EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Here, The Least Is The Most

Least Auklet (Aethia pusilla), Family Alcidae
St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska USA

Explanation:  This week we find ourselves amidst an amazing seabird colony on the remote island of St. Lawrence, out in the Bering Sea of Alaska.  Among the boulders and rocky cliffs along the shore, thousands of these tiny seabirds aggregate to breed, feed, and rest.  These are Least Auklets, the smallest member of the auk family.  

  

Least Auklets grow to only about 6-1/2 inches (16 cm) long.
Shown here is their summer plumage, characterized
by splotchy light patches against a darker back
and dark spots against a lighter belly.

Characteristic of Least Auklets are the yellow eyes,
large, black webbed feet, red-tipped bills with a small knob,
and a white throat with streaked white forehead during the breeding season.

Least Auklets are found in the north Pacific in the United States, Japan, and Russia, but oddly seem to be only vagrants in Canada.  Populations seem to be declining from pollution and predation, although they are still rated as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List. 

But here on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, the colonies seem secure.  And here the LEAST Auklet is the MOST abundant of all the nesting seabirds.