A fowl obsession will leave its mark on the territory this summer.

The makers of The Big Year, featuring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, will bring production to the Yukon beginning today and lasting until the end of July.

Lorraine Jamison, unit publicist for The Big Year, said today there will be many opportunities for Yukon residents to be part of the film's making.

"The production will be hiring as many local people in front of and behind the camera as possible,” Jamison told the Star.

Information about getting involved will soon be made available through local media, she added.

Shooting will take place north of Dawson City near the Dempster Highway. The spot caught the eye of location scouts because of its majestic appeal, said Jamison.

"The locations on the Dempster Highway are unlike any other location in North America,” she said.

In addition to its beauty, the Dawson area was also chosen because it most resembles Alaska's Attu Island, where The Big Year takes place

The comedy is an adaptation of the 2004 novel The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by American author and journalist Mark Obmascik.

It follows three avid birders who have come to the North to compete in a Big Year, an annual race to spot the greatest number of rare birds in a year.

The characters travel to Attu Island because it is known as a birders' mecca.

Attu Island is also known as the sight of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. The fight for Attu between the Japanese and the Americans lasted from May 11 to May 29, 1943.

Almost all of the 2,500 Japanese soldiers involved in the battle died.

The United States had 15,000 troops on the island. About 550 of those troops died in battle and another 1,500 were wounded.

An additional 1,200 died of exposure to Attu's harsh climate.