As a birder I enjoy seeing different species in various contexts. While there hasn't been much time during our intensive orientation and training for bird watching, I did have some time before training to snoop around and I've seen a few other birds here in Fairbanks on our field excursions. Some of the birds around here can also be seen in my home state of Colorado, particularly those that migrate through on their way to and from the boreal forest and arctic tundra breeding grounds far to the north of us. One common bird in the neighborhoods of Fairbanks is the Yellow-rumped Warbler. The birds here are so-called 'Myrtle' warblers, a subspecies with white throats. We have breeding 'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warblers in the mountains of Colorado, but they sport bright yellow throats. Still, one can see Myrtle Warblers in Colorado each spring and fall as they migrate through, on their way to the northern boreal forest breeding grounds. But it is really excellent to have them on territories, singing their hearts out, in spruce and birch trees in people's back yards and along the Chena River that runs through town.
A male Yellow-rumped Warbler, the 'Myrtle' subspecies as told by the white throat, along the Chena river in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A male Yellow-rumped Warbler, the 'Myrtle' subspecies as told by the white throat, along the Chena river in Fairbanks, Alaska.
These stunners weigh a mere 12 grams or so (that's about like 4 pennies), but migrate from their breeding areas in the northern boreal forests from the southern states, Mexico, and Central America [(below, map from Birds of North America Online)](http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna). So, let's say one of the birds I've seen arrived here in Fairbanks from northern Mexico this spring. That would be a straight-line journey of over 5000 km (about 3100 miles.) So this little guy went about 417 km per gram of body weight. On a per-gram basis that would be about like me (at 75,000 grams or so) taking a self-powered 31 million kilometer trip, or about 40 round-trips to the moon and back. 
Distribution map for 'Myrtle' Yellow-rumped Warbler, from Birds of North America Online
We have also spied Sandhill Cranes out the van window on our way to various parts of town, and this morning I had the pleasure of seeing one up close at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge.
Lesser Sandhill Crane at Creamer's Field, Fairbanks, Alaska
These are lesser Sandhill Cranes, a population that winters mainly in Texas and Mexico. They depart this warm climate and accumulate along a relatively short stretch of the Platte River in Nebraska by the hundreds of thousands, staging in the spring before moving on substantially farther north and in some cases, as the birds we are seeing here in Fairbanks, west. Lesser Sandhill Cranes breed across most of Canada and into the arctic [(below, map from Birds of North America Online)](http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna). 
Distribution map of Sandhill Crane, from Birds of North America Online
Some of these birds continue across the Bering Straight annually into Siberia to breed. I feel a neat connection with those birds since the USCG Healy that I'll be stationed on will be traversing the Bering Straight to reach the Arctic Ocean from Dutch Harbor. In the fall the cranes return east and south, often in family groups of a mom and dad along with the year's youngster, which can be recognized by the lack of red on its head. 
A Lesser Sandhill Crane along the Platte River in Nebraska, March 2008.
Flocks of Lesser Sandhill Cranes at sunset along the Platte River in Nebraska, March 2008.
Best- Bill