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What is the State Bird of Alaska?

10,000 Birds

In 1955 – before Alaska was a state – the Territory’s leaders in charge of drafting a constitution allowed schoolchildren to choose what would eventually become the state bird. The Willow Ptarmigan was officially designated in 1960, when Alaska entered the union.

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Are Kittiwakes Catholic?

10,000 Birds

According to eBird, “it breeds on rocky cliffs on islands in the Bering Sea, from Alaska to Russia; winters on open ocean”. In contrast, eBird notes that the Black-legged Kittiwake “breeds at high latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in large colonies on cliffs and other structures overhanging water”.

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10,000 Birds goes eBirding – Part II

10,000 Birds

The map would look a lot more complete if someone added a checklist from Russia.). However, at 691 species already observed, new species will be relatively rare going forward. Of course, the Collaborative will also continue to work on the global map as well.

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Flights of Passage: a book review

10,000 Birds

Only recently was it discovered that one group, which breeds on the Shetland Islands, flies across the Atlantic to winter off the coast of Ecuador – ten thousand miles away from its cousins who breed in Scandanavia and western Russia.

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Polar Bear Hunters Face Battle Over Extinction Worries

Critter News

Although few people outside the Arctic realise it, there is still a major legal hunt for the animals in four out of the five states that host the bears: Canada, Greenland, Alaska in the US, and Russia. In Norway, stalking is banned.

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The “Rufa” Red Knot is now protected under the Endangered Species Act

10,000 Birds

The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia. One of the two sub-species of Red Knot occurring in North America, the Rufa subspecies breeds in the Canadian Artic Region and migrates along the east or Atlantic coast of the United States.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Sarah Palin of Alaska, the scientific literature is very clear that polar bear survival is highly threatened in the wild. Sarah Palin of Alaska—that the Fish and Wildlife Service should not list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because science doesn’t support doing so—doesn’t persuade.