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The crested auklet (Aethia cristatella) is a small seabird of the family Alcidae, distributed throughout the northern Pacific and the Bering Sea. The species feeds by diving in deep waters, eating krill and a variety of small marine animals. It nests in dense colonies of up to 1 million individuals in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.
In most seabird colonies several different species will nest on the same colony, often exhibiting some niche separation. Seabirds can nest in trees (if any are available), on the ground (with or without nests), on cliffs, in burrows under the ground and in rocky crevices. Colony size is a major aspect of the social environment of colonial birds.
Some of the larger petrels have to nest on windswept locations as they require wind to take off and forage for food. [27] Within the colonies, pairs defend usually small territories (the giant petrels and some albatrosses can have very large territories) which is the small area around either the nest or a burrow. Competition between pairs can ...
Seabird eggs have also long been an important source of food for sailors undertaking long sea voyages, as well as being taken when settlements grow in areas near a colony. Eggers from San Francisco took almost half a million eggs a year from the Farallon Islands in the mid-19th century, a period in the islands' history from which the seabird ...
Seabird egging has been banned in mainland Finland since 1962. [9] In Iceland it is legal to harvest eggs from black-headed, great black-backed, lesser black-backed (Larus fuscus), herring (Larus argentatus argenteus), and glaucous gulls' nests through 1 June. [9] Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) sitting on a nest of eggs in Sweden in 2016
Two nests found in Washington were located only 150 feet (46 m) apart. Not all mature adults nest every year. [13] The clutch is a single egg. The nestlings fledge in 28 days. The young remain in the nest longer than other alcids and molt into their juvenile plumage before leaving the nest. [12] Fledglings fly directly from the nest to the ...
The majority of sea terns have light grey or white body plumage as adults, with a black cap to the head. The legs and bill are various combinations of red, orange, yellow, or black depending on species. The pale plumage is conspicuous from a distance at sea, and may attract other birds to a good feeding area for these fish-eating species.
Many seabirds remain at sea for several consecutive years at a time, without ever seeing land. Breeding is the central purpose for seabirds to visit land. The breeding period (courtship, copulation, and chick-rearing) is usually extremely protracted in many seabirds and may last over a year in some of the larger albatrosses ; [ 1 ] [ 2 ] this ...