Songbirds

Gray Jay at the top of a tree — Gray Jay.
NPS/Keven Bacher

Many songbirds are migratory and they use a wide range of habitats in Alaska's parks.

Scientists at Denali National Park and Preserve have a number of research projects going on that look at songbirds. Critical Connections is a project that is expanding our knowledge of migratory birds. Another study is looking at how climate change is impacting Canada jays that rely on stored food, specifically what happens if their food caches spoil. The National Park Service also monitors songbirds to track the changes in the species composition or populations over time.

Some of the common somgbirds seen around Kenai Fjords National Park include the Black-billed magpie and Steller's jay. Have you done any birdwatching in the parks to see what you can see?

Monitoring Arctic Landbirds

Songbirds comprise more than 50% of the bird species in Arctic parklands.
Monitoring Passerines in Central Alaska

Changes in passerine communities could provide new and important insights into how climate change is affecting Central Alaska ecosystems.

Showing results 1-9 of 9

Bird responses to subarctic tree and shrub expansion
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
- Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
Read the abstract and get the link to an article about bird population changes in the subarctic as treeline and shrubline shift: Mizel, J. D., J. H. Schmidt, C. A. Roland, and C. L. McIntyre. 2023. Tree and shrub expansion at treeline drive contrasting responses in a subarctic passerine community. Journal of Animal Ecology 92(6): 1256-1266.
Denali National Park & Preserve
How weather and climate affect songbirds
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and link to an article that describes the short-term impacts of weather and the long-term impacts of climate on northern songbird species: Mizel, J.D., J. H. Schmidt, and C. L. McIntyre. 2021. Climate and weather have differential effects in a high-latitude passerine community. Oecologia.
Denali National Park & Preserve
Songbird Exposure to Mercury
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and get the link to a paper published in Ecotoxicology on mercury contamination in subarctic migratory songbirds: Stenhouse, I.J., E.M. Adams, L.M. Phillips, S. Weidensaul, and C.L. McIntyre. 2019. A preliminary assessment of mercury in the feathers of migratory songbirds breeding in the North American subarctic. Ecotoxicology, DOI 10.1007/s10646-019-02105-2.
Denali National Park & Preserve
Changing Passerine Distributions
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and get the link to an article published in Ecosphere: Mizel, J. D., J. H. Schmidt, C. L. Mcintyre, and C. A. Roland. 2016. Rapidly shifting elevational distributions of passerine species parallel vegetation change in the subarctic. Ecosphere 7(3):1-15.
An Introduction to Some of the High-flying Technology Used to Study the Movements of Alaska’s Migratory Birds
- Locations: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Denali National Park & Preserve
There are many tools available to study the movements of birds and the technology is evolving rapidly. Explore how satellite telemetry, global system for mobile communications telemetry, archival light-level loggers, and GPS data loggers are used in migratory bird research and what we are learning as a result. Alaska Park Science (20)1, 2021
Denali National Park & Preserve
Using archival light-level tags to describe the migration corridors and wintering ranges of Denali’s Arctic Warblers
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and link to a recent article that describes migratory patterns for the Arctic Warbler: Adams, E. M., I.J. Stenhouse, A. T. Gilbert, J. Boelsma, G. Gress, C. S. Weidensaul, C. Grigsby, E. J. Williams, L. Phillips, and C. L. McIntyre. 2022. The first documentation of the Nearctic-Paleotropical migratory route of the Arctic Warbler. Ecology and Evolution 12(9): e9223.
Sampling Methods for Passerines
Read the abstract and link to the full article in the Journal of Applied Ecology: Mizel, J. D., J. H. Schmidt, and M. S. Lindberg. 2018. Accommodating temporary emigration in spatial distance sampling models. Journal of Applied Ecology 55:1456-1464.
Denali National Park & Preserve
Blackpoll Warbler Migration
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and link to a recent published paper on Blackpoll Warbler migration: DeLuca, W. V., B. K. Woodworth, S. A. Mackenzie, A. E. M. Newman, H. A. Cooke, L. M. Phillips, N. E. Freeman, A. O. Sutton, L. Tauzer, C. McIntyre, I. J. Stenhouse, S. Weidensaul, P. D. Taylor, and D. R. Norris. 2019. A boreal songbird’s 20,000 km migration across North America and the Atlantic Ocean. Ecology 00(00):e02651. 10.1002/ecy.2651
Denali National Park & Preserve
Estimating Migratory Bird Arrivals and Departures
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
Read the abstract and get the link to an article on phenology and population dynamics of passerines in Denali National Park: Mizel, J. D., Schmidt, J. H., Phillips, L. M. and Mcintyre, C.L., 2019. A binomial N‐mixture model for estimating arrival and departure timing. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10(7): 1062-1071.