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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.
The nest is a cleared area 0.75 to 1 m (2 ft 6 in to 3 ft 3 in) in diameter, within which is a clearly demarcated 25 to 30 cm (10 to 12 in) shallow (1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) deep) depression. A clutch of two chalky white eggs is laid, with an interval of five to eight days between the laying of each egg.
On Aldabra, the proportion of fish and squid in the diet varies between seasons; squid make up 21% of the diet by mass in the wet season and 1% in the dry season. They generally catch prey by diving into the ocean vertically from heights of 4 to 8 m (13 to 26 ft), although flying fish may be caught while in the air. [13]
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.
The brown booby was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1781. [4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. [5]
It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. [2] [3] The sexes are similar in appearance. The adult northern gannet has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, and long and slender wings. It is 87–100 cm (34 + 1 ⁄ 2 – 39 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) long with a 170–180 cm (67–71 in) wingspan. The head and nape have a buff tinge that ...
Its distribution is much less widespread than other closely related booby species. It is the most abundant seabird species that inhabits the Peruvian coast [4] and the second most important guano-producing seabird. During the mid-twentieth century, the Peruvian booby population reached 3 million birds. [5]
The dolphin gull is a scavenger and opportunistic predator.It feeds on carrion, offal, bird eggs, nestlings, marine invertebrates and other natural food. When humans disturb nesting seabirds, it takes advantage of the absence of adult birds to raid their vacated nests.