Amak Island

Location in Alaska

Amak Island, Steller Sea Lion haul out

Amak Island (Aleut: Amax^[1]) is an uninhabited island in Aleutians East Borough, Alaska, USA. The island lies north of the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula, and northwest of the mainland city of Cold Bay. The island's land area is 5.828 square miles (15.09 km²) and its maximum elevation is 1,601 feet (488 m). The island's volcano, Mount Amak, last erupted in 1796.

The local population of the Song Sparrow was last seen on the island around New Year's Eve, 1980/1981, and has not been seen since; devegetation of the island played a part in its demise. These birds were formerly considered a separate subspecies, Melospiza melodia amaka (Gabrielson and Lincoln, 1951), but are now considered to fall into the range of variation of the Aleutian Song Sparrow M. m. sanaka (Pruett et al., 2004). Unconfirmed reports from the late 1980s suggest that the island, should habitat quality improve, would in time be recolonized by the species.

References

• Gabrielson, Ira N. & Lincoln, Frederick C. (1951): The Races of Song Sparrows in Alaska. Condor 53(5): 250-255. PDF fulltext
• Pruett, Christin; Gibson, Daniel D. & Winker, Kevin (2003): Amak Island Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia amaka) are not evolutionarily significant. Ornithological Science 3: 133–138. doi:10.2326/osj.3.133 PDF fulltext
• United States Census Bureau (2000): Amak Island: Block 1071, Census Tract 1, Aleutians East Borough, Alaska

Coordinates: 55°25′06″N 163°08′38″W / 55.41833°N 163.14389°W / 55.41833; -163.14389

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