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Little Auk
last update: Mar 04, 2009 03:17 PM
Also known as the Dovekie
Latin name: Alle alle
Longevity: 10-25 years
Population: Numerous, but difficult to count
Cites classified: Least Concern
Where found: The Dovekie breeds along high-arctic coasts and only makes its way southward in winter as far as New England.
Wingspan: 34-38 cm
Length: 19-23 cm
Weight: 134-204 g
Mating/Breeding: It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. Their breeding habitat is coastal mountainsides, where they have huge colonies. They nest in crevices or beneath large rocks, usually laying just one egg. They are monogamous and breed seasonally.
Eggs: Eggs are very large, averaging from 4 to 5 cm in length, and weighing an average of 30 g. Incubation periods usually last 29 days.
Hibernation: Winters at sea from Newfoundland southward to Gulf of Maine; farther south in some years to New York or Virginia. Also off Northern Europe
Aggressive?: Although they do not often communicate, they are a very functional and successful social species, and live together without much apparent competition.
Hunting Habits: These birds forage for food like other auks by diving underwater to capture prey, using its wings to swim.
Feed on: mainly eat crustaceans especially copepods, but also other small invertebrates along with small fish.
Predators: Humans, wild cats, arctic foxes, raccoons, mink, glaucous gulls, rats and presumably other rodents are predators of dovekies when they are nesting on land. Most of these predators prey on both young and adult dovekies, but the smaller species, such as rats, feed on eggs.
Colour/Looks: The Dovekie is a small waterbird. Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings with white underparts. The bill is very short and stubby. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face and fore neck become white in winter.
Interesting Trivia:
- Dovekies are notoriously liable to being driven, often in large numbers, far outside their normal winter range by storms
- The Dovkie breeding population at Thule in northwestern Greenland is among the largest and densest breeding aggregations of all auks. This population traditionally has been estimated as 30 million birds.
