Thanks to everyone who joined us for bird walks in October. Nice to go birding with you until the “end” of the summer!

November Events

November Evening Program: Thursday, November 19th at 6:00 pm at the BP Energy Center in midtown Anchorage.

Vijay Patil will talk about recent research on arctic nesting geese in Alaska. Vijay is a wildlife biologist and data analyst with the USGS Alaska Science Center who has been studying the migration, breeding biology and population dynamics of Black Brant and Snow Geese for 10 years. His work has focused on understanding how these bird species are responding to Alaska’s changing climate, and how they use regions of Alaska that are often in the news, such as Izembek Lagoon, the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, and the Arctic Coastal Plain.

We will also share some general updates, compete for door prizes, and of course, there will be cookies!

November Field Trips

All programs and field trips are listed on the Anchorage Audubon website here. Email us at info@anchorageaudubon.org if you need more information about an event.

Kincaid Park: Saturday, November 14th at 1:00 pm. Meet at the covered pavilion behind the Kincaid chalet.

As part of the 2026 Parks+Trails Recreation Fair (see details below), we’ll do a short winter walk and look and listen for birds. Please dress appropriately for the weather.

Winter Walk at Campbell Creek Science Center: Wednesday, November 18th, noon - 1:00 pm. Meet inside the Campbell Creek Science Center.

Winter birding! There are so many ways to enjoy the winter in Anchorage and birding is one of them. Let’s explore the Campbell Tract area on this casual walk. We will do a short, easy loop close to the Science Center building and then circle back to warm up inside with tea and cookies, provided by Science Center staff. The Science Center has a winter bird feeder that we can view from indoors and talk about ways to keep birds safe around feeders. Bring a lunch or snacks and dress appropriately for the weather. Thanks to BLM Science Center staff for collaborating with us on this walk! Note: We plan to make this a monthly noontime event at the Campbell Creek Science Center this winter. Stay tuned for more dates.

In October, we had a great time teaching 3rd and 5th graders about binoculars and field marks that help us identify birds.

Park + Trails Recreation Fair: Saturday, November 14, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Kincaid Park Chalet

Anchorage Audubon will have a table at the 2026 Parks+Trails Recreation Fair at the Kincaid Park Chalet on November 14th. Hosted by the Anchorage Park Foundation in partnership with Anchorage Parks & Recreation and the Alaska Department of Health, the fair brings together local nonprofits, small businesses, clubs, and others to showcase the many ways residents can engage with Anchorage’s parks and trails during the winter season. Stop by our table and join us on a winter bird walk around 1:00 pm at the outdoor pavilion behind the Kincaid chalet as part of this event. Want to help us with this event? Email us at info@anchorageaudubon.org

Project FeederWatch

Contribute sightings of birds at your feeders this winter to a national effort that documents species, numbers, and other information that helps birds! You choose the location, when to count, and how much time to observe. The Project FeederWatch observation period starts November 1st, so sign up and get ready for winter birding from your home! Have questions? Send us an email at info@anchorageaudubon.org

Need Window Stickers?

Don’t put up with bird-window collisions at your home or office. Let us help! Send an email to info@anchorageaudubon.org and we can advise on different solutions and help provide effective window treatments, potentially at no cost to you.

Unexpected Migration Patterns of Yellow-rumped Warblers from Anchorage

Stephanie Szarmach, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, recently completed some fascinating research on the migratory pathways of Yellow-rumped Warblers that were captured in Anchorage in 2022. The goal of the study was to illuminate the migratory journeys of these high-latitude breeding warblers. Previous banding data and the winter range of the species raised questions about where Anchorage breeding birds would spend the winter, compared to warblers that breeding further east in Canada.

Using new tag technology suitable for small warblers, the researchers were able to test whether warblers breeding in Anchorage actually followed the shortest migration route to winter in California. To their surprise, they found that birds traveled east across the boreal forest of Canada and then south to the Gulf Coast (see map below). Interestingly, this longer route taken by Alaska warblers is very similar to some other songbird species tracked from northwestern North America, including Blackpoll Warblers and Swainson’s Thrushes.

The researchers hypothesize that this pattern may relate to past glaciations that covered most of Alaska and Canada. As those ice fields receded, birds migrated further north and west, along the edges of ancient glaciers. Some think that these migration routes may be genetically encoded in several species of birds and therefore, they continue to follow pathways along the edges of those ice fields that melted away long ago.

Getting Ready for CBC (Christmas Bird Count), December 19th

This year’s CBC in Anchorage will be Saturday, December 19th, 2026, and is hosted by Anchorage Audubon with coordination from National Audubon. The CBC in Anchorage has been one of the most active in North America, with more than 100 volunteers per year counting birds across the city. We are looking for volunteers that can assist in ensuring we have enough volunteers for each of the count areas across Anchorage and to assist with the final tally of birds seen on December 19th. Let us know if you are available to help! Send us an email at info@anchorageaudubon.org

More information about volunteering for the count on December 19th is coming soon. National Audubon has made significant upgrades in terms of how to participate in the CBC, so stay tuned for more details!

Amazing Pics and Videos!

You’ve probably seen people taking photos of birds along Anchorage trails and at birding spots, but did you know you can see some of their photos online? Just navigate to Alaska eBird and scroll down to “Recent Photos.”

Also, the Cornell Lab or Ornithology has a video compilation of favorite clips submitted from across the world in 2025. Twenty-one outstanding clips are featured in this moving and inspiring compilation video.

Time for a Winter Coat

Temperatures have dropped, the fall colors are fading, and the mountains close to town are now snow-covered. So, it’s time for a winter coat, not only for us but for many birds too. However, the ways birds change their feathers, called ‘molt’, varies widely across birds due to the different habitats, migrations, and requirements that each species has. Even within the same family of birds, like grebes, the molt strategy is inconsistent.

Bird feathers wear out over the course of a year and need to be replaced regularly so that birds can continue to fly, attract mates, be camouflaged, stay buoyant in water, and maintain insulation. Have you ever seen a raven with a wing feather missing as it flies overhead? Or noticed lots of goose feathers on a pond in late summer? That’s molt. We talked a lot about feather molt during some of Weekly Walks at Westchester this summer and fall as we watched waterfowl molt into drab, alternate or eclipse plumage, and then back into showy basic plumage. Grebes are different in that they molt from a showy breeding plumage into drab winter plumage, with the horned grebe undergoing an extreme switch from dazzling reds and yellows in the summer to a simple black and white in winter (see the photo at the top). They will retain this tuxedo-like plumage until early spring and then revert back to their showy colors for the breeding season.

More information about feather molt in birds can be found here: The Basics: Feather Molt | All About Birds

Enjoy the birds!