Checklist of the Avian Diversity of Alaska
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More than just a state, Alaska constitutes the entire northwestern extent of North America. Alaska is a vast area (586,412 mi2/1,518,800 km2 of land), spanning nearly 60 degrees of longitude and 20 degrees of latitude, with roughly ~45,000 mi/72,000 km of coastline. The area considered here includes surrounding waters within the U. S. 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (see Gibson and Withrow 2015) and thus represents an area of over 2,000,000 mi2/~5,000,000 km2. It represents the eastern half of Beringia, a pivotally important area for the exchange of New and Old World avifaunas and for high-latitude avian endemism (Winker et al. 2023). Spanning a wide swath of the northern reaches of the Pacific Ocean, Alaska hosts breeding migrants from all seven continents, including tens of millions of birds from Asia (Winker and Gibson 2010).
