Residents find dead birds in the Kotzebue area

Updated: 3 Some minutes ago Published: 3 Some minutes ago

The Selawik National Wildlife Refuge received reports of dead birds in the Kotzebue area last week.

“I wouldn’t call it a big problem at this point,” said Brittany Sweeney, deputy director of the sanctuary. “Of course, if there are dead birds and we don’t know the cause, we want to investigate. But right now it seems to be only a small number of birds.”

Biologists collected bird carcasses and notified the bird hotline of the situation, Sweeney said. Sanctuary staff have not yet received results of the investigations, she said.

Sanctuary staff urged residents who observe dead seabirds to take safety measures such as calling the Alaska Sick or Dead Bird Hotline at (866) 527-3358 and reporting the location, species, and date and time they found the birds.

“For your safety, do not touch sick birds or birds found dead,” the shelter staff said in the Facebook post.

Local resident Susan Tessier reported seeing a small seagull on the bridge behind Kotzebue in June.

“The bird did not want to fly and walked slowly,” wrote Tessier.

In the past, there have been other reports of dead seabirds washing up on shorelines in the Kotzebue, Nome, Kivalina and other locations in the state.