ID Please. Seriously

[Arthur Morris]

This bird (and the mountain peak sunset) were photographed with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 250: 1/8000 at f/32 to prevent over-exposure of the brightest section of the sky.

This peak is the highest in Katmai National Park at about 8,000 feet. The birds--there were several of them--had a butterfly-like flight. I am thinking that it has to be some sort of swift.

On a photographic note, I have no idea what the curved striations in the sky are. They were not in any of the other frames of the same mountain peak....

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Hmm, maybe some locals can help you. I wouldn't know how to ID this little speck. :)

Happy Birthday!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks! There are no locals where we were, but somebody will know by habitat, at least to the proper family.

[John Chardine]

Nice one Artie. A real challenge! The locale is way out of range for any North American swift. It would be nice to have a sense of size. When you say butterfly-like flight and after I looked at the image my first thought was Rock Dove but this is somewhat out of range. They do nest on cliffs though. The bird looks like a nighthawk but Sibley does not have them getting over to Alaska. A falcon would be another thought but not sure they fly like this ever, do they?

This is going to be fun.

[Roy Priest]

This peak is the highest in Katmai National Park at about 8,000 feet. The birds--there were several of them--had a butterfly-like flight. I am thinking that it has to be some sort of swift.
...

How far away were the birds. I blew this up and have to agree with John, certainly looks like a pigeon (Rock Dove) to me. They do sort of butterfly when the males are showing off for the females.
There is a list of birds that inhabit the Katmai Pen. here http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/b...r7/akpenin.htm
Quite a few swallows are listed.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks John, You are correct. I did look at the range maps for the swallows and several occur at Katmai. What puzzles me is the great altitude....

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I've seen Gulls (not sure which kind) at much more than 8000 ft here in the Sierra Nevada (Lake Tahoe). Not sure about the flight pattern though... JR

[Wayne Richardson]

Hi Art

I'm with John here in that we should not exclude seabirds & many species of auk have a butterfly (moth) like display flight with some murrelets known to breed inland too.

However, given the time of day, another seabird group (shearwaters & petrels) also springs to mind & these visit nesting colonies at night. As far as I'm aware only Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is a likely contender in this particular area though.

Cheers: Wayne

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Wayne, I am glad that you stopped by. Thanks for the suggestions. I shall check out the species accounts in my paper BONA, especially for FTSP. My main concern is the altitude as it sure looked as if there were several of these flying aroung that mountain top.