St. George Island - Small Breeding Land Birds

There are only four species of small, Passerine birds that breed on St. George Island - Lapland Longspur, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Pacific(Winter) Wren, and Snow Bunting. A few other similar species may breed there occasionally, but I did not encounter any of them on my visit. This is unusually low diversity but perhaps to be expected because of the rather uniform habitat and remoteness of these islands. Other small birds species are found on the Pribilofs during spring and fall migration, including some occasional rare stray species from Asia.

Lapland Longspurs seem to be the most abundant of the small birds and males in their breeding plumage were a pleasure to see. This species is regularly seen in Montana during winter but their plumage then is very much on the drab side, like the bird below.Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches were also abundant on St. George Island and they spend the winter there. These St. George/Pribilof birds are considered a distinct sub-species and can be separated from other sub-species by the more extensive gray on the side of their head. They are also noticeably larger than the ones we see in Montana. The young ones do not yet have the gray plumage on the side of the head.Snow buntings are one of my favorite Montana winter birds. On St. George, they seem to prefer the rocky areas that are abundant on the island. But they were the wariest of the small birds there and I was not able to get any very good pictures of them.Winter Wrens - now called Pacific Wrens - were the most petite of the breeding Passerines on St. George, where they are considered a separate sub-species. Very recently, the folks who decide such things split Winter Wrens into two species (Pacific and Winter) based on genetic and behavioral criteria. Several days passed before I encountered my first wren on the island, but after that, they seems to be easier to find, probably because I visited their breeding habitat - cliff faces - more often. This tiny species resides year-round on St. George, so it must be quite tough. The only other small bird I got pictures of - a fairly common migrant - was a Northern Wheatear. This species breeds on mainland Alaska and then migrates across Asia to winter areas south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. That is quite an amazing distance for such a small bird.