Bird of the Week – American Dipper
When folks think about birds that winter in Alaska during the long, dark winter, they often forget one species. The American Dipper, a bird that spends a big chunk of its life under water, stays in Alaska all winter. Dippers forage by walking and swimming in shallow, fast streams, catching fish and invertebrates. It survives by staying in the air pockets under river ice, where the temperature is a relatively mild 32 degrees. In the summer, you’ll see the bird along fast-flowing streams, doing its namesake dipping movement. The old name for Dippers was Water Ouzel, a name that calls…