444 S. F. MacLean, Jr. 



ABUNDANCE, PRODUCTIVITY, AND 

 ENERGETICS OF AVIAN INSECTIVORES 



Insectivorous birds are the top carnivores in the detritus-based tro- 

 phic system. The avifauna of the coastal tundra at Barrow includes a 

 large number of accidental or occasional breeding species; this probably 

 results from the geography of northern Alaska (Pitelka 1974). Barrow 

 Hes at the apex of a triangle of land that concentrates birds that have 

 made an error in navigation. The list of bird species recorded in the Bar- 

 row region includes 151 species, but only 22 of these are regarded as reg- 

 ular breeders (Table 11-10). This includes five species of waterfowl 

 (loons and ducks), nine species of waders (plovers, sandpipers and phala- 



TABLE 11-10 



Species of Birds Breeding 

 Regularly in the Coastql 

 Plain Tundra near Barrow 



Graviiformes 



Arctic loon 



Red-throated loon 

 Anseriformes 



Pintail 



Oldsquaw 



Steller eider 

 Charadriiformes 



Golden plover 



Ruddy turnstone 



Pectoral sandpiper 



White-rumped sandpiper 



Baird's sandpiper 



Dunlin 



Semipalmated sandpiper 



Western sandpiper 



Red phalarope 



Pomarine jaeger 



Parasitic jaeger 



Sabine gull 



Arctic tern 

 Strigiformes 



Snowy owl 

 Passeri formes 



Redpoll 



Lapland longspur 



Snow bunting 



Gavia arctica 

 Gavia stellata 



Anas acuta 

 Clangula hyemalis 

 Polysticta sielleri 



Pluvialis dominica 

 Arenaria inlerpres 

 Calidris melanotos 

 Calidris fuscicollis 

 Calidris bairdii 

 Calidris alpina 

 Calidris pusilla 

 Calidris mauri 

 Phalaropus fulicarius 

 Stercorarius pomarinus 

 Stercorarius parasiticus 

 Xema sabini 

 Sterna paradisaea 



Nyctea scandiaca 



Carduelis flammea 

 Calcarius lapponicus 

 Plectrophenax nivalis 



Source: After Pitelka (1974). 



