Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 21:51

We don't usually think of birds as being carnivores. Since there are no plants such as we know them in the United States, what do Artic sea birds eat?? Where do they make their nests? Are the birds generally large birds or small birds?

Thomas Harten

webmaster@polartrec.com wrote:Thanks for your great questions!
> Actually there are a number of arctic birds that do feed exclusively upon meat such as
the snowy owl and the gyrfalcon. Other birds such as the Ivory Gull,
will follow around behind
polar bears to scavenge the remains from their seal kills. Most of the
arctic seabirds are piscivorous or fish eating species. Other seabirds
will feed largely on large zooplankton such as Euphausiids (or krill).
Most of the seabirds are relatively large in size. A murre weighs about
1000 grams (a bit over