Sitka City and Borough

eBird has popularized a big day event in October to encourage people to use eBird, making their sightings valuable to science and conservation. This year’s October Big Day coincided with the second-ever Global Bird Weekend and World Migratory Bird Day. Like previous Big Days, the 2021 October Big Day was widely successful. This year, October Big Day contributors joined from a record-setting 195 countries and reported 7,269 species, making 9 October the biggest day in October birding history!

While October coincides with new arrivals and breeding birds in many other parts of the world, Alaska is different. October usually harbors the first tastes of winter and a final farewell to the last of our breeding migrants. However, it is an excellent time to look for wayward vagrants and delayed migrants in the state. Birders in Alaska went out on October 9 and reported 145 species on 283 complete checklists within the state. As always, every checklist submitted helps us better understand bird distributions, abundance, habitat use, and population trends through eBird Science.

Highlights

Alaska was responsible for 4 species seen nowhere else during the entire Global Big Day!

Ross’s Gull – Compared to 2020, the 2021 October Big Day coincided with a more favorable time to see Ross’s Gulls in Utqiaġvik. Numerous birders watched over 100 Ross’s Gulls pass by the Point on October 9, including a single checklist count of 100 by Stephen Davies. This is the second time Alaska has been the only place to add this species to the October Big Day.

Spectacled Eider – One observation of two individuals in Nome by Kate Persons and a single individual in Utqiaġvik by Stephen Davies were the only records of this species on the big day globally.

Emperor Goose – Unlike 2020 when this species was missed completely, multiple observers in Kodiak and Cold Bay were able to record numerous birds on Oct. 9.

Yellow-billed Loon – A single flyby Yellow-billed Loon was recorded by a group of birders in Utqiaġvik looking for Ross’s Gulls.

By the numbers

Compared to the last three October Big Days in 2018 ,  2019, & 2020, 2021 recorded more species and more complete checklists than any other year! Alaska birders submitted almost 50 more checklists than 2020 and saw four more species.

Juneau and Kenai Peninsula tied for the highest species count of 66, followed by Anchorage (65 species) and Ketchikan (60). Ketchikan’s species total was largely thanks to Ben Limle and Steve Heinl’s impressive checklist of 55 species around Ketchikan. Ben Limle finished the day with the highest species count in Alaska with 58 species. Anchorage birders submitted the most checklists of any other area (61), but this was almost halved from what Anchorage birders submitted in 2020 (100). Fueled by birding groups and visitors to Utqiaġvik, the North Slope Borough had the largest increase in submitted checklists from the 2020 October Big Day, from zero to 35. This was followed by Kenai Peninsula (+28), Kodiak (+26), Juneau (+14), and Fairbanks (+12).

Whenever there is a big day, there are always misses. The biggest misses during the 2021 Global Big Day in Alaska (sorted by frequency reported during the 2nd week of October) were: Red Phalarope, Ruddy Turnstone, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Eurasian Wigeon, Red-faced Cormorant, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Northern Fulmar, Long-billed Dowitcher, Thick-billed Murre, Horned Puffin, Gyrfalcon, Snowy Owl, Steller’s Eider, Dunlin, Slaty-backed Gull, Canvasback, Ancient Murrelet, and Pomarine Jaeger. These will be great species for birders to target during October Big Day next year!

Thanks to all the birders who participated this year!