The
Little Auk, or
Dovekie (
Alle alle), is a small
aukAuks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits...
, the only member of the genus
Alle. It breeds on islands in the high
ArcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
. There are two
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is 1) a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or 2) a taxonomic unit, a taxon in that rank...
:
A. a. alle breeds in
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
,
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
,
Novaya ZemlyaNovaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe at Cape Zhelaniya...
and
SpitsbergenSpitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
, and
A. a. polaris on
Franz Josef LandFranz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast...
.
This is the only Atlantic auk of its size, half the size of the
Atlantic PuffinThe Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic is its brightly coloured beak during the breeding seasons...
at 19–21 cm in length, with a 34–38 cm wingspan. Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings, with white underparts.
The
Little Auk, or
Dovekie (
Alle alle), is a small
aukAuks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits...
, the only member of the genus
Alle. It breeds on islands in the high
ArcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
. There are two
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is 1) a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or 2) a taxonomic unit, a taxon in that rank...
:
A. a. alle breeds in
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
,
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
,
Novaya ZemlyaNovaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe at Cape Zhelaniya...
and
SpitsbergenSpitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
, and
A. a. polaris on
Franz Josef LandFranz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast...
.
Morphology and behaviour
This is the only Atlantic auk of its size, half the size of the
Atlantic PuffinThe Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic is its brightly coloured beak during the breeding seasons...
at 19–21 cm in length, with a 34–38 cm wingspan. 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.
The flight is direct, with fast whirring wing beats due to the short wings. These birds forage for food like other auks by swimming underwater. They mainly eat
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
s, especially
copepodCopepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Many species are planktonic , but more are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
s, but also other small
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
s along with small
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
. They collect in large swarms before leaving their breeding rocks to head out to sea for food as well as when they return.
Little Auks produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but are silent at sea.
Habitat and ecology
Their breeding habitat is
coastThe coast is defined as where the land meets the sea. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
al mountainsides, where they have large colonies. They nest in crevices or beneath large rocks, usually laying just one
eggIn most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo. When the embryo is adequately developed it breaks out of the egg in the...
. They
moveBird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. These however are usually irregular or in only one direction and are termed variously as nomadism, invasions,...
south in winter into northern areas of the north
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
. Late autumn storms may carry them south of their normal wintering areas, or into the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
.
In the book,
The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder writes of her father finding a small bird that looked just like a Great Auk hidden in a haystack after an early October blizzard when the family lived near De Smet, South Dakota around 1880. The family never did find out what it was, but it appears to have been a Little Auk, blown south by the autumn blizzard.
The Little Auk's prey are chiefly
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
s, but the Little Auk also serves as a scavenger, cleaning up remains of the kill of
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
s, as an example. The
Glaucous GullThe Glaucous Gull, Larus hyperboreus is a large gull which breeds in the Arctic regions of the northern hemisphere and the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the USA,...
and the
Arctic FoxThe Arctic Fox , also known as the White Fox or Snow Fox, is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome...
are the main predators on Little Auks, and, in some cases, the
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
has also been reported to feed on their eggs.
Conservation
Large numbers of Little Auks have been killed in several oil-spill incidents. but climate changes (warming) in Southern Greenland and Iceland seems to be the reason for the decreasing populations there.