FIRST RECORDS OF THE ASIAN ROSY-FINCH IN ALASKA AND NORTH AMERICA

Abstract

On 30 December 2011 I found and photographed an Asian Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte arctoa) on Adak Island, in the central Aleutian Islands, Alaska. At that time and for the next five years this bird provided the only record of the species for North America. In 2016, however, a photo surfaced of a bird that had been seen in October 2008 at Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, revealing it too to have been an Asian Rosy-Finch. Thus at the close of 2016 there were two records of this species within the political limits of Alaska and North America.