Page 401 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

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ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES
Atlantic Puffin

Fratercula arctica
LENGTH 11–12 in
(28–30 cm)
WEIGHT 14 oz (400 g)
HABITAT Inshore
waters, rocky coasts,
open sea
DISTRIBUTION North Atlantic, breeding north
to Greenland and Svalbard

HUMAN IMPACT
COMPETING FOR FOOD
With its vividly marked bill, bright red regurgitating food, as most sea birds
feet, and red-and-black eye patches, do, they return with small fish held The puffin population has fallen
this is the most colorful sea bird in in their bills, carrying about six fish sharply of late, especially in the
the north Atlantic. Like other simultaneously, arranged alternately eastern Atlantic. This may be due
members of the auk family, it feeds head to tail. Each nestling is fed to the growing fishery for sand
by pursuing fish underwater, using its continuously for about six weeks, after eels, a fish that puffins rely on,
strong, stubby wings to swim. In the which the parents abandon it and especially in breeding season. Sand
air, it flies rapidly on fast-beating head out to sea. After going without eels are used in fertilizers, animal
wings, skimming over the waves as it food for several days, the young bird foods, and as a source of edible oil.
returns to its nest with food. Atlantic crawls out of the burrow and flutters
puffins breed in large clifftop colonies, down to the sea after dark. Puffins
UNFAIR SHARES
digging burrows in coastal turf. The disperse out to sea in fall, when they A catch of sand eels is brought aboard a boat.
parents take turns incubating the lose the bright bill colors that make These finger-shaped fish, unrelated to true eels,
single egg, and they both help to feed them so conspicuous during the are an important food for some fish and sea birds.
the developing nestling. Instead of summer months.

ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES This tiny bird is probably the most ORDER CORACIIFORMES single band. Pairs nest in burrows in
abundant species of auk, a family that sandy banks and are often helped by
Least Auklet also includes murres and puffins. Pied Kingfisher the previous year’s young to collect
Short, plump, and gray-backed, with food for the nestlings. The adults have
Aethia pusilla a stubby red-tipped bill, it nests in vast Ceryle rudis a loud, high-pitched call, which may
LENGTH 6 in (15 cm) colonies off the Alaskan coast, some LENGTH 10 in (25 cm) be heard as they speed past.
of which contain more than a million
1
WEIGHT 3 oz (85 g) WEIGHT 3 / 4 oz (90 g)
birds. Least auklets also feed together,
HABITAT Inshore HABITAT Coasts,
waters, rocky coasts, floating on the surface in large lagoons, estuaries,
open sea gatherings known as “rafts.” They rivers, marshes
are pursuit divers
DISTRIBUTION North Pacific, breeding mainly in the that eat mainly DISTRIBUTION Africa, Middle East, south Asia
Aleutian Islands and islands in Bering Sea zooplankton.
This boldly patterned, black-and-
white bird is the only kingfisher that
regularly fishes offshore. Instead of
ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES
watching for prey from a perch, as
Crested Auklet many other kingfisher species do, it
flies rapidly above the surface with its
head facing down as it scans the water
Aethia cristatella
1
1
LENGTH 9 / 2–10 / 2 in below. If it spots food, it hovers on the
(24–27 cm) spot, and then dives down to make a
WEIGHT 9 oz (250 g) catch. It can also eat while in flight,
another unique adaptation. Male and
HABITAT Inshore
waters, rocky coasts, female pied kingfishers look similar,
open sea although the female has a double
DISTRIBUTION North Pacific, breeding mainly in the breast band compared to the male’s
Aleutian Islands and islands in Bering Sea
The north Pacific is home to more ORDER CORACIIFORMES Also known as the mangrove
species of auks than anywhere else. kingfisher, this bird lives in a variety of
The crested auklet is a typical Collared Kingfisher habitats, although in Australia it is
example, with a compact body, restricted to the coast. Greenish blue
sooty-gray plumage, and a feathery Todirhamphus chloris above, with a white belly and collar,
crest that curves forward from its LENGTH 11 in (28 cm) it has a black eye-stripe and a sharply
forehead over its orange-red bill. Like pointed bill. On coasts, it hunts crabs
1
WEIGHT 4 / 2 oz (120 g)
other auks, it flies low on rapidly as well as fish and, like all kingfishers
whirring wings and feeds in flocks so courtship displays are energetic and HABITAT Forests, except the pied (see above), beats its
coasts, beaches,
dense that they resemble swarms of noisy, as they throw back their heads mangrove swamps, prey against a perch before swallowing OCEAN LIFE
insects wheeling over the water. and make loud grunts and trumpeting estuaries it. It often nests in hollows in mangrove
Crested auklets breed among fallen sounds. When the breeding season is DISTRIBUTION Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Southeast trees, and lays three or four eggs.
rocks on island coasts, in colonies over, they disperse out to sea and Asia, Australasia In the far south of its range, this bird
containing thousands of birds. Their spend the winter as far south as Japan. is a summer visitor only.