Surprised by the results? Don't be. The majority of the birds that occur in Canada and the Lower 48 live at least part of their lives in the Arctic. Most of them use the Arctic's tundra scrub, tundra pools, and boreal forest edge during breeding season, where seasonally warm temperatures and day-long sunlight provide ideal habitat for raising young. For more on each of the Arctic-summering birds featured in this quiz, scroll down.
Learn more about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the threats this vital bird habitat faces.
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1. Long-tailed Duck
In the winter, large flocks of this duck dive for mollusks and crustaceans in the Great Lakes and along America's coasts, stopping at Oregon on the west coast and the Carolinas in the east. In the summer, Long-tailed Ducks hightail it to the Arctic, where they scrape out nests near tundra pools.
2. Snow Bunting
As the name may suggest, the Snow Bunting breeds in the high Arctic tundra, making nests in cavities between rocks. But in the wintertime, these birds travel as far south as Colorado, foraging in fields and short-grass prairies, and along shorelines.
4. American Tree Sparrow
This little brown bird is a common winter sight at feeders across the northern United States, especially on the ground foraging for any spilled seeds. In the summer, these sparrows fly north to the tundra, nesting close to the ground in low bushes or grass at or above the tree line, where scrubby brush habitat meets thickets of trees.
7. Glaucous Gull
This light-colored, large gull can be spotted on both coasts as far down as California and Virginia in the winter, but it chooses to breed in the high Arctic, nesting among sea grass on shoreline cliffs. When the gulls migrate for the winter, records show that immature gulls will move the furthest south.
8. Rough-legged Hawk
This raptor is a common sight, perching near marsh or pastureland throughout southern Canada and most of the United States, save the southeast. When it's time to breed, though, the Rough-legged Hawk heads to the Arctic tundra, where its cliff-side nests are bathed with hours of sunshine and have ample amounts of lemming nearby for dinner.
9. Common Redpoll
Though flocks of these buzzy finches can be found as far south as Kansas and Missouri in the winter, Common Redpolls spend their summers breeding in open woodland shrubs throughout the Arctic. These seedeaters visit backyard feeders in winter months, but they are most commonly found gleaning tree branches and shaking out catkins and seedpods for a meal.
11. Red-throated Loon
The smallest of the loons, the Red-throated Loon can commonly be found diving for fish along both coasts in winter, and in shallow bays and estuaries all the way south to Mexico and Florida. But during summer, they disappear deep into the Arctic to breed at ponds and lakes on the tundra or within the edge of northern forest..
Other quiz photo captions and credits:
3. Barn Owls. Photo: Mitch Walters/Audubon Photography Awards
5. Louisiana Waterthrush. Photo: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren/Flickr CC (BY 2.0):
6. Forster’s Tern. Photo: Jacqueline Deely/Audubon Photography Awards
10. Lark Bunting. Photo: Paul Hurtado/Flickr CC (BY-SA 2.0)
12. Black-billed Cuckoo. Photo: Shayna Hartley/Audubon Photography Awards