Food Habits of the Whiskered Auklet at Buldir Island, Alaska ’
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Condor91165-72 0 TheCooper Ornithological Society 1989 FOOD HABITS OF THE WHISKERED AUKLET AT BULDIR ISLAND, ALASKA ’ ROBERT H. DAY Institute of Marine Sciences, 200 ONeill’ Building, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 997751080 G. VERNON BYRD Alaska Maritime National Wildrife Refuge, Aleutian Islands Unit, P.O. Box 5251, Adak, AK 98791 Abstract. We studied the food habits of Whiskered Auklets (Aethia pygmaea) at Buldir Island, western Aleutian Islands, Alaska, during the summer of 1976. At Buldir, thesebirds fed primarily in and near convergent tidal fronts in the passesbetween three islets just offshore; feeding occurred throughout the day. Whiskered Auklets ate at least 10 different speciesof zooplanktonic prey, of which the copepod Neocalanus plumchrus was the most important. Next in importance were chaetognaths(probably Sagitta elegans), the amphipod Parathemisto pacifica, megalopae of the crab Erimacrus isenbeckii, and an unidentified amphipod. Pteropods (probably Limacina helicina), larval cephalopods,and a larval fish occurred in trace amounts. During most of the summer, Whiskered Auklets were nearly monophagouson N. plumchrus; we do not consider a difference in prey during late incu- bation/early chick rearing to representa biologically-significanttrend. We collected Least (A. pusilla), Crested (A. cristatella), and Parakeet (Cyclorrhynchus psittacula) auklets during late chick rearing, to compare their food habits with those of Whiskered Auklets. At this time, both Least and Whiskered auklets were monophagouson smaller N. plumchrus, whereas Crested and Parakeet auklets mainly ate larger N. cristatus and P. pacifica; Parakeet Auklets ate the widest diversity of zooplankton. Selection of prey by the four auklet speciesappeared to occur in relation to size, with the smaller auklets eating smaller zooplankters. Key words: WhiskeredAuklet;food habits: oceanic zooplankton; tidalfronts; Least Auklet; Crested Auklet; Parakeet Auklet; competition. INTRODUCTION 7 g; range = 102-138 g; n = 60), is slightly larger The Whiskered Auklet (Aethia pygmaea) is one than the Least Auklet and considerably smaller of four plankton-feeding auklet speciesthat are than Crested and Parakeet auklets. confined to the Bering Seaand the Seaof Okhotsk Although the four auklet speciesexhibit broad (AOU 1983). This species exhibits broad eco- ecologicaloverlap, thesedifferences in size result logical overlap with the other three auklet species in fine-scale partitioning of nesting habitat and (Least Auklet, A. pusilla; CrestedAuklet, A. cris- food resources.For example, all four speciesnest tatella; and Parakeet Auklet, Cyclorrhynchus in rock crevices (primarily in talus slopes), but psittacula) in nesting and in feeding: all generally the crevicesused are of different sizes,with crev- nest in rock crevices and feed on zooplankton. ice size proportional to the size of the bird (e.g., The four speciesdo differ in size, however, in Least Auklets use the smallest crevices, Crested that the smallest member of the group (Least Auklets use the largest;Bedard 1969c, Knudtson Auklet) weighs only 84 g (SD = 7 g; range = 72- and Byrd 1982). Partitioning of food resources 98 g; n = 457) whereas the largest members of also has been observed for Least, Crested, and the group (Crested Auklet and Parakeet Auklet) Parakeet auklets (Bedard 1969b, Hunt et al. weigh 264 g (SD = 19 g; range = 195-330 g; n 198 l), but practically nothing hasbeen published = 192) and 258 g (SD = 19 g; range = 215-292 about the food habits of the Whiskered Auklet g; II = 42), respectively(Knudtson and Byrd 1982; (Vermeer et al. 1987). Day and Byrd, unpubl. data). The Whiskered BCdard (1969a) predicted that the small dif- Auklet, which weighs an average of 121 g (SD = ference in size between Least and Whiskered auklets should cause extensive overlap in food habits. He further suggestedthat this (hypothe- I Received28 March 1988.Final acceptance28 Sep- sized) competition caused the paucity of Whis- tember 1988. kered Auklets in the Aleutian Islands, where Least [651 66 ROBERT H. DAY AND G. VERNON BYRD Auklets are present, and the abundance of Whis- bers and total weights that were ~0.1% for a kered Auklets in the Kuril Islands, where Least given taxon were rounded to 0.1% in the data Auklets are absent. We thus conductedthis study summaries. Becauseof the small sample sizesof to describethe prey eaten by the Whiskered Auk- auklets, data from both sexeswere combined for let throughout its breeding season and to com- the data summaries. Data from stomachs and pare the foods of Whiskered Auklets with those sublingual pouchesalso were combined, because of Least, Crested,and Parakeetauklets. The study the foods were essentially identical. was conducted at Buldir Island (52”24’N, Food samples from five of the seven Crested 