Winter Birds in Alaska
The Common Raven, Redpoll and Black-capped Chickadee lead the backyard birds reported in Alaska from December to February, from ten winters of iNaturalist reports.
The top winter birds in Alaska
The songbirds, woodpeckers and doves reported most in Alaska in winter, ranked by their share of all research grade bird reports for the state, December to February. Birds marked winter visitor come for the cold months; the Bohemian Waxwing leads them here.
1Common Raven
Corvus corax
6.7% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Corvus corax clarionensis, Point Reyes National Seashore” by Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
2Redpoll
Acanthis flammea
2.8% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Carduelis flammea CT6” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0
3Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
2.8% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Poecile-atricapilla-001” by No machine-readable author provided. Mdf assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0
4Black-billed Magpie
Pica hudsonia
2.6% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “BlackBilledMagpie” by Polinova, CC BY-SA 4.0
5Pine Grosbeak
Pinicola enucleator
2.4% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) (13667564073)” by Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
6Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
2.3% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Junco hyemalis hyemalis CT1 (cropped)” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0
7American Dipper
Cinclus mexicanus
2.0% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “AmericanDipper” by Polinova, CC BY-SA 4.0
8Bohemian Waxwing
Bombycilla garrulus
1.5% of winter bird reports
Winter visitorPhoto: “Bombycilla garrulus, Novosibirsk 1” by Tatiana Bulyonkova from Novosibirsk, Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0
Every bird reported most in Alaska in winter
The same ranking across all birds, with the ducks, gulls and hawks that turn up at water and along roads beside the feeder birds.
| # | Species | Winter share | Summer share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Common Raven | 6.7% | 2.0% | Year round |
| 2 | Bald Eagle | 6.2% | 7.2% | Year round |
| 3 | Common Merganser | 3.5% | 0.97% | Year round |
| 4 | Redpoll | 2.8% | 0.79% | Year round |
| 5 | Black-capped Chickadee | 2.8% | 0.61% | Year round |
| 6 | Black-billed Magpie | 2.6% | 2.2% | Year round |
| 7 | Pine Grosbeak | 2.4% | 0.24% | Year round |
| 8 | Dark-eyed Junco | 2.3% | 1.3% | Year round |
| 9 | Trumpeter Swan | 2.2% | 0.77% | Year round |
| 10 | Mallard | 2.1% | 1.3% | Year round |
| 11 | American Dipper | 2.0% | 0.43% | Year round |
| 12 | Bohemian Waxwing | 1.5% | 0.13% | Winter visitor |
| 13 | American Crow | 1.5% | 0.97% | Year round |
| 14 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 1.5% | 2.0% | Year round |
| 15 | Pacific Loon | 1.5% | 0.63% | Year round |
| 16 | Barrow's Goldeneye | 1.5% | 0.27% | Year round |
| 17 | Greater Scaup | 1.5% | 0.51% | Year round |
| 18 | Great Blue Heron | 1.5% | 0.31% | Year round |
| 19 | Harlequin Duck | 1.4% | 0.78% | Year round |
| 20 | Common Loon | 1.4% | 0.82% | Year round |
Winter visitors to Alaska
A winter visitor here is a bird with a winter share of bird reports at least 10 times its summer share, with at least 20 winter reports. In Alaska that makes 3 species:
Bohemian Waxwing
Bombycilla garrulus
1.5% of winter bird reports against 0.13% in summer, about 12 times the summer share.
Bufflehead
Bucephala albeola
1.4% of winter bird reports against 0.10% in summer, about 13 times the summer share.
Common Goldeneye
Bucephala clangula
1.2% of winter bird reports against 0.10% in summer, about 12 times the summer share.
When Alaska’s top winter birds are reported
The eight birds with the most winter reports in Alaska, month by month. A resident draws a flat line; a winter visitor rises in the middle of the chart and drops to nothing at the edges.
Common Raven
Peaks in February at 7.1%; winter 6.3%, summer 2.1%.
Bald Eagle
Peaks in July at 8.4%; winter 5.3%, summer 7.4%.
Common Merganser
Peaks in January at 4.2%; winter 3.5%, summer 1.0%.
Redpoll
Peaks in March at 4.7%; winter 3.0%, summer 0.74%.
Black-capped Chickadee
Peaks in February at 3.7%; winter 2.7%, summer 0.65%.
Black-billed Magpie
Peaks in November at 3.1%; winter 2.4%, summer 2.3%.
Pine Grosbeak
Peaks in January at 2.7%; winter 2.5%, summer 0.21%.
Dark-eyed Junco
Peaks in November at 2.8%; winter 2.3%, summer 1.2%.
Winter bird counts in Alaska
Three counts run through the winter, each open to anyone in Alaska with a window onto a feeder. Soonest first:
Starts in 22 days
Project FeederWatch
November 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027
Run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada
“Project FeederWatch runs from November 1 through April 30. For each count, select two consecutive days as often as once a week.”
Project FeederWatchStarts in 65 days
Christmas Bird Count
December 14, 2026 to January 5, 2027
Run by National Audubon Society
“Feeder Counts: Count all the birds you see or hear from your own backyard or local park at a stationary bird feeder within a CBC circle. No binoculars or hiking required, and you can participate with less time commitment.”
Christmas Bird CountStarts in 125 days
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 12, 2027 to February 15, 2027
Run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society and Birds Canada
“Count the birds you see for as little as 15 minutes on one of the four days.”
Great Backyard Bird CountThe 2026 count: 8,257 species on 467,696 checklists, an estimated 1,146,284 participants.
Feeding birds in winter
Cleaning
“Clean your seed or suet feeders regularly (e.g., every week or two) and more often during periods of heavy use or wet weather.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
“Debris (such as leftover bits of seeds and hulls) can harbor pathogens that make birds sick.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Disinfecting
“To disinfect your feeders, soak the (cleaned) parts for 10 minutes in a diluted bleach solution (e.g., one part bleach to nine parts water).”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Sick birds
“Fluffed-up feathers, lethargy, abnormal growths, and crusty eyes are all symptoms of various avian illnesses.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
House finches
“For example, not every bird that is exposed to Mycoplasma gallisepticum will contract conjunctivitis; however, House Finches are especially susceptible to this bacterium, which led to serious declines in North American populations in the 1990s.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Bird flu
“Bird feeders are unlikely to result in increased spread of avian influenza since the species of bird that tend to come to feeders are not commonly infected.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
“However, feeders do concentrate passerines and increase the risk of transmission of other infectious diseases that do impact their health, including salmonella, E. coli and mycoplasma.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Planting
“Creating natural spaces that attract birds to the cover and food provided by native vegetation appropriate to the location is far healthier than feeders.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Quoted exactly from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; each link opens the full page.
Winter birds in other states
The same ranking runs in every state below, and the national list of winter backyard birds puts them side by side.
Questions about winter birds in Alaska
Compiled 2026-09-22 from research grade bird observation counts for Alaska on iNaturalist, December to February, winters 2016-17 through 2025-26, against June to August, summers 2016 through 2025: 8,056 winter bird reports in all. Shares are uploads by the public divided by all bird uploads for the state, so they follow birders as well as birds. The top bird took 6.7% of them. Count dates and feeding guidance are quoted from the organisers and agencies linked above.