June 6-19, 2026 with Chris Benesh & Alex Sundvall & (with help from Sam Wilson)
Alaska has long been known as a final frontier for North American birders, famous for its unique suite of breeding songbirds, shorebirds, seabirds, and raptors. This land of the midnight sun is filled with wonders: from the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the frozen tundra of Utqiaġvik, to the rolling hills of Nome, and the lush rainforests of Seward; this tour explored them all in detail. With a base in Anchorage, we took trips to these three famous outposts each unique in the birds and experiences they offer. We started by driving the Seward Highway to its terminus and taking a boat out into the incomparable Kenai Fjords National Park, experiencing the mysterious Kittlitz’s Murrelet and swarms of puffins, murres, and kittiwakes. Next, we flew to the frozen north of Utqiaġvik where we watched spring breathe new life into the still snow-covered landscape. Here we were taken by the flocks of eiders, phalaropes, sandpipers, and a majestic Snowy Owl. Finally, we made way for Nome, where the tundra was in full bloom as the birds there were in peak breeding condition. As a group, our favorite birds were the incredible showing of Spectacled Eiders in Utqiaġvik, the unexpected Temminck’s Stint we found in a gravel pit pond, and the Bluethroats skylarking and displaying across the Nome tundra.
From Chris, myself, and all of us at Field Guides, we would like to thank each and every one of you for taking this journey of Alaska with us. We really lucked out in so many ways with the weather, conditions, and birds during our time together. The trip was so smooth knowing that there was a group as wonderful as you around every corner. You all took every hiccup in stride and with great humor. We thank you again, and hope to reconnect somewhere along the birding trail sometime soon!
What follows is a detailed breakdown of our time together across the Great Land of Alaska.
Day 1: We started our tour through Alaska by heading towards Kincaid Park on the south side of Anchorage. The air was cool and crisp and almost immediately we were greeted by the sweet melodies of the Sooty Fox Sparrow. With a little bit of time, we were able to spot this songster on its perch, giving us all amazing scope views. Continuing down the path we stopped by a flooded section of path for a few ducks (Barrow’s Goldeneye, Northern Pintail, etc) when our first moose lumbered into view, which turned into a mom and calf! Thankfully they were a safe distance away and both were viewed with respect and admiration. Here we also had fabulous views of Northern Waterthrush, Swainson’s Thrush, and Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets. Looping around the flooded section we were able to track down a few more northern specialties in Alder Flycatcher and Boreal Chickadee, my personal favorite chickadee species. The real avian highlight of our morning however were the sensational views of American Three-toed Woodpecker, as we found a stunning male just off the path flaking bark off a downed tree. After a very successful morning, we made our way southward toward Seward. We made a quick stop at Tern Lake to stretch our legs and scan the lake for any interesting ducks that might be around. There were a number of Arctic Terns flitting about the lake, a couple of Canvasbacks mixed into the duck flock, and a distant Trumpeter Swan presiding over the lake. Heading towards the campground for a bathroom stop, we walked along the creek there, where we spotted a couple of American Dippers at incredibly close range (and even got to hear them sing!). We continued on to our lunch stop at Moose Pass where we had incredibly close study of both Violet-green and Tree Swallows, along with our first Lincoln’s Sparrows and Steller’s Jays. A paper recently came out that looked at Steller’s Jays populations across the US and Canada and found that the coastal group found from Alaska down to California were incredibly genetically separate from the interior group you might find in Colorado or Arizona. Perhaps a potential split in the coming years! The population in Alaska is also the darkest subspecies and is incredibly black, almost being mistaken for blackbirds at a distance! After lunch, we walked around a nearby campground where we had significantly better views of Boreal Chickadees, Townsend’s Warblers, and even a family of Oregon Dark-eyed Juncos, a bit of a rarity this far north! Leaving the campground, we found a large flock of Pine Grosbeaks which are always a lovely bird to see. Before heading to the hotel, we made a quick stop in town to find our first Chestnut-backed Chickadees of the trip! A wonderful end to our first day.