175”56’E), Alaska, where all four speciesof auk- Auklets were too large for analyses of each in- lets breed (Knudtson and Byrd 1982, Byrd et al. dividual food item; these five stomachs con- 1983, Byrd and Day 1986). tained an estimated 400-2,400 prey items. For thesestomachs, we used a Stemple pipette (com- METHODS monly used for subsampling zooplankton sam- The at-sea distribution of Whiskered Auklets was ples) to take two subsamplestotaling 5.0-13.2% studied in the vicinity of Buldir Island during of the total volume of food items. Identifications, May-August 1985 and 1986 (M. A. Spindler, numbers, and weights were determined for these U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, unpubl. manu- subsamples, then total numbers and weights of script). Data were collected at a total of 269 sea- each taxon were estimated for each of the sub- bird transect stations. These line transectswere sampled birds from the subsample data. 300 m wide by a distance that was covered in Only those birds containing food were consid- either 10 min or 15 min of time while the boat ered in the data summaries; out of 40 auklets was moving forward in a straight line at a known collected, only one had an empty stomach (a speed. Later, data were stratified into “near- Whiskered Auklet on 16 July). For each taxon, shore” (< 3 nm [5.5 km] from shore) and “off- we calculated the three frequently-reported mea- shore” (~3 nm [5.5 km] from shore) transects. suresof food habits: percent frequency of occur- Thus, offshore transects occurred anywhere in rence (F), percent of the total number of indi- the 70-nm-wide (130-km-wide) passesto the east viduals of all taxa combined (N), and percent of and west of Buldir (Fig. 1). the total weight of all taxa combined (W). We We collected Whiskered Auklets at Buldir Is- then calculated an Index of Relative Importance land from a small boat during late egg laying/ (IRI) with an equation modified from Pinkas early incubation (26 May; six birds), late incu- (1971): bation/early chick rearing (l-2 July; six birds), IRI = F(N + W). and middle and late chick rearing (15-l 6 July; seven birds; and 4 August; six birds) in 1976; we IRI values range from 0.02 [i.e., 0.1% x (0.1% also have included data from one bird collected + O.l%)]to20,000[i.e., 100% x (lOO%+ lOO%)], on 3 August 1974. For comparison of food habits with larger numbers representingfood items that during the chick-rearing period in 1976, we col- are relatively “important” in the birds’ diets. IRI lected four Parakeet Auklets (5 August), three values combine the three main attributes that Least Auklets (15 and 3 1 July), and seven Crest- frequently are discussed separately in feeding ed Auklets (5 August). All birds were collected studies and thus provide an overall analysis of within 1.0 km of the north shore of the island. the relative importance of prey taxa. Stomachs were preserved in buffered formalin and later were transferred to 10% isopropanol RESULTS for sorting and identification. In the laboratory, we sorted and identified all FORAGING HABITAT prey items in each stomachto the lowest possible At Buldir Island, Whiskered Auklets fed pri- taxon, counted the number of recognizable in- marily in and near convergent tidal fronts that dividuals of each taxon, and weighed the tissue formed in and near the passesbetween three is- of each taxon to the nearest 1 mg. When only lets just off the northwestern comer of the island fragments of a taxon were encountered, the num- (Fig. 1). All birds were collected in these tidal ber of individuals of that taxon was recorded as fronts, and 25 of 26 contained food. Whiskered 1 +, and the number used for that bird in the Auklets apparently feed diurnally, for we en- data summaries was 1. Percentagesof total num- countered them during every visit to the tide rips FEEDING OF WHISKERED AUKLETS 67 FIGURE 1. Bathymetryin the vicinity of Buldir Island,Alaska. Shading delineates the primaryforaging area of WhiskeredAuklets. (09:00-22:00 local time); we did not determine Aleutians, Day and B. E. Lawhead estimated ap- if nocturnal feeding also occurs. proximately 10,000 Whiskered Auklets feeding Whiskered Auklets were seen on nine (36.0%) in standing waves l-2 m high in Kagamil Strait of 25 seabird transects in nearshore (~5.5 km (Islands of Four Mountains) on 2 June 1978, and from shore) waters, but significantly fewer (x2 = G. A. Putney (pers. comm.) saw “thousands” the 19.36; df = 1; P < 0.001) were seen in offshore following day in tide rips between Amukta and (~5.5 km from shore) waters around Buldir ( 19 Chagulak islands (Islands of Four Mountains). [7.8%] of 244 transects;Spindler, unpubl.). Fur- In the central Aleutians, E. P. Knudtson and Day ther, thoserecords from offshorewaters occurred saw approximately 200 birds feeding in tide rips only early in the breeding season, during May off Ugidak Island (Delarof Islands) on 30-3 1 July and June. We interpret these results to indicate 1977.