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Birding Tours
Icy Strait
Tour Photos
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Hoonah
Semi-aerial view of the tour area at high tide.

Port Frederick
As viewed from the Hoonah ferry terminal, one of the first stops on the tour. The rock on the far right is home to a Pigeon Guillemot rookery.

Sitka Black-tailed Deer View

Long Island Causeway
High tide in early spring.

Long Island Causeway
At low tide.

Long Island Causeway
Glassing for seabirds

Hemlocks and Spruce Tower over Exposed Intertidal Creatures

The Highway
The best birding spots must be reached by traveling along gravel logging roads.

Game Creek
A great place to see Bald Eagles, American Dippers, and Brown Bears, as well as enjoy a birds-eye-view of spawning salmon.

Rest Stop
The birding trail meanders through forest of varying ages.

Trail

Long Island Causeway

Birders watching a Red-breasted Sapsucker

Overlooking Port Frederick

Watching a Red-breasted Sapsucker

Hoonah Harbor
We often make a quick stop at the Hoonah harbor for ducks and gulls.

Something For Everyone
While most of this group was trying to locate the source of some call notes in the bushes, two people were more interested in photographing an invasive black slug crossing the road.

Soaking in Nature
Bird Gallery
Bird Gallery
Birds commonly seen during spring and/or summer in Hoonah. Click on photos to enlarge.

Bald Eagle
Southeast Alaska is one of the best places in the country to see Bald Eagles

Juvenile Bald Eagle
A few weeks after leaving the nest

Immature Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle
This nest is one of three along our tour route.

Bald Eagle Parent with Eaglet
This photo was taken with a phone through my spotting scope on a tour. Guests often take photos of these eagles with their own phones also.

Red-tailed Hawk
This Red-tail belongs to a subspecies that only breeds in Southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia. It is known as the the "Alaskan" or "Grinnell's" Red-tailed Hawk.

Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk
Light morph. This subspecies is encountered occasionally during migration.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Brown Creeper

Pacific Wren

Townsend's Warbler
The quintessential warbler of the conifers of the Tongass National Forest, the Townsend's is more often heard than seen.

Wilson's Warbler
Quite common during the breeding season.

Orange-crowned Warbler
Perhaps our most common warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler
Myrtle subspecies is quite common.

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

"Sooty" Fox Sparrow

"Sooty" Fox Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco
"Oregon" subspecies

Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Pacific-slope Flycatcher
We hear this bird along the trail every day during the spring, but catching a glimpse of him is much more difficult.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Hairy Woodpecker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Rufous Hummingbird
Drinking from willow sap "wells" created by a Red-breasted Sapsucker.