Populations and habitat use of marine birds in the Semidi Islands, Alaska

Murrelet
By:  and 

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Abstract

About one-quarter of the resident seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska breed on the Semidi Islands. In terms of biomass, the proportion is closer to one-third. The most abundant birds are Common and Thick-billed Murres, with a combined population exceeding 1 million birds. Hundreds of thousands of Horned Puffins breed in burrows on two islands. Other species numbering more than 100,000 individuals include the Northern Fulmar, Fork-tailed and Leach's Storm-Petrels, and possibly also the Black-legged Kittiwake and Tufted Puffin. Both species of storm-petrels commonly nest in side chambers of puffin burrows. Parasitic Jaegers nest in a loose colony on Chowiet Island. This behavior has not been reported elsewhere in the Gulf of Alaska. Red-faced and Pelagic Cormorants commonly change breeding colony location from year to year. The Semidi Islands are the easternmost breeding site for Least Auklets.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Populations and habitat use of marine birds in the Semidi Islands, Alaska
Series title Murrelet
DOI 10.2307/3534688
Volume 64
Issue 2
Year Published 1983
Language English
Publisher Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology
Contributing office(s) Alaska Science Center
Description 8 p.
First page 39
Last page 46
Country United States
State Alaska
Other Geospatial Gulf of Alaska, Semidi Islands
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