Little auk
Little auk | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Alcidae |
Genus: | Alle Link, 1806 |
Species: | A. alle
|
Binomial name | |
Alle alle | |
Subspecies[2] | |
| |
Global map of eBird reports Year-round range Summer range Winter range
| |
Synonyms | |
Alca alle Linnaeus, 1758 |
The little auk or dovekie (Alle alle) is a small
Dovekies breed on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard, and A. a. polaris on Franz Josef Land. A small number of individuals breed on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait with additional breeding individuals thought to occur on King Island, St. Lawrence Island, St. Matthew Island and the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.[7]
Morphology and behaviour
This is the only Atlantic
, dovekies are black on the head, neck, back, and wings, with white underparts. The bill is short and stubby. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face and fore neck become white in winter plumage.Flight is fast and direct, with rapid whirring wing beats due to dovekies' short wings[8]. These birds forage for food like other auks by swimming underwater. They mainly eat crustaceans, especially copepods, of which a 150 g (5.3 oz) bird requires ~60,000 individuals per day (equivalent to 30 g [1.1 oz] of dry food weight)[9], but they also eat small invertebrates such as mollusks, as well as small fish. Recent evidence suggests that the little auk forages not by filter-feeding on planktonic prey, but by visually-guided suction-feeding.[10] They feed close to the shoreline during the breeding season, and feed near coastlines and ice edges during the winter[8].
Little auks produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but tend to be silent at sea.[8]
-
Little auk swimming and diving.
-
Little auk in winter plumage
Ecology
Little auks breed in large colonies on marine cliffsides. They nest in crevices or beneath large rocks, and may build rudimentary nests by bringing small pebbles and/or old grasses and
The
Conservation
Although populations appear to be decreasing, this is not currently thought to be rapid enough to be of concern for the species in the medium term, especially as global little auk numbers are generally rather fluid.[1] Little auks have been shown to be able to buffer fluctuations in prey availability, caused by climate change, via plasticity in their foraging behavior, which is likely to make accurate conservation assessments more difficult.[13]
Human consumption
Due to the nature of dovekies to feed near shore during both summer and winter months, the species has been an important source of food for Inuit of Greenland, Baffin Island, and Labrador, as well as at parts of its southern range in eastern Canada.
Knud Rasmussen's death is attributed to food poisoning by kiviaq.[15][16]
On the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada the dovekie is known colloquially as the Bull(y) Bird or Ice Bird[5][8]. The birds were once hunted, stuffed with savoury dressing and oven-baked. It was a food of last resort to prevent winter starvation amongst the fisher people of Newfoundland's outport communities. Shot with BB pellets on ice pans off Newfoundland's south coast, a feed would consist of 5–6 birds per person. Similarly, a hunt still exists today for murres in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador[17], and mainly acts as a subsistence hunt for traditional hunters, who shoot wintering murres near ice flows in coastal waters as a food source.
See also
References
- ^ . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- .
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ "Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary s. v. 'rotch'". Retrieved September 6, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Dovekie Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
- ^ "Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary s. v. 'sea dove'". Retrieved September 6, 2020.
- ISSN 1051-1733.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Montevecchi, W. A., and I. J. Stenhouse. 2002. Dovekie (Alle alle). In The Birds of North America, No. 701 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
- .
- PMID 29844199.
- ^ C.Michael Hogan (2011). "Norwegian Sea". In P.Saundry; C.J.Cleveland (eds.). Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington DC: National Council for Science and the Environment.
- ISBN 978-82-7666-176-7.
- .
- ^ Freuchen, Dagmar (1960). Peter Freuchen's Adventures in the Arctic. New York: Messner. p. 81.
- ^ "Eating Narwhal". Smithsonian Magazine. 2009-04-23. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Diski, Gretel (2002-02-16). "Review: This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Canada, Environment and Climate Change (2010-06-29). "Hunting regulations summary for migratory birds: Newfoundland and Labrador". www.canada.ca. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
External links
- "Alle alle". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
- Feathers of Little Auk (Alle alle)