Distribution and Status of Marine Birds Breeding 

 Along the Coasts of the Chukchi and Bering Seas 



by 



James C. Bartonek 1 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 Fairbanks, Alaska 



and 

 Spencer G. Sealy 



University of Manitoba 

 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 



Abstract 



The Alaska coast fronting on the Chukchi and Bering seas, exclusive of the 

 Aleutian Islands, supports seven complexes of marine bird colonies numbering 

 more than 1 million birds each, nine colonies of 100,000 to almost 1 million birds, 

 and many smaller colonies. Colonies are found on most headlands and islands 

 and are dominated numerically by alcids and kittiwakes (Rissa sp.). Estuarine 

 habitats (mainly the lowlands of northern Seward Peninsula, Yukon-Kuskokwim 

 delta, and the north side of the Alaska Peninsula) are extremely important for 

 breeding and migrating marine waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls (Larus sp.), and terns 

 (Sterna sp.). Information on population size and distribution of breeding marine 

 birds within this area is extensive for only a few of the more heavily hunted 

 species of waterfowl. Except for the intensive and systematic censusing of a few 

 colonies in this region, population data on cliff-, burrow-, and crevice-nesting 

 birds are such that all but gross changes in numbers may go unnoticed, and if 

 noticed they could not be measured. 



Habitats for breeding marine birds are mittedly arbitrary, we discuss mainly the 

 found along much of the 4,1 00-km coastline of colonial nesting species because they are 

 Alaska that fronts on the Chukchi and Bering generally in greater jeopardy from lost breed- 

 seas. Seasonal sea ice and an extensive outer ing habitat and from catastrophes than are 

 continental shelf are dominant features that the species that are widely dispersed or soli- 

 contribute to the productivity of these marine tary in nesting. Because we believe matters 

 waters, which sustain populations of fishes, affecting the conservation of marine birds will 

 birds, and mammals that are of considerable be geographically oriented, we discuss the 

 and diverse values to man (Kelley and Hood status and distribution of breeding birds on 

 1974). that basis, rather than by the more tradi- 



Our purpose in this paper is to describe the tional taxonomic approach. We use the terms 



distribution, abundance, and relative status "colony" and "colonies" somewhat loosely 



of some of the nearly 100 species of marine and interchangeably to include any aggrega- 



birds breeding within this region and the in- , . , , . , f , , ,. rr 



.... , tion of birds of the same or different species 



formation base from which the descriptions 



are derived. Although the selection is ad- nesting in proximity to each other, even those 



on the same island or headland, although 

 populations may be miles apart and occupy 



Present address: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, different kinds of habitats. The nature of this 

 500 NE Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon paper and the scale of our maps do not allow 

 97232. for detailed resolution of each colony's loca- 



21 



