• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes at Sunset, from the Griggs Visitor Center

    Katmai

    National Park & Preserve Alaska

Nature & Science: Birds

White winged crossbill feeding on white spruce cones in the snow
White winged crossbills are one of the few species of birds that stay in Katmai country year round. Their bills are specially adapted to feeding on spruce cones.
NPS Photo by Peter Hamel

Katmai's lake edges and marshes serve as nesting sites for tundra swans, ducks, loons, grebes, and that 20,000-mile annual commuter, the arctic tern. Sea birds abound along the coast, grouse and ptarmigan inhabit the uplands, and some 40 songbird species summer here. Sea coast rock pinnacles and treetops along lakeshores provide nesting sites for bald eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls.

Katmai National Park and Preserve is located on the Alaska Peninsula. A draft list of birds present on the Alaska Peninsula compiled by the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) is available at http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/chekbird/r7/akpenin.htm.

Did You Know?

Ash from this volcanic eruption fell 1500 miles away in Seattle

Explosions from Novarupta were heard over 140 miles (230 km) away and Seattle, which is 1500 miles (2400 km) away, was dusted by ash from the great eruption of 1912.