Notes on the Birds of the Haines Area of Southeastern Alaska

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Study of a collection of birds I made in 1972 and 1975 near Iaines, southeastern Alaska, and in adjacent British Columbia uncovered some forms of interest. All specimens are in the collection of the California Academy of Sciences. The Klehini River flows from 12 miles NW of mile 46 of the Haines Highway into the Chilkat River (see Webster 1975 for map). The historic village of Klukwan is on the Chilkat River, one mile downstream from the confluence with the Klehini, and at mile 20 of the Haines Highway. Marshes begin on the west side of the Chilkat River 2 miles upstream (NW) from Klukwan. The area is within the humid coniferous forest region, but timberline is at about 800 m elevation. The terrain is extremely rugged and mountainous, with numerous glaciers. Precipitation, at least in the valleys, is distinctly less than in most of southeastern Alaska (Newman and Branton 1972). Canachites canadensis atratus. Spruce Grouse. The only record from Southeastern Alaska is by Hartlaub (1883), who reported that the Krauses in 1882 took females and young at Portage Bay (= Haines) and Tlehini (= Klehini River; possibly in British Columbia as the boundary line was then uncertain). From the adjacent coastal forests of British Columbia north of the range of C. c. franklinii, the only record of Spruce Grouse is that of Swarth (1922:205-6) from Flood Glacier, on the Stikine River. My records are from mile 46 on the Haines Highway, beside the upper Klehini River, British Columbia, in Mountain Hemlock-Sitka Spruce forest. Here we watched a hooting male on 18 June 1972 and I collected a female on 21 June 1975. I compared the specimen with Swarth's Flood Glacier female (MVZ), as well as with 6 female topotypes of C. c. atratus from the Prince William Sound area, 13 female C. c. osgoodi from southern Alaska, southwestern Yukon, and northwestern British Columbia, and 11 female franklinii from western and central British Columbia. The race (in females, based on dark, blackish coloration) and its extension south to the Chilkat and Stikine are