Anchorage's Christmas Bird Count shows waxwings rule the roost

Bohemian waxwings rule the roost, while Anchorage is also thick with black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatch this winter.

That's the conclusion drawn by the 58th Christmas Bird Count, conducted Dec. 17 by the Anchorage Audubon Society. Results were released Friday.

Some 7,857 of the flocking, berry-loving winter visitors, Bohemian waxwings, were counted by volunteers, who reported a total 20,640 birds and 38 species. Common redpolls took the runner-up slot, with some 3,217 counted.

The total number of birds and species were about average, and while the waxwing number was solid, it doesn't approach the record 22,245 counted in 2009. In 1984, some 52 species were counted, the most ever.

Bohemian waxwings top the list "close to every year," noted Thede Tobish, who's been counting with Audubon since 1980. "Traditionally, waxwings spend time here until they deplete all their berries and then they head out. Who knows where they go."

All together, nine species reached all-time high counts this year — common merganser (22), great horned owl (5), black-capped chickadee (2,290), boreal chickadee (328), red-breasted nuthatch (449), brown creeper (30), American dipper (45), Pacific wren (1) and European starling (1,084).

Spotted for the first time were an American kestrel at Ted Stevens International Airport and a song sparrow near R Street.

Among the participants was Dave Delap, who counted for the 47th consecutive year and 56th time overall.

"Things have changed quite a bit," Delap said. "A long time ago, we didn't have any mallards, but now there are quite a few because people feed them.

"There are a lot of robins staying now too, all winter. I had four or five robins this year."

Counter Bob Gill managed to hone in on what the Anchorage Audubon website called "a bazillion dippers found along Ship Creek."

Nationwide, the Christmas Bird Count is considered the longest-running citizen science project in the country, dating back to 1900 when ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society, proposed a Christmas bird census to count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.

At that time, hunters engaged in a holiday tradition of going afield to see who could bring in the biggest pile of birds, or other prey.

[National counts dating back to 1902]

2016 Anchorage Christmas Bird Count

Bohemian Waxwing      7,857

Common Redpoll         3,217

Black-capped Chickadee       2,290

Mallard       1,296

European Starling        1,084

Rock Pigeon       822

Black-billed Magpie      716

Common Raven  694

White-winged Crossbill    638

Pine Grosbeak    600

Red-breasted Nuthatch    449

Boreal Chickadee         328

American Robin    193

Steller's Jay        103

Downy Woodpecker      60

Golden-crowned Kinglet        45

American Dipper  45

Brown Creeper    30

Hairy Woodpecker        29

Bald Eagle 29

Dark-eyed Junco          26

Common Merganser     22

Pine Siskin                  12

White-tailed Ptarmigan          10

Northern Shrike   9

White-crowned Sparrow         8

Gray Jay     8

Northern Goshawk        6

Great Horned Owl         5

American Three-toed Woodpecker           3

Pacific Wren        1

Short-eared Owl  (CW)           1

Spruce Grouse    1

Sharp-shinned Hawk    1

Red-breasted Merganser        1

Colmmon Goldeneye   1

American Kestrel   1

Song Sparrow   1