"The Birds of Alaska's Arctic" will be the topic Tuesday when speakers who have traveled to the region present slides and talk about the diverse wildlife populations that live or spend time near the top of the Earth.

The presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Missouri Room of the student union at Bismarck State College. Among the presenters will be birder and world traveler Paul Konrad, a North Dakota native who is the Great Plains director for the Alaska Coalition.

"I will primarily will be going over the wildlife aspects of the Arctic North Slope," he said Wednesday.

Although the variety and diversity of birds will be the focus of the presentation - 194 species of birds have been recorded at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Konrad will touch on four-legged wildlife also.

"Some suggest it's the Serengeti of the Arctic. There's a huge wildlife base and a lot of predators," Konrad said, referring to the vast African plain and its abundant wildlife, including gray wolves and polar bears, grizzly bears and black bears.

As for the winged wildlife, some birds pass through North Dakota on their their fall and spring migrations, and others fly to different points on the compass.

While some birds wing south, others are veering east, migrating down California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley or pointing their bills toward Asia, prompting Konrad to call the area "an Arctic blend."

"It's an important area for nesting geese, white-fronted, brants, cackling geese, and snow geese also use it as a staging area in late summer and early fall," he added.

"Tundra swans, sandhill cranes and lesser sandhill cranes," he said as he continued to call the roll. "Then, about 12 species of ducks. It's an important nesting area for northern pintails, which is a species the Fish and Wildlife Service is concerned about."

Puddle ducks, diving ducks and sea ducks nest in the area, Konrad added.

Katie Little, from the Alaska Coalition's Washington office; and Ben Breuel, from the group's Great Lakes office, also will give presentations. The group's goal is to protect public lands in Alaska, Konrad said. Another topic likely to come up is possible oil and gas development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

There is "intense political pressure for the area to be developed for oil and gas," Konrad said. "Ninety-five percent of the North Slope is available for oil and gas development and 5 percent is refuge. I would hope 95 percent would be plenty to take care of the development interests. We have an opportunity to preserve it as a refuge or even preserve it as a wilderness area. Or an option to destroy it. That is what would happen if it came in as an oil and gas development."

In the 30 years of oil and gas development on the North Slope, there hasn't been any negative impact to wildlife, said Marilyn Crockett of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association.

"There will not be any damage in the future," she added.

The North Slope also is an important area for shorebirds.

"What's exciting about this area is they usually are in breeding plumage when they get up in the Arctic, and there is all kinds of neat behavior. Some are displaying like sharp-tailed grouse. Others are doing displays and singing that you would never attribute to sandpipers," Konrad said.

Buff-breasted sandpipers fly through the Dakotas heading to or leaving their wintering grounds on the coast of Argentina, he said. "They are a small bird, smaller than the size of a fist," he said.

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)