Dalton Highway Birding Tour

Dalton Highway Birding Expedition (5 full days, 5 participants max) – Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay

Peak Season: 1 June – 15 July, 15 – 31 August

Starting in Fairbanks and finishing in Deadhorse, Alaska this birding expedition will carry you the entire length of the famous Dalton Highway, or Haul Road.

From Fairbanks, we will drive north through the boreal forest covered hillsides and mountains of the Alaska’s interior, making stops at wetland and wooded hotspots. Boreal specialities like Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee, and Spruce Grouse are likely highlights as we work our way north. The owls of the northwoods, like Northern Hawk Owl, Boreal Owl, and Great Gray Owl, while no sure thing, are often seen in this part of the state, and we’ll be keeping our eyes (and ears) peeled for these species during our journey.

It’s about a six hour drive from Fairbanks to the village of Wiseman in the southern Brooks Range, where we will spend two nights. Though Wiseman still lies in the boreal forest, it falls within the southern Brooks Range, and is a meeting place for arctic and boreal species. The alpine areas nearby are home to species like Surfbird, Northern Wheatear, American Golden Plover, and Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, while the woods in the valley bottoms play host to the array of boreal specialities like White-winged Crossbill and Pine Grosbeak.

After two days exploring around Wiseman we will head north again along the Dalton, and toward the true Arctic. A couple hours north of Wiseman we will leave the forest behind, and climb to Atigun Pass, the high point along our route. There species like Snow Bunting, Rosy-finches, and Wheatear may be seen from the road.

Descending Atigun Pass we will enter the true Arctic and species like Smith’s and Lapland Longspurs are almost certain to be seen in the northern mountains. As we leave the mountains and head out onto the coastal plain we will be eyeing the ponds and lakes along the road for Arctic nesting waterfowl and loons. Yellow-billed Loons are almost always seen at several large lakes while Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Long-tailed Ducks, and eiders become more likely as we near the coast.

In several low-lying willow-filled areas we will stop to look for two Arctic highlights: Bluethroat and Arctic Warbler.

As we near Deadhorse, which lies a short distance from the arctic coast, we may encounter species like Common, Spectacled, and King Eider, Long-tailed, Pomerine, and Parastic Jaeger, Sabine’s Gull and other Arctic breeders.

We will spend two nights in Deadhorse, allowing a full day to explore and bird around in the nearby tundra where Yellow Wagtails are frequently observed.

On the final morning, we will get out for one more chance to catch species we may have missed before boarding flights back to Fairbanks or Anchorage.