The National Park Service (NPS) oversees more than 200,000 km2 of protected lands in Alaska. These lands, which are distributed across 16 parks, preserves, and monuments, contain some of the most important and pristine habitats for avian species in the state, including areas that are used for breeding, molting and wintering. The Southwest Alaska Network (SWAN) of national parks includes five units totaling nearly 38,000 km2 or almost 20% of all parklands within Alaska: Alagnak Wild River, Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park,...

The NPS Alaska Region Science Strategy states that scientific data should guide management decisions for preserving NPS core values within each park (NPS 2006). In response to the NPS need for more information on their avian resources, biologists from the Alaska Natural Heritage Program (AKNHP) and NPS conducted an inventory of breeding birds within ALAG with two principal goals: 1. Use targeted river and land surveys during the breeding season to document as many bird species as possible within the Alagnak River corridor. 2. Quantify the distribution, relative abundance, and habitat...