Parakeet Auklet

Aethia psittacula

Stubby orange bill and a soft musical chatter at sea. Forages alone in icy Bering waters.

Population: ~1.4 million mature individuals (decreasing trend)
Habitat: Open boreal ocean waters (pelagic outside breeding season); breeds colonially in crevices along rocky sea cliffs, talus/boulder slopes, and lava extrusions on offshore islands
Fun fact: The Parakeet Auklet gets its name from its stubby, upturned orange bill — so distinctively rounded that its genus was once called Cyclorrhynchus ("circle-billed") — giving it a fixed, doll-like, almost smiling expression unlike any other auk.
Range: North Pacific: breeds from Hokkaido, Japan and the Kamchatka/Sea of Okhotsk coast of Siberia across the Aleutians, Bering Sea islands, and southern Chukchi Sea to coastal Alaska; winters at sea south to central California, with occasional records off Canada and Mexico
Diet: Marine invertebrates taken by pursuit-diving: gelatinous zooplankton (jellyfish, ctenophores) and crustaceans such as euphausiids, copepods, and hyperiid amphipods, especially during the breeding season
Size: 0.23 m
Wingspan: 0.35 m
Lifespan: 10 years

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