Alaska is a dream destination for birders. Everywhere you go, the scenery amazes. The potential for life birds, and mammals, keeps you interested every minute of the long days. On our trip, you will experience snow-topped mountains, walking on tundra, glacial ice falling into the sea – and great looks at birds you’ve wanted to see for a long time.

Your trip begins in Anchorage, birding a few sites around town before heading into the Alaskan Interior and Denali National Park. By the end of the first full day, you will have seen Pacific Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Hudsonian Godwit, Red-necked Phalarope, Arctic Tern and many other birds.

Denali National Park is a must see for everyone. The scenery alone is mind blowing, but to observe numbers of Grizzlies feeding on roots, berries and other tundra delicacies is a fantastic sight. As the shuttle bus winds along the road, Moose, Caribou and Dall Sheep seem to appear on cue. Willow Ptarmigan will be seen along the road. We will look for nesting Gyrfalcons, and on a clear day Mt. McKinley will be visible.

Our drive along the Denali Highway to Paxson will yield Arctic Warblers and hopefully a Northern Hawk Owl. Roadside ponds and streams will have an assortment of waterfowl. Willow thickets and spruce forests are home to American Tree Sparrows, Blackpoll Warblers, Common Redpoll, Bohemian Waxwing and Varied Thrush.

Around Seward, you will experience birding in a rain forest, watching Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Townsend’s Warblers. You will spend a day on a boat trip out of Seward, on the waters of the Kenai Fjords, enjoying a number of sea birds. You will be greeted by nesting kittiwakes, puffins, murres, guillemots, auklets, murrelets, terns, cormorants and more.

Those who include the highly-recommended Nome Extension will get to add several life birds on the high tundra. Many species of shorebirds breed here, and are spectacular in their breeding attire. We will use the long hours of daylight to bird three different roads, searching for Bristle-thighed Curlew, Bluethroat, Aleutian Tern, Long-tailed Jaeger, Short-eared Owl, Gyrfalcon, Northern Wheatear and Eastern Yellow Wagtail. As we drive the roads around Nome, we are sure to see Musk Ox. You are sure to go home with plenty of fond memories of the great state of Alaska!