Backyard Birds in Alaska: A Year-Round Seasonal Identification Guide

A tiny 4.7–5.9-inch acrobat with a black cap and bib, white cheeks, and buffy flanks. Chickadees are the bold first visitors to any new feeder, grabbing one seed and flying off to cache it. Listen for the chick-a-dee-dee-dee call that gives the bird its name — and the clear two-note fee-bee whistle of spring.

A huge 22.1–27.2-inch all-black corvid — hawk-sized, with a shaggy throat and wedge tail. Ravens are brilliant: they solve puzzles, play in the wind, and remember who feeds them. Alaska ravens visit rural yards and ranch platforms, announcing themselves with a deep, echoing croak.

A gorgeous 11.5–12.6-inch jay: black crest and head melting into deep blue body — the crested jay of the West. Steller’s Jays dominate Alaska mountain and coastal yards, caching peanuts, imitating hawks to clear feeders, and announcing everything with a rattling shack-shack-shack.

A spectacular 17.9–23.6-inch corvid: black-and-white with an iridescent green-blue tail half the bird’s length. Magpies patrol Alaska open country and ranch yards in noisy bands, visiting platforms for suet and scraps. They cache food, recognize individual people, and are among the smartest birds on Earth.

A big, tame finch (7.9–10 inches): males are rose-red over soft gray, females mustard-olive. Pine Grosbeaks breed in the far north and drift into Alaska in irruption winters, crunching sunflower seed and berries with total indifference to watching humans.

A compact 4.3-inch nuthatch: blue-gray above, rusty below, with a bold white eyebrow stripe. Red-breasted Nuthatches live in Alaska’s conifer belt year-round and irrupt southward in cone-poor winters, hitching down tree trunks headfirst and calling a tin-horn yank-yank.

North America’s smallest woodpecker (5.5–6.7 inches) is a Alaska backyard regular in every season. Black-and-white checkered wings, a clean white stripe down the back, and a tiny stubby bill separate it from the larger Hairy Woodpecker; males wear a small red patch on the nape.

The Downy’s bigger look-alike (7.1–10.2 inches) with a long, chisel-tipped bill nearly as long as its head and — on males — a red nape patch. Hairies work mature timber and visit Alaska suet feeders all winter. Seeing both species at one feeder is a classic identification lesson.

A big 11–12-inch woodpecker in brown-barred plumage with a black bib and spotted belly; eastern birds flash golden wing linings and a red nape crescent. Flickers spend much of their time on the ground lapping up ants, and drum on Alaska gutters at dawn in spring — loud, but it’s a love song.

The familiar 7.9–11-inch thrush: gray above, brick-red below, yellow-billed. The dawn chorus over a Alaska lawn is built on its cheerily-cheerup phrases. Robins nest on porch lights and ledges, and big winter flocks descend on holly and hackberry trees across the state.

A robin-sized thrush (7.5–10.2 inches) in slate blue and burnt orange with a black breast band — hauntingly beautiful. Varied Thrushes breed in Pacific Northwest rain forest and visit Alaska yards in winter for berries and ground seed, their eerie, echoing whistles drifting from wet woods.

The classic snowbird: a 5.5–6.3-inch sparrow with a slate-gray hood set cleanly against a white belly, white outer tail feathers flashing in flight. Juncos pour into Alaska each October and double-scratch for millet under feeders until April — the surest sign of winter.

A tiny 4.3–5.5-inch finch, heavily streaked with flashes of yellow in wings and tail. Siskins breed in northern conifers and irrupt into Alaska some winters, swarming Nyjer feeders in twittering flocks mixed with goldfinches. Watch for them after poor northern cone crops.

A finch built like a locksmith’s tool (5.5–6.7 inches): males are brick-red, females olive-yellow, and both have crossed bill tips for prying seeds from spruce and pine cones. Red Crossbills wander nomadically, appearing at Alaska feeders when cone crops fail — often announced by sharp jip-jip flight calls.

The feistiest hummingbird in North America (2.8–3.5 inches): males are glowing orange-rufous with an iridescent copper-red gorget. Rufous Hummingbirds migrate farther relative to their size than any bird on Earth, and defend Alaska feeders like tiny orange pit bulls — nothing intimidates them.

A streaky 4.7–6.7-inch sparrow with breast streaks converging into one bold central spot and a long rounded tail it pumps in flight. Song Sparrows sing their bright three-note-and-a-trill song from Alaska marsh edges, creek willows, and garden hedges nearly year-round.