On 27 May Isaac Helmericks watched an ABA Code-4 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) at his feeder on Adak Island, Alaska.
Hawfinch is partially migratory and the subspecies recorded from the ABA Area is C. c. japonicus, a subspecies that breeds throughout Japan and on Sakhalin Island, wintering from east central China to Korea, southern Japan, and to Bonin and Iwo Islands (Finches & Sparrows, An Identification Guide, Clement et al.). They are thought to be closely related to the New World Evening Grosbeak and to the Middle American Hooded Grosbeak, both in the genus, Hesperiphona.
In the ABA Area, the first record of Hawfinch was of a specimen from St. Paul, Pribilof Islands 1 November 1911. Currently it is almost an annual visitor to the western Aleutian Islands between mid-May and mid-June. Birders on Attu Island on 17 May 1998 counted 18 birds there (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).
Elsewhere in Alaska, Paul Lehman reported three Common Ringed Plovers, a Red-throated Pipit, and a Ross’s Gull from 27 May and a White Wagtail on 23 May at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island.
On St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Forrest Rowland reported 5 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Common Snipe, and several Slaty-backed Gulls on 26 May.
On the restricted military installation on Shemya Island in the Outer Aleutians, an ABA Code-4 Great Knot was photographed at South Beach on 24 May.
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