Troubadours who "bill' recitals from Peru to the Arctic Circle are the ALICIAE. In Alaskan lands of the midnight sun their song is heard for twenty hours of daylight out of twenty-four. John Burroughs heard them singing continuously from 2 A. M. to 10 P. M. near Port Clarence north of Behring Strait. One performer hovered above the tundra and repeated its song three times in rapid succession. Lacking tree perches in that unarborescent land the bird used the air instead.
The song is said to resemble the Veery's but is thinner in quality and the call note given impatiently with ascending pitch.
Northern and eastern North America. Breeds in Hudsonian zone in narrow belt just south of tree limit in northwestern Alaska and Mackenzie thru central Keewatin and Ungava to Newfoundland. Migrates southward thru eastern United States. Winters in northern South America.