Day 2: The air was full of excitement as today was our boat trip out into Kenai Fjords National Park! Thanks to our fantastic captain aboard our own private boat, we were able to spend hours searching for some of the rarer seabirds that call the National Park home. As we left the harbor, we were already starting to see some of these birds, with flocks of Marbled Murrelets and Pigeon Guillemots on the water and hundreds of Black-legged Kittiwakes and Glaucous-winged Gulls in the air. It wasn’t long before we were seeing flocks of Tufted and Horned Puffins, Ancient Murrelets, Parakeet Auklets, and Common Murres. We even spotted a flyby group of Surf Scoters and a few Black Brants. As we neared some of the breeding colonies (nicknamed the beehives), numbers of birds began to soar into the thousands. We managed to pick out a handful of Thick-billed Murres amongst the hundreds of Commons and a flyby Red-faced Cormorant with the numerous Pelagics. From here we turned sharply into Aialik Bay toward the Aialik Glacier looming in the distance. In the calmer water we started noticing huge groups of Rhinoceros Auklets, some of which allowed close approach from the boat! The main target in these glacial bays however are Kittlitz’s Murrelets, a rare species that breed around glacial outflows around the Bering Sea. As we got closer to the glacier, we spotted a few of these marvelously spangled birds (funnily, more marbled than Marbled Murrelets!) one of which stuck right by the boat, which is highly unusual for this species! Typically, they dive as soon as the boat gets anywhere near them, so to have one so bold was really quite special. The boat trip wasn’t all birds; we also had Humpback Whales, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters, and possibly more Mountain Goats than I’ve seen in my life up until this point! Everywhere we looked it seemed there were goats watching us, many of which also had kids with them! By the time we made it back to the harbor, it was getting late so we called an early dinner and the day a success, resting our sea-legs after a long day on the boat.
Day 3: Our final morning in Seward saw us heading down to Lowell Point hoping for our final target species. We succeeded quickly by finding a few pairs of stunning Harlequin Ducks right on shore. Farther down the point, we watched a pair of male Rufous Hummingbirds battling it out for territories at the farthest north extent of their range (who knew Alaska was even hospitable enough for a hummingbird?) Finishing off the morning with a Varied Thrush high up in a tree, we headed northward back toward Anchorage. After lunch, we made a quick stop down a road where last year we saw a Northern Hawk Owl. While it wasn’t around this year, we did see our first Golden-crowned Sparrows along with a Western Wood-Pewee, another challenging bird this far north. Today was primarily a repositioning day back to Anchorage, but we still saw plenty of lovely birds along the way!
Day 4: Before our late afternoon flight to Utqiaġvik, we made time to search a nearby spot for the hopes of finding Spruce Grouse. The bugs were terrible and the brush was thick, and the trail we followed took us to a spot that didn’t seem very likely to have any Spruce Grouse. But as if it was magic, all of a sudden, the brush in front of us parted and there was a beautiful male Spruce Grouse standing before us. At one point the bird got so close I thought it was going to stand on my feet! What an absolutely perfect encounter with this exquisitely plumaged bird! After tearing ourselves away from this unforgettable experience, we headed to Point Woronzof where we scoped a distant and hazy, but still imposing Denali, peeking out from the clouds. Next, we headed to nearby Westchester Lagoon, where we had some really close studies of Lesser and Greater Scaups, Red-necked Grebes, and a pair of Sandhill Cranes. At this point, it was time to head to the airport and head as far north as we could go! Utqiaġvik is the farthest north point in the United States, and as we were landing, we could see that spring hadn’t yet sprung here. In fact, this was the latest spring in Utqiaġvik in at least 30 years, with all the fields still snow covered and ponds completely frozen over. After getting our rental vehicles straightened out and getting checked into the hotel, we took a short drive down the shore of the Arctic Ocean where we quickly found a Polar Bear not too far offshore! Thankfully the bear was content with some recently harvested whale so we were able to view it safely from shore. A nearby lagoon had opened up some water and the birds were starting to land in numbers, with a stunning adult Yellow-billed Loon, Tufted Ducks, and our first Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Long-tailed Ducks, Red Phalaropes, and a distant Short-eared Owl and wayward Yellow-rumped Warbler provided some more excitement. With the conditions as good as they were, we decided to burn the midnight oil a bit since the sun wouldn’t set for another month or so, and after dinner we headed back out to see what we could find. Since the spring thaw hadn’t quite started yet, the roads were still in great condition and we aimed for the farthest point we could drive: the new landfill. We had heard that there was a pond there nearly open and Eiders had been starting to come down in numbers. The daytime high had been in the low 40s, which was just enough for some of the lagoons to thaw. At our first stop at open water, we found our first King Eiders, and also a pair of Ruddy Turnstones and a Sanderling; both rarer migrants up here. As we continued driving, the edges of the roads had started to open up with water and hundreds of Phalaropes, Greater White-fronted Geese, Brant, Tundra Swans, Long-tailed Ducks, and Dunlin were all right out our windows! Nearing the dump, we stopped for an odd looking Pluvialis plover which ended up being a Pacific Golden-Plover, a bit of a rarity this far north! Once we reached the new dump, it was quickly obvious where all the birds were and there were truly hundreds all in this small open pond. A large flock of both King and Spectacled Eiders were posing beautifully in the golden light. Spectacled Eiders are often really challenging to get good views of, and this experience blew all my previous ones out of the water. Here we also had incredibly confiding Long-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plover, American Golden-Plover, and both Pomerine and Parasitic Jaegers. As fun as it all was, we needed to head back to the hotel. On our way back, we spotted one of the whitest Snowy Owls I’ve ever seen, nearly pure white sitting atop a telephone pole. We even got to hear this male hoot, trying to find a mate somewhere in the tundra, something I’d never experienced before! The lack of sunset really betrayed how late we were out, it was after 11pm by the time we arrived back at the hotel! But with all the birds we found, it was absolutely worth it.
Day 5: Thankfully, after such a late night we had a bit more of a relaxed and later start to the morning. Our first stop after breakfast was again along the coast doing a bit of seawatching. Mixed in with the Glaucous Gulls we found a subadult Vega Gull, the Asian form of the recently split Herring Gull. And getting pestered by all the gulls was another Polar Bear! Ho hum, another day, another polar bear. This one was a little closer to shore, but still not dangerously close, so we were able to enjoy it safely. From here we headed over to the Naval Arctic Research Lab, searching the fields and ponds for migrants. Around the buildings, we found a few strange splashes of color in a wayward Northern Yellow Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco, American Barn Swallow, Varied Thrush, and American Robin. These overshoots are pretty common in the spring here in Utqiaġvik, but it was still strange to see these birds so far away from the treeline! With how successful yesterday evening and this morning had been, we headed to the opposite side of town in search of some of our last remaining targets for the high arctic. New water was opening up every hour, with a high turnover of birds, so we were checking many of the same ponds again and again hoping for new arrivals. Every stop had dozens of Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, Semipalmated Plovers, Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Long-tailed Ducks, Northern Pintail, Brant, and Greater White-fronted and Snow Geese. On our third check of the Middle Salt Lagoon that day, we finally connected with Steller’s Eiders, our final eider target for the north slope. In fact, that lagoon had all 3 of the Eiders present! After lunch we headed back to the coast to search through the gulls and this time found a beautiful young Slaty-backed Gull with the masses of Glaucous Gulls. We continued checking and rechecking ponds, finding new arrivals everywhere we went. Near the airport, we found newly arrived Sabine’s Gulls and Stilt and Western Sandpipers. Everywhere we went the sounds of singing Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs filled the air. At our final roadside stop before dinner, we found a pair of Barn Swallows, one of which was a clear American with a buff belly, and another was the Russian form: ironically named Buff-bellied Barn Swallow despite having a white belly! Another fabulous day on the north slope, but little did we know tomorrow had lots in store for us!
Day 6: With only a half day of birding left in Utqiaġvik, we headed for some gravel pit ponds hoping to find some Baird’s or White-rumped Sandpipers that might have arrived overnight. Upon arriving at the ponds, we quickly got on a weird looking shorebird that appeared to have pale yellow legs. This immediately set off alarm bells for Chris and I, as Least Sandpipers are unusual in Utqiaġvik and the bird was quite gray instead of the typical brown of a Least Sandpiper. Pretty quickly, we realized that we were looking instead at a Temmink’s Stint! This was a pretty insane rarity and not one really on anyone’s radar! It flew in towards us, showing off its diagnostic white outertail feathers and even calling a bit. I was able to put the bird on the local RBA and soon we had quite a crowd forming to share in this wonderful vagrant from Siberia. We also were successful in finding both Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpipers. Quite an auspicious start to the morning! We spent enough time with these birds that it was time to check out of our rooms and start thinking about getting to our flights. Chris and I dropped everyone off at the Arctic Museum as we got the vehicles ready to be returned. Minutes after dropping everyone off, we got word that a Common Ringed Plover had been found all the way out by the New Landfill. This was another incredible rarity for the north slope, so we quickly shifted gears, rallied everyone back to the vehicles and blitzed out to the landfill. The chase was on! Upon arriving we heard that it had been flushed from its original location and hadn’t been seen recently. Ugh! We began to start spreading out from the original location checking every Charadrius plover we came upon. And then suddenly there it was just off the road! We were all able to make out the defining features of this challenging-to-ID rarity before we really needed to get back to the airport for our flight out. But our luck wasn’t done yet! On our way to the airport we noticed some birders stopped on the side of the road that were looking at a Red-necked Stint! A two-stint day for us! Thankfully we still were able to make it to our flight in time, although with a lot less time than we had planned for originally. By the time we got to Anchorage, we had just enough time to check into our rooms before dinner.
Day 7: With a bit of a free day to chase birds around Anchorage before flying off to Nome tomorrow, we decided to head to Hatcher Pass to search out White-tailed Ptarmigan, as we had already connected with most of the normal Anchorage birds. The Pass was absolutely stunning, still covered in a lot of snow but the birds were out and singing! And at the end of a long uphill hike, we found a White-tailed Ptarmigan right off the side of the road! There were a couple good mammals seen on our hike too, in Hoary Marmot and Collared Pika. We headed down the mountain into town for a late lunch, and then headed towards a spot where an American Goshawk had attempted nesting. Unfortunately, the spot was incredibly buggy and it seemed like the bird had left the area. We decided to call it quits early on the day and head back to the hotel, giving everyone enough time to repack for our flight to Nome.
Day 8: An early morning flight to Nome with an airport breakfast for everyone. Thankfully it looked like the flight would take off without a hitch, as you can never be too sure this time of year in Alaska! Once we landed in Nome, it was a bit of a scramble to get everything in order as we had three vehicles to wrangle. This final leg of the trip we were joined by another Field Guides guide, Sam Wilson, in order to help with the logistics. Before lunch, we stopped at a couple places near the airport searching for White Wagtails. While the wagtails were MIA, we did have some great looks at Red-throated Loons, Gray-cheeked Thrushes, White-crowned Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Least Sandpipers, Wilson’s Snipes, and Arctic Terns. We headed to Milano’s for lunch, everyone’s favorite Korean American Italian place (except for maybe Airport Pizza)! After lunch, we grabbed a picnic dinner from Subway and headed out the Council Road, winding our way along the coast of the Bering Sea. At the mouth of the Nome River we found our first Long-tailed Jaegers, Bar-tailed Godwits, Aleutian Terns, and had more looks at some very vibrant Red-necked Stints! Farther down the road we ran into our first Willow Ptarmigan, Alaska’s state bird. Our next major stop was at the Safety Sound Bridge where we again found both Vega and Slaty-backed Gulls mixed in with the Glaucous Gulls. Out in the sound itself were scads of Brant, Tundra Swans, Common Eiders, and smaller numbers of Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Red-breasted Mergansers, and Greater Scaup. Along the beach we found our first Black Turnstone, Peregrine Falcon, some sitting Common Eiders and Long-tailed Jaegers close in, and another Vega and Slaty-backed Gull. Sometimes it is incredibly challenging to find either of those gulls, and often tours only get one or the other! We stopped for dinner at the old Solomon River fishing camp, getting nearly blown away by the wind, but still finding a pair of Pacific Golden-Plovers, and flybys of both Eastern Yellow Wagtail and our first Northern Harrier! We wanted to end the day with a real bang and headed farther down the road to a bridge overlooking the river. While the view was incredibly scenic, that wasn’t the reason for coming here. This was a well known site for nesting Gyrfalcons and not only did we see all 4 babies in the nest, we saw both adults on a nearby cliffside! It was really neat to see the two of them sitting side by side, we could really see the size difference! A Northern Wheatear was also a very nice bonus right on the side of the road.
Day 9: Today was our day heading all the way out the Kougarok Road hoping for Bristle-thighed Curlew. For years it was a mystery where these birds bred; they were only known from their wintering areas in the South Pacific and migration along the Alaskan coast. Eventually it was discovered that they nest in the far remote interior of Alaska on tundra mountaintops. Spoiler alert, unfortunately this year the birds stopped their breeding displays early and were nearly impossible to detect unless you got there shortly after dawn… around 4am. The remoteness of this site meant that we would have needed to essentially not sleep at all to get out there in time, so we decided to try our luck the normal way which proved unsuccessful. The areas along the Kougarok are some of the prettiest in all of Alaska, and are host to other incredibly sought after species, so it wasn’t all a loss! We started the morning with a Northern Shrike right along the side of the road at the top of one of the few real trees in the area. Shrikes always love to get a high perch to scan from, and often stick out because of it. Further up the road, we found a displaying Willow Ptarmigan and upon getting out of the vehicles found our first displaying Bluethroats, Arctic Warblers, and American Tree Sparrows. Bluethroats in particular put on a remarkable show, skylarking and spouting incredibly intricate mimicking songs, sometimes sounding more insect like than a bird! A little farther up the road, we stopped to watch a pair of Rusty Blackbirds when suddenly a young American Goshawk came rocketing overhead, getting divebombed by a Northern Shrike! A sentence that feels so wonderfully northern. We eventually got to mile 72 and our trail up the plateau. The hike was so gradual it never quite felt like we reached the top! There had been birders around all morning and none of them had found a curlew. We gave it our best shot, but unfortunately we came up empty too. We did have some wonderfully cooperative Western Sandpipers, American Golden-Plovers, Willow Ptarmigans, and Hudsonian Whimbrels at least! And the tundra was absolutely covered in wildflowers so the scenery was absolutely spectacular. After we made it down the mountain, we had our picnic lunch off in the tundra, and headed back towards Nome. We stopped briefly along the Kuzitrin River to see one of the farthest north colonies of Cliff Swallows along with a very cooperative Blackpoll Warbler. At about the halfway point we stopped at Salmon Lake where we spotted a Yellow-billed Loon nest! While it wasn’t a new bird for the trip, these huge loons are always a sight to behold and seeing a nest of one was really quite special. Closer to town, we found a stunning pair of Golden Eagles near an old nest, and another Gyrfalcon posted up on a far off rockface. We made it back into town just in time for some dinner and to get to bed after a long day down a long and bumpy gravel road.
