Photos: Meet some of the new arrivals in Alaska’s massive spring bird migration

Weeks before the landscape greens up for the summer, birds begin to return in breathtaking numbers. Anchorage is a good place to see a lot of them.

By Anchorage Daily News
Updated: May 23, 2023 Published: May 20, 2023

A sandhill crane performs a courtship dance on Thursday, May 11, 2023 near Lyn Ary Park in West Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

Weeks and months before the landscape greens up for the summer, birds begin to return to Alaska in breathtaking numbers. Nearly 5 billion birds migrate to Alaska from around the world, according the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

A good place to spot many is in Anchorage, the state’s biggest city. This month, the call of sandhill cranes could be heard in the distance toward the Cook Inlet mudflats, even when the noisy birds were out of sight far out of sight. A section of Westchester Lagoon serves as a popular place to watch waterfowl, some of which stay all summer. Others that are just stopping over on their trip to breeding grounds elsewhere. And a few of the most well-traveled creatures call Potter Marsh home for the summer. Arctic terns travel from the Antarctic to the Arctic regions, and back again, each year.

Anchorage Daily News photographers captured just a few of Alaska’s many migratory birds this spring. Here are a few of our favorite images.

Arctic Terns interact above Potter Marsh on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

White-crowned Sparrow takes flight near Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Bill Roth / ADN)

Two bufflehead ducks fly as snow falls over Westchester Lagoon on May 3, 2023. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Snow geese stop over on the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge during their migration on May 4, 2023. (Marc Lester / ADN)

A red-necked grebe swims in Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage on Friday, May 19, 2023. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

A pair of sandhill cranes conduct a courtship dance in front of another crane on Thursday, May 11, 2023 near Lyn Ary Park in West Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

A leucistic Canada goose, left, could be spotted along the mudflats near the Tony Knowles Coastal trail at Fish Creek on May 2, 2023. Leucism is a genetic mutation that causes reduced pigmentation. (Marc Lester / ADN)

An Arctic tern skims the water in search of fish at Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage on Friday, May 19, 2023. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

A sandhill crane takes flight as a group of ducks come in at the base of the Homer Spit in Homer on Saturday, April 29, 2023. The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival starts on May 3 and runs through May 7. (Bob Hallinen Photo)

A snow bunting perches on a shipping trailer in Northwest Alaska on May 12, 2023. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Gulls bathe in Anchorage’s Westchester Lagoon on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

An Arctic tern flies over Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage on May 17, 2023. (Marc Lester / ADN)