How do you identify a Kittiwake?

Kittiwakes are gentle looking, medium-sized gulls with a small yellow bill and a dark eye. They have a grey back with white underneath. Their legs are short and black. In flight the black wing-tips show no white, unlike other gulls, and look as if they have been ‘dipped in ink’.

Is a Kittiwake a seagull?

Kittiwakes are coastal breeding birds ranging in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Arctic oceans. They form large, dense, noisy colonies during the summer reproductive period, often sharing habitat with murres. They are the only gull species that are exclusively cliff-nesting.

Why is the Kittiwake endangered?

For the adults, exposure to other threats at sea such as lack of food due to bycatch in fishing gear, pollution, and hunting in the Faroe Islands and Greenland have all contributed to the dramatic declines of the seabird.

What eats the black legged kittiwake?

Larger gulls and jaegers often target kittiwakes, harassing them in flight and stealing their food. Kittiwakes also regularly steal food in this manner from other kittiwakes. They hunt mostly during daylight hours but sometimes hunt nocturnally when prey such as lanternfish are available.

What sound does a kittiwake make?

Both adults vocalize, standing in nest, facing each other or parallel with heads pointing in same direction; this call is most typically given when an individual lands at its nest and by both pair members as a pair-greeting. . “Kittiwake” sound = “ a-eh-al-eh ” or “ e-e-eh ” or “ hi-e-eh ” or “ gi-e-eh ” (Paludan 1955.

Why are kittiwakes called kittiwakes?

Kittiwakes get their common name from their calls – “kittee-wa-aaake!” Kittiwake chicks are one of the few chicks that are white at birth. Because of their remote nesting areas in cliffs they do not require camouflage like the chicks of other more vulnerable species.

Are kittiwakes endangered?

Least Concern (Population decreasing)
Black-legged kittiwake/Conservation status

Where do kittiwakes go in winter?

Following the end of the seabird breeding season, Kittiwakes depart their nesting colonies in the North Sea in September and winter across in the north-west Atlantic, some as far as 1,800 miles off the coast of Greenland and Canada.

What do kittiwakes feed on?

The kittiwake is our most sea-loving gull, only turning up inland on odd occasions and spending winter out on the Atlantic. A medium-sized, elegant and gentle-looking gull, it eats fish, shrimps and worms, and does not scavenge at landfill sites like other gulls.

Are kittiwakes protected?

Laws exist to protect all wild birds, including kittiwakes. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) protects adult kittiwakes, their active nests, eggs and chicks. For example, it is illegal to remove or destroy eggs or a nest that is in use and kill adult birds or chicks.

What type of consumer is a Kittiwake?

Puffins, kittiwakes, and gulls are tertiary consumers.

What are kittiwake nests made of?

Nests are built from seaweed, other vegetation, feathers, barnacles, and mud on the ledges of steep cliffs. Nesting colonies can include thousands of mating pairs of adults. Both the male and female contribute to the building of the nest. 2 eggs are laid between the middle of May and June.