includes avocets and stilts, which are large wading birds. Avocets have long legs and long bills that curve upward. Stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin, straight bills.

Oystercatchers

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Haematopodidae

Oystercatchers are large, noticeable, and noisy birds that look a bit like plovers. They have strong bills that they use to break open or pry apart molluscs.

Lapwings and Plovers

Killdeer
The Killdeer.

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Charadriidae

This family includes plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short thick necks, and long, usually pointed, wings. They live in open areas all over the world, often near water.

Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Scolopacidae

This is a large and varied family of small to medium-sized shorebirds. It includes sandpipers, curlews, godwits, snipes, and phalaropes. Most of these birds eat small bugs they find in mud or soil. Different bill and leg lengths allow many species to feed in the same places without competing for food.

Pratincoles and Coursers

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Glareolidae

Pratincoles have short legs, very long pointed wings, and long forked tails. What's unusual for a wading bird is that they usually catch insects while flying, like swallows. They can also feed on the ground. Their short bills are perfect for catching bugs in the air.

Skuas and Jaegers

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Stercorariidae

Jaegers and skuas are medium to large birds, usually gray or brown. They often have white marks on their wings. They have longish bills with hooked tips and webbed feet with sharp claws. They look like large, dark gulls but have a fleshy area above their upper bill. They are strong, agile fliers.

Auks, Murres, and Puffins

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Alcidae

This family includes auks, murres, and puffins. These birds have short wings and live on the open sea. They only come ashore to breed and raise their young.

Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Larus-delawarensis-021
The Ring-billed gull.

Order: Charadriiformes | Family: Laridae

This family includes gulls, terns, and skimmers. They are medium to large seabirds. They are usually gray or white, often with black markings on their heads or wings. They have strong, longish bills and webbed feet.

Penguins

Order: Sphenisciformes | Family: Spheniscidae

Penguins are flightless birds that live mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. They are aquatic, meaning they live in water. Most penguins eat krill, fish, and squid that they catch while swimming underwater.

Loons

Order: Gaviiformes | Family: Gaviidae

Loons are aquatic birds, about the size of a large duck, but not related to them. They are mostly gray or black and have spear-shaped bills. Loons swim well and fly adequately, but they are very awkward on land because their legs are placed far back on their bodies.

Albatrosses

Order: Procellariiformes | Family: Diomedeidae

Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds. The great albatrosses have the largest wingspans of any living birds.

Northern Storm-Petrels

Order: Procellariiformes | Family: Hydrobatidae

Storm-petrels are the smallest seabirds. They are related to petrels and eat tiny crustaceans and small fish from the ocean surface, often while hovering. Their flight is fluttery, sometimes like a bat.

Shearwaters and Petrels

Northern Fulmar
The Northern fulmar.

Order: Procellariiformes | Family: Procellariidae

This family includes medium-sized "true petrels." They have nostrils that are joined together and a long, working outer primary feather on their wings.

Frigatebirds

Order: Suliformes | Family: Fregatidae

Frigatebirds are large seabirds usually found over tropical oceans. They are large, black, or black and white, with long wings and deeply forked tails. Males have colorful throat pouches that can inflate. They don't swim or walk well and can't take off from a flat surface. They have the largest wingspan compared to their body weight of any bird, allowing them to stay in the air for over a week!

Boobies and Gannets

Order: Suliformes | Family: Sulidae

This family includes gannets and boobies. Both are medium to large coastal seabirds that dive headfirst into the water to catch fish.

Cormorants and Shags

Order: Suliformes | Family: Phalacrocoracidae

Cormorants are medium to large aquatic birds, usually with mostly dark feathers and colored skin on their faces. Their bills are long, thin, and sharply hooked. They have four webbed toes.

Pelicans

Order: Pelecaniformes | Family: Pelecanidae

Pelicans are very large water birds with a unique pouch under their beak. Like other birds in their group, they have four webbed toes.

Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

Order: Pelecaniformes | Family: Ardeidae

This family includes herons, egrets, and bitterns. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns tend to have shorter necks and are more secretive. Birds in this family fly with their necks pulled back, unlike other long-necked birds like storks.

Ibises and Spoonbills

Order: Pelecaniformes | Family: Threskiornithidae

This family includes ibises and spoonbills. They have long, wide wings and long bodies with long legs and necks. Their bills are also long; ibises have bills that curve downward, while spoonbills have straight, flattened bills.

New World Vultures

Order: Cathartiformes | Family: Cathartidae

New World vultures look like Old World vultures but are not closely related. They look similar because they both adapted to the same lifestyle of eating dead animals. Unlike Old World vultures, which find food by sight, New World vultures have a good sense of smell to find carcasses.

Osprey

Order: Accipitriformes | Family: Pandionidae

The Osprey family has only one type of bird: the Osprey! It's a bird of prey that eats fish. It has a very large, strong, hooked beak, powerful legs, sharp talons, and excellent eyesight.

Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Order: Accipitriformes | Family: Accipitridae

This family includes hawks, eagles, kites, and harriers. These birds of prey have very large, strong, hooked beaks for tearing meat from their prey. They also have strong legs, powerful talons, and sharp eyesight.

Owls

Order: Strigiformes | Family: Strigidae

Typical owls are mostly solitary birds of prey that hunt at night. They have large eyes that face forward, good hearing, a hawk-like beak, and a clear circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk.

Hoopoes

Order: Upupiformes | Family: Upupidae

This black, white, and pink bird is easy to spot, especially when it flies in an erratic, butterfly-like way. It's the only member of its family. Its song sounds like "oop-oop-oop," which is how it got its name.

  • Eurasian hoopoe, Upupa epops (A)

Kingfishers

Order: Coraciiformes | Family: Alcedinidae

Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.

Woodpeckers

Order: Piciformes | Family: Picidae

Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks, short legs, stiff tails, and long tongues for catching insects. Some have feet with two toes pointing forward and two backward. Many woodpeckers tap loudly on tree trunks with their beaks.

Falcons and Caracaras

Order: Falconiformes | Family: Falconidae

This family includes falcons and caracaras, which are birds of prey active during the day. They are different from hawks and eagles because they kill their prey with their beaks instead of their talons.

Tyrant Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Tyrannidae

Tyrant flycatchers are songbirds found across North and South America. They look a bit like Old World flycatchers but are stronger and have sturdier bills. They don't have the complex songs of other songbirds. Most are plain-looking, and as their name suggests, most eat insects.

Vireos

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Vireonidae

Vireos are small to medium-sized songbirds. They are usually greenish and look like wood warblers, but they have heavier bills.

Shrikes

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Laniidae

Shrikes are songbirds known for catching other birds and small animals. They sometimes impale their prey on thorns or barbed wire. A shrike's beak is hooked, similar to a bird of prey.

  • Brown shrike, Lanius cristatus (C)
  • Red-backed shrike, Lanius collurio (A)
  • Great gray shrike, Lanius excubitor (A)
  • Northern shrike, Lanius borealis

Crows, Jays, and Magpies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Corvidae

This family includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies. Corvids are larger than average among songbirds, and some of the bigger species are very intelligent.

Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Paridae

The Paridae are mostly small, sturdy woodland birds with short, strong bills. Some have crests on their heads. They are adaptable birds that eat a mix of seeds and insects.

Larks

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Alaudidae

Larks are small ground-dwelling birds often known for their amazing songs and display flights. Most larks look quite plain. They eat insects and seeds.

Reed Warblers and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Acrocephalidae

Members of this family are usually quite large for "warblers." Most are plain olive-brown on top and yellowish to beige underneath. They are often found in open woodlands, reed beds, or tall grass.

Grassbirds and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Locustellidae

Grassbirds are a family of small insect-eating songbirds. They are small birds with tails that are usually long and pointed. They tend to be dull brownish or buffy all over.

Swallows

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Hirundinidae

Swallows are songbirds known for their ability to catch food while flying. They have slender, streamlined bodies, long pointed wings, and short bills with wide mouths. Their feet are better for perching than walking.

Leaf Warblers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Phylloscopidae

Leaf warblers are a family of small insect-eating birds. The Arctic warbler breeds in Alaska. These birds come in various sizes, often with green feathers on top and yellow underneath, or more muted grayish-green to grayish-brown colors.

Sylviid Warblers and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Sylviidae

This family is a group of small insect-eating songbirds. They are mostly found breeding in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Most look plain, but many have unique songs.

Kinglets

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Regulidae

Kinglets are a small family of birds that look like titmice. They are very small insect-eating birds. The adults have colored crowns on their heads, which gives them their name.

Waxwings

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Bombycillidae

Waxwings are a group of birds with soft, silky feathers and unique red tips on some of their wing feathers. These tips look like sealing wax, giving the group its name. These birds live in northern forests. They eat insects in summer and berries in winter.

Nuthatches

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Sittidae

Nuthatches are small woodland birds. They have the unusual ability to climb down trees headfirst, unlike most other birds that only climb upwards. Nuthatches have big heads, short tails, and strong bills and feet.

Treecreepers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Certhiidae

Treecreepers are small woodland birds, brown on top and white underneath. They have thin, pointed, down-curved bills, which they use to pull insects from tree bark. They have stiff tail feathers, like woodpeckers, which help them support themselves on vertical trees.

Wrens

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Troglodytidae

Wrens are small and often hard-to-see birds, except for their loud songs. They have short wings and thin, down-curved bills. Several species often hold their tails straight up.

Mockingbirds and Thrashers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Mimidae

This family includes thrashers, mockingbirds, and catbirds. These birds are famous for their singing, especially their amazing ability to copy many different bird calls and other sounds they hear. They usually have dull gray and brown feathers.

Starlings

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Sturnidae

Starlings are small to medium-sized songbirds with strong feet. They fly strongly and directly and often gather in large groups. They prefer open areas and eat insects and fruit. Their feathers are usually dark with a metallic shine.

Dippers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Cinclidae

Dippers are small, sturdy birds that feed in cold, fast-moving streams.

Thrushes and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Turdidae

Thrushes are a group of songbirds. They are plump, soft-feathered, small to medium-sized birds that eat insects or sometimes everything. They often feed on the ground. Many have beautiful songs.

Old World Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Muscicapidae

This is a large family of small songbirds found mostly in the Old World. Most of the species listed here only appear in North America by accident. These birds vary a lot in appearance, but most have weak songs and harsh calls.

Accentors

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Prunellidae

Accentors are small, rather plain birds with thin, sharp bills. They look a bit like sparrows but are not related. They are native to the Palearctic region and only appear in North America by accident.

Old World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Passeridae

Old World sparrows are small songbirds. They are generally small, plump, brownish or grayish birds with short tails and strong, short beaks. Sparrows eat seeds, but they also eat small insects.

  • House sparrow, Passer domesticus (C) (Introduced to North America)

Wagtails and Pipits

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Motacillidae

This family includes wagtails and pipits. They are small songbirds with medium to long tails. They are slender, insect-eating birds that feed on the ground in open areas.

Finches and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Fringillidae

Finches are seed-eating songbirds. They are small to medium-sized and have strong beaks, usually cone-shaped. All finches have twelve tail feathers and nine primary flight feathers. These birds have a bouncy flight, alternating between flapping and gliding with closed wings. Most finches sing well.

Longspurs and Snow Buntings

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Calcariidae

This group of songbirds was once thought to be part of the New World sparrows, but they are different in several ways. They are usually found in open grassy areas.

Old World Buntings

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Emberizidae

This family of songbirds contains only one group. Until 2017, the New World sparrows were also considered part of this family.

  • Pine bunting, Emberiza leucocephalos (C)
  • Yellow-browed bunting, Emberiza chrysophrys (A)
  • Little bunting, Emberiza pusilla (C)
  • Rustic bunting, Emberiza rustica (R)
  • Yellow-throated bunting, Emberiza elegans (A)
  • Yellow-breasted bunting, Emberiza aureola (C)
  • Gray bunting, Emberiza variabilis (C)
  • Pallas's bunting, Emberiza pallasi (C)
  • Reed bunting. Emberiza schoeniclus (C)

New World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Passerellidae

These species were part of the Emberizidae family until 2017. Most are called sparrows, but they are not closely related to the Old World sparrows. Many of these birds have unique patterns on their heads.

Troupials and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Icteridae

This group of small to medium-sized, often colorful songbirds is found only in the New World. It includes grackles, New World blackbirds, and New World orioles. Most species are mainly black, often with bright yellow, orange, or red colors.

New World Warblers

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Parulidae

Wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most live in trees, but some, like the ovenbird, live more on the ground. Most birds in this family eat insects.

Cardinals and Allies

Order: Passeriformes | Family: Cardinalidae

Cardinals are a family of sturdy, seed-eating birds with strong bills. They usually live in open woodlands. Males and females often have different colored feathers.

See Also

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List of birds of Alaska Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.