Inventory of breeding birds of the Alagnak Wild River
Walton K and Gotthardt T. 2012. Inventory of breeding birds of the Alagnak Wild River. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SWAN/NRTR—2012/623. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Biologists from the Alaska Natural Heritage Program and the National Park Service conducted an inventory of breeding birds along the Alagnak Wild River (ALAG) during June 2011. We used a stratified random sampling design based on land cover type to insure adequate distribution of sample points throughout all representative landcover classes. To survey for birds, two, two-person crews conducted 71 point count surveys across 9 sampling grids along the Alagnak River corridor. We detected 76 species, including 13 species of conservation concern. Three species detected during this inventory were new to the ALAG bird checklist and included the American Kestrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, and Arctic Warbler. Of the other 73 other species detected, 84% were considered present on the park species list. The most commonly detected species were the Wilson’s Warbler, American Tree Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow. These species were also the most widely distributed species at locations where we conducted point counts and were often associated with shrub communities. ALAG is the last southwest Alaska network park to be inventoried for avian fauna. This inventory contributes to the knowledge of the breeding bird community in this region and establishes baseline information on species status for any future monitoring efforts.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Walton, Kelly; Gotthardt, Tracey
- Date of Issue
- 2012-09
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ALAG , NRSS , SWAN
- Keywords
- Birds, Inventory