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Least Auklet
last update: Mar 04, 2009 03:17 PM
Latin name: Aethia pusilla
Population: 5.5 million-9 million individuals
Cites classified: Least Concern
Where found: They breed on the islands of Alaska and Siberia, and spend the winter close to the edge of the ice sheet. Their largest colonies are on the Aleutian Islands, St. Lawrence Island and Little Diomede Island.
Age/ life expectancy: unknown
Wingspan: 33-36 cm
Length: 12-14 cm
Weight: 85 g
Mating/Breeding: Breeding occurs on remote islands, rocky beaches, sea-facing talus slopes, cliffs, boulder fields, and lava flows which provide rock crevices for nesting. One egg is laid on bare rock on a flat surface inside the crevice. They are a highly colonial species and generally nest in association with Crested Auklets. A single egg is laid in the crevice and incubated for a month, after which a semi-precocial black downy chick is hatched. Both parents share incubation duties, as well as brooding and feeding duties. Unlike many auks, which are fed fish carried crosswise in the bill, chicks of the Least Auklet are fed copepods and other zooplankton from a sublingual pouch, as are other small auklets. The chicks receive no further parental care after they fledge, and can dive to hunt as soon as they leave the nest.
Hibernation: Autumn and winter are spent almost exclusively at sea. They remain near breeding areas year-round where waters remain ice-free.
Hunting Habits: surface dive under the water then forage while in wing-propelled, underwater “flight”
Feed on: zooplankton and microscopic marine crustaceans
Predators: Arctic foxes and the Norway rat
Colour/Body: In breeding season, both sexes have a colourful red bill with a lighter tip, a dark, horny knob projecting vertically from the upper bill, and white facial plumes. Plumage is dark gray above with variable white patches on the shoulder. Underparts are markedly variable and range from unmarked white, through spotted intermediates, to completely blackish gray. In the winter, the bill becomes blackish, they lose the bill knob and white facial plumes, and the plumage of the underparts is unmarked white.
