MARINE BIRDS OF THE CHUKCHI AND BERING SEAS 



27 



BLACK GUILLEMOT 



PIGEON GUILLEMOT. 3 



KITTLITZ'S 

 MURRELET 



PARAKEET AUKLET S 



CRESTED AUKLET 



LEAST AUKLET 



TUFTED PUFFIN 



nearly 100 species of marine birds is shown in 

 Fig. 3; their relative numbers at these sites 

 are not shown because data are generally 

 lacking. 



Chukchi Sea 



The largest colonies of seabirds in the Chuk- 

 chi Sea are those on Little Diomede Island, 

 Cape Lisburne, Cape Thompson, and Fairway 

 Rock. Smaller colonies are in Kotzebue Sound 

 along the northern base of the Seward Penin- 

 sula. These colonies are largely dominated by 

 thick-billed and common murres and black- 

 legged kitti wakes (Rissa tridactyla) and on 

 the islands in the Bering Strait also the 

 crested, least, and parakeet auklets. Horned 



puffins, tufted puffins (Lunda cirrhata), 

 pelagic cormorants (Phalacrocorax pelagicus), 

 and glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) make 

 up the remaining majority. For the whole area 

 there are probably fewer than a hundred birds 

 each of black guillemots and pigeon guille- 

 mots (Cepphus columba) occupying colonies. 

 Dovekies (Alle alle) are occasionally sighted in 

 this area, but only as stragglers from their 

 normal range. 



Part of the mystery surrounding the nest- 

 ing location of Kittlitz's murrelet (Brachy- 

 ramphus brevirostris) was solved when 

 Thompson et al. (1966) discovered a downy 

 chick in the Kukpuk River drainage nearly 

 45 km by river from salt water. Other nesting 

 sites of the Kittlitz's murrelets in this region 