Day 10: There are three main roads out from Nome that birders travel. The past two days found us on the Kougarok and Council Roads, so this morning we decided to traverse the Teller Highway. Our first stop was at the bridge over the Penny River, where we spotted a pair of American Dippers. Continuing farther up the road to the next bridge over the Cripple River, we finally found the Wandering Tattler that had been evading us for the past week and a half. The air was filled with the distant choruses of Red Fox Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Arctic Warblers, Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Wilson’s Warblers, and Lapland Longspurs. Short-eared Owls and Long-tailed Jaegers patrolled the tundra in search of prey. Groups of Willow Ptarmigan were everywhere, flushing off the road and displaying in the surrounding thickets. The bulk of the morning was spent hiking around the tundra around the Mile 34 Ridge in search of some of the less common breeding birds around Nome: Rock Ptarmigan and Rock Sandpiper. As their names suggest, both these species require a bit more rocky terrain than we had been in the past few days, with the Sandpiper being a fairly uncommon breeder on the mainland. Eventually we were able to track down a pair of both of our targets, with the Rock Sandpipers being especially cooperative as they walked around the edges of the remaining snow patches. After a picnic lunch amongst the thousands of blooming flowers in the tundra, we headed back towards Nome. Along the way, we found an impressive flock of over 30 Long-tailed Jaegers chilling on the tundra, another Golden Eagle; and along the Sinuk River another Wandering Tattler and some Bar-tailed Godwits. We spent the late afternoon heading back out the Council Road in search of some of the tougher remaining possibilities for us in Nome. Many of the same birds we saw the previous day were still around, with some new highlights being Red Knots, a much calmer experience with Eastern Yellow Wagtails, Sandhill Cranes, Black Scoters, and Sabine’s Gulls.
Day 11: With few targets remaining, we spent our final full day of Nome birding back on the Council Road, seawatching in various spots along the Bering Sea. Our first stop just outside town had a fair amount of activity with 4 species of loons, both Tufted and Horned Puffins, Parakeet Auklets, Black Guillemots, White-winged Scoters, King and Common Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers, and American Pipits among the highlights. A little bit farther down the road, some of us were able to spot a continuing Eurasian Wigeon in a big flock of Americans before it ducked out of sight. We spent the rest of the morning working our way along the coast, stopping along the way for 30 minutes at a time, staring at the ocean watching birds migrate past. After lunch, we headed towards the Nome Airport hoping one of the local White Wagtails would be around. It took a lot of patience and persistence, but eventually we all were able to get some views of this primarily Old World bird. We decided to spend the final moments of the day seawatching again, getting our final looks at Pomerine Jaeger, Vega Gull, and Black Turnstone.
Day 12: Our final day together was a nice and relaxed one. We started off with a leisurely midmorning flight from Nome to Anchorage. After lunch, we headed to Chester Creek to see if we could find a Black-headed Gull that had been reported. While we never were able to find the bird, we did get to enjoy some Trumpeter Swans, Greater Yellowlegs, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Bonaparte’s Gulls, Alder Flycatchers, and a Bald Eagle to send us off in true Alaska fashion. We ended with a lovely final dinner, and after a good night’s sleep at the hotel, everyone flew home the following day!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/587529
You can see my iNaturalist report of non-avian taxa at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/field-guides-birding-tours-alaska-the-great-land-ii-2026
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/aka26bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Chris and Alex