Return of Bird of the Week: Parakeet Auklet

Parakeet Auklet, St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

We’re continuing to look at Alcids, one of the families of small, diving seabirds of the Northern Hemisphere. This is the first auklet we’ll look at, the Parakeet Auklet, a species of the North Pacific Ocean.

This is a beautiful seabird whose white irides (the area of the eye surrounding the iris) stand out dramatically from the black head, along with the striking, ornamental white facial plumes. The bright orange bill is nearly round. The breeding colonies are not large, and not densely populated, but you’d think otherwise from the sound, near-continuous whiney calls during courtship.

Courtship behavior, Parakeet Auklets, St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

Parakeet Auklets have the widest range of any of the Alaskan auklets, spanning the northern Gulf of Alaska, most of the Bering Sea, the north Pacific south of the Aleutian Islands, and the Sea of Okhotsk in Siberia. Their preferred breeding sites are in crevices along rocky cliff faces, although small breeding colonies may be located on rocky beaches, talus slopes, lava extrusions and even grassy slopes with scattered boulders. Like other auklets, this species is socially monogamous, with conspicuous vocal and visual courtship displays at its breeding colonies; both sexes have those ornamental facial plumes.

Parakeet Auklets, note nest cranny to the right of the lower birds, St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

The age of sexual maturity, like a lot of things about this species, is unknown, but is suspected to be three to four years. Courtship involves the male perching on an outcrop near a nest site and calling, that distinctive whinnying that sounds very much like a horse whinny. If a female is interested, she investigates the potential mate, the proposed nest site and makes up her mind. The nest is just a cranny; there’s no lining. There is one egg, which is incubated by both sexes for 35-36 days. Unusually, incubation by each bird is a continuous 24 hours. The hatchling is brooded continuously for the first seven days, and nocturnally for another 5-7 days.

Hatchlings are fed by both parents. Parakeet Auklets bills are adapted to catching and carrying invertebrates, including jellyfish. And breeding adults have a pouch in their throat to carry more food. It takes a lot of those low energy prey items to feed the hatchling. The hatchlings fledge after 35-37 days, sometimes longer in low-prey years. After fledging, the young bird is on its own; there is no post-fledging parental support. Post-breeding, young birds and the adults disperse southwards, into the North Pacific Ocean, where their behavior is pretty much unknown.

Parakeet Auklet, with Least Auklet in background, St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

The combination of secretive, difficult to reach nests, largely unknown post-breeding dispersal and apparent sometime returns by pre-breeding sub-adults has made censusing of Parakeet Auklets very difficult. The Alaskan population is roughly estimated at 1 million birds, with another 600,000 or so in Asia. Population trends are unknown. An estimated 85% of the breeding colonies are in Alaska.

There are known threats to the species; its affinity for small invertebrates apparently leads the birds to consume plastic fragments that resemble prey. One collected bird from Buldir Island was dissected. Its crop contained 42 different plastic fragments. There’s no evidence the plastic fragments are affecting individual birds’ health or reproductive success, but the volume of plastics found is concerning.

Based on wide dispersal, population estimates and reproductive success, the IUCN classifies Parakeet Auklets as having declining populations but nonethless a species of Least Concern.

For more bird photographs, please visit WC’s bird photo site, Frozen Feather Images.