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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. Competition can be strong both within species and between species, with aggressive species such as sooty terns pushing less dominant species out of the most desirable nesting spaces. [ 55 ]
Individual nesting sites at seabird colonies can be widely spaced, as in an albatross colony, or densely packed like an auk colony. 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 ...
The Hebrides (Outer Hebrides in orange). The flora and fauna of the Outer Hebrides in northwest Scotland comprises a unique and diverse ecosystem.A long archipelago, set on the eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean, it attracts a wide variety of seabirds, and thanks to the Gulf Stream a climate more mild than might be expected at this latitude.
The male Atlantic puffin builds the nest and exhibits strong nest-site fidelity. Both sexes of the horned puffin help to construct their nest. Horned puffin burrows are usually about 1 meter (3.3 feet) deep, ending in a chamber, while the tunnel leading to a tufted puffin burrow may be up to 2.75 meters (9.0 feet) long.
A few species nest in small or dispersed groups, but most breed in colonies of up to a few hundred pairs, often alongside other seabirds such as gulls or skimmers. [5] Large tern species tend to form larger colonies, [ 18 ] which in the case of the sooty tern can contain up to two million pairs.
Laysan albatrosses are colonial, nesting on scattered small islands and atolls, often in huge numbers, and building different styles of nests depending on the surroundings, ranging from simple scoops in the sand [13] to nests using vegetation. [4] They have a protracted breeding cycle, and breed annually, although some birds skip years. [4]
Frigatebirds are referred to as kleptoparasites as they occasionally rob other seabirds for food, and are known to snatch seabird chicks from the nest. Seasonally monogamous, frigatebirds nest colonially. A rough nest is constructed in low trees or on the ground on remote islands. A single egg is laid each breeding season.
Furthermore, it has been proposed that birds that nest in high densities, as seabirds do in breeding colonies, have higher rates of EPCs and EPFs than birds that do not nest colonially. [46] Despite this, Westneat and Sherman (1997) [49] found no significant correlation between nesting density and EPFs in a meta-analysis. Many seabird species ...