Information About

Attu Island

Quick Facts

Open in The Map Attu Island on The Map

Attu Island in Detail.

Getting There


About

the westernmost of Near Islands, the farthest W of Aleutian Islands. 37 miles long. 344.7 square miles in size.


History

Attu, although possibly seen by one or both of the 1741 expedition ships from a great distance, was officially discovered and called "Saint Theodore" by Captain A. I. Chirikov in the spring of 1742 (Bancroft, 1886, p. 93). The first landing on the island appears to have been in 1745 by a party of promyshlenniki led by Mikhail Nevodchikov. The Aleut name of the island was early transcribed by the Russians as "Ostrov Attu"; spelled "Atakou" by Captain Cook (1785, v. 2, p. 502), Royal Navy (RN).

Birds Sighted Here

Sorted by Most Common to Least Common Viewings

Northern Fulmar, Red Phalarope, Cackling Goose, Ancient Murrelet, Common Eider, Common Murre, Short-tailed Shearwater, Tufted Puffin, Glaucous-winged Gull, Snow Bunting, Black-legged Kittiwake, Mottled Petrel, Lapland Longspur, Harlequin Duck, Laysan Albatross, Green-winged Teal, Wood Sandpiper, Pelagic Cormorant, Crested Auklet, Northern Pintail, Eurasian Wigeon, Mallard, Pigeon Guillemot, Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Brambling, Hoary Redpoll, Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Aleutian Tern, Tufted Duck, Rustic Bunting, Ruddy Turnstone, Horned Puffin, Fork-tailed Storm-petrel, Red-faced Cormorant, Olive-backed Pipit, Least Auklet, Song Sparrow, Pacific Golden-Plover, Kittlitz's Murrelet, Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Scaup, Pacific Swift, Long-toed Stint, Eyebrowed Thrush, Pectoral Sandpiper, Marbled Murrelet, Common Raven, Rock Ptarmigan, Black-tailed Godwit, Black Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Arctic Tern, Siberian Rubythroat, Common Snipe, Bufflehead, Rock Sandpiper, Thick-billed Murre, Pacific Wren, American Wigeon, King Eider, Terek Sandpiper, Emperor Goose, Red-throated Loon, Aleutian Cackling Goose, Red-necked Phalarope, Pomarine Jaeger, Northern Shoveler, Whooper Swan, Common Merganser, Common Sandpiper, White-winged Scoter, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Hawfinch, Steller's Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Sandhill Crane, Temminck's Stint, Long-tailed Jaeger, Gray-tailed Tattler, Pechora Pipit, Common Redpoll, Smew, Common Loon, Grey-spotted Flycatcher, Red-necked Stint, Long-billed Dowitcher, White Wagtail, Common Rosefinch, Tundra Bean Goose, Lesser Sand Plover, Parasitic Jaeger, Black-headed Gull, Common Tern, Yellow-billed Loon, Snowy Owl, Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler, Whimbrel, Arctic Warbler, Falcated Teal, Common Pochard, Barrow's Goldeneye, Red-necked Grebe, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Leach's Storm-petrel, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Skylark, Taiga Flycatcher, Red-throated Pipit, Greater White-fronted Goose, Bean Goose, Garganey, Horned Grebe, Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Wandering Tattler, Greenshank, Red-legged Kittiwake, Herring Gull, Slaty-backed Gull, Grey Wagtail, Buff-bellied Pipit, Oriental Greenfinch, Snow Goose, Stejneger's Scoter, Common Cuckoo, Ruff, Western Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Cassin's Auklet, Parakeet Auklet, Glaucous Gull, Arctic Loon, Pacific Loon, Short-tailed Albatross, White-tailed Eagle, Short-eared Owl, Kamchatka Leaf Warbler, Siberian Flycatcher, Bohemian Waxwing, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Baikal Teal, Gadwall, Canvasback, Spectacled Eider, Rock Pigeon, Oriental Turtle-dove, Oriental Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail, Black Oystercatcher, Black-bellied Plover, Common Ringed Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Far Eastern Curlew, Great Knot, Red Knot, Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Baird's Sandpiper, Little Stint, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Green Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Oriental Pratincole, Whiskered Auklet, Sabine's Gull, Ross's Gull, Black-tailed Gull, Common Gull, White-winged Tern, Black-footed Albatross, Yellow Bittern, Great Egret, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Steller's Sea Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Kestrel, Merlin, Eurasian Hobby, Brown Shrike, Lanceolated Warbler, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Dusky Warbler, Gray-cheeked Thrush, American Robin, Dusky Thrush, Siberian Blue Robin, Bluethroat, Red-flanked Bluetail, Narcissus Flycatcher, Northern Wheatear, Pine Grosbeak, Bullfinch, Eurasian Siskin, Pine Bunting, Yellow-throated Bunting, Reed Bunting, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Little Bunting, Fox Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler