Asian Songbirds Nest in Alaska

BirdNote^®   

Asian Songbirds Nest in Alaska

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Bluethroat song -  use same recording as in https://www.birdnote.org/show/bluethroat BLUE-01]

In Northwestern Alaska, just below the Arctic Circle, the Seward Peninsula juts out toward Siberia. It stands as a remnant of the Bering land bridge, a thousand-mile expanse of terrain that once connected Asia with North America.

[Arctic Warbler song, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/62110661#_ga=2.158292146.929006418.15…, 0.00-.03]

The land bridge allowed prehistoric humans to expand eastward into North America. And, of course, plants and animals -- including birds -- took advantage of the land bridge, too. 

Several species of migratory songbirds still trace the path of the original land bridge. They winter in Asia but come across what’s now the Bering Sea to nest on the Seward Peninsula and other parts of Alaska and Northwestern Canada. 

The sweet-singing Bluethroat makes this journey...

[Bluethroat song, use same recording as in https://www.birdnote.org/show/bluethroat ]

As does the Arctic Warbler...

[Arctic Warbler song,  https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/62110661#_ga=2.158292146.929006418.15…, 0.00-.03]

and the Eastern Yellow Wagtail. 

[Eastern Yellow Wagtail song, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/207758#_ga=2.57720610.929006418.15489…, 1.33-1.36] 

These three songbirds developed their migration patterns thousands of years ago when the two continents were still connected. The land bridge between the two continents is long gone, but not entirely (pause a split-second) forgotten.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.

                                                             ###
Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Bluethroat ML141088 recorded by B Clock, Arctic Warbler ML62110661 recorded by N Jerling, Eastern Yellow Wagtail ML49969 recorded by L Peyton.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2020 BirdNote   September  2020  Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  migration-28-2020-09-17    migration-28

Reference: Brina Kessel. Birds of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. 1989.