Complete field guide to every bird species recorded in Alaska. Browse by name, filter by taxonomic family or order, and tap any species for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.
All sighting data is sourced from eBird, the world's largest citizen science database for birds. Use this guide to discover what birds live in Alaska, learn their calls, and plan birding trips to the best hotspots in the region.
Alaska is the only state where a birder can stand on American soil and watch birds arrive from Asia. Siberian strays — Bluethroat, Arctic Warbler, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Red-necked Stint, and a long tail of once-a-decade megas — reach the western islands every spring, and species like Bristle-thighed Curlew, Spectacled and Steller's Eiders, McKay's Bunting, and Red-legged Kittiwake are effectively unavailable anywhere else in North America.
Be realistic about logistics before you plan. The best sites are not on a road: Gambell and St. Paul Island are fly-in only, weather cancels flights routinely, lodging is limited, and guided trips book a year or more out. The season is also short — the window for the tundra specialties is roughly the first three weeks of June. If that trip is out of reach, the road-and-ferry Alaska of Anchorage, Seward, Homer, and Denali is far cheaper and still delivers puffins, murrelets, ptarmigan, and eagles.
What birds are common in Alaska?
The birds you are most likely to run into in Alaska right now are Bonaparte's Gull, Red-necked Phalarope, and Glaucous-winged Gull. Birders reported 238 species across Alaska on eBird during August 22–28, 2026 — the 18below are the ones that turned up on the most of those days, which is as close to “common” as sightings data gets.
Three gravel roads — Council, Kougarok, and Teller — put hundreds of miles of tundra within reach of a rental truck. Bristle-thighed Curlew displays on the ridge above Coffee Dome near Mile 72 of the Kougarok Road, with Bluethroat, Arctic Warbler, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Gyrfalcon, and both ptarmigan along the way.
Gambell, St. Lawrence Island
Thirty-six miles from Siberia and the continent's premier vagrant trap. Birders work the gravel boneyards for Asian passerines and seawatch from the point as millions of alcids and eiders stream past. Fly in from Nome, expect basic accommodations and ATV transport, and build in slack days for weather.
St. Paul Island, Pribilofs
Seabird cliffs packed with Red-legged Kittiwakes — the world stronghold — plus Least, Crested, and Parakeet Auklets, Thick-billed Murres, and both puffins, all at photographic range above the fur seal rookeries. Asian strays turn up in both spring and fall; the flight from Anchorage is the trip's main gamble.
Utqiaġvik (Barrow)
The top of the continent: Steller's and Spectacled Eiders on the tundra ponds in late June, King and Common Eiders offshore, Snowy Owls on the pingos, and Pomarine Jaegers hunting lemmings. Ross's Gulls pass Point Barrow in late September and October.
Denali National Park
Alpine tundra along the park road holds Willow and Rock Ptarmigan, Golden Eagles, Long-tailed Jaegers, Northern Wheatears, Surfbirds, and Wandering Tattlers on territory. Check current road status before you go — access past the Pretty Rocks slide area has been restricted for several seasons.
Kenai Fjords & Resurrection Bay
Day boats out of Seward are the easiest way to see Kittlitz's Murrelet in the glacial fjords, along with Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, Horned and Tufted Puffins, and cliff colonies of Black-legged Kittiwakes and murres.
Copper River Delta, Cordova
One of the hemisphere's great shorebird staging grounds. In the first two weeks of May, millions of Western Sandpipers and Dunlin blanket the mudflats, and Cordova's shorebird festival times itself to the peak.
All 591 bird species recorded in Alaska
Every species on this list has been recorded in Alaska on eBird. Tap any bird for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.
Birdr turns this list into a field companion: live eBird sightings around you, a life list you can log from the trail, songs and photos offline, and a nudge when something unusual is reported nearby.
How this is measured: eBird publishes, for each day, every species reported anywhere in Alaska. We count how many of the 7 days sampled (August 22–28, 2026) each species appears on and rank by that count — nothing here is estimated or modelled. Species tied on days are ordered by the total number of individuals in those records. Rarities work the other way round: rare bird alerts tell you when a bird that is not common shows up near you.
Homer & Kachemak Bay
The Homer Spit concentrates May shorebird flocks and wintering gulls, Gull Island's colony is a short boat ride away, and Kachemak Bay is the most accessible place in the state to look for wintering Steller's Eiders.
Potter Marsh & Westchester Lagoon, Anchorage
The obvious first and last morning of any Alaska trip: boardwalk views of nesting Hudsonian Godwits, Arctic Terns, Red-necked Grebes, and Trumpeter Swans within the city limits.
Alaska birding by season
Spring (April–May) — Shorebirds first, then the islands wake up
Early May belongs to the Copper River Delta and the Homer Spit, where shorebird numbers are measured in millions. By the last week of May the first Asian strays are landing at Gambell and St. Paul and the tundra is opening up.
Summer (June–July) — The window
Nearly everything a birder comes to Alaska for happens in June: curlews displaying above Nome, eiders on the Barrow tundra, seabird cliffs at full capacity, and twenty hours of usable light. By mid-July song drops off fast and the trip value falls with it.
Fall (August–October) — Southbound waders and a second vagrant push
Bar-tailed Godwits stage on the western coast before their nonstop flight to New Zealand, September brings another round of Asian rarities to the Bering Sea islands, and Ross's Gulls move past Point Barrow as the ice forms.
Winter (November–March) — Short days, specialized targets
Most of the state goes quiet, but the ice-free southern coast holds Steller's Eider, Emperor Goose, and rare gulls around Homer, Seward, and Kodiak, with McKay's Bunting on the western mainland beaches. Plan around a few hours of daylight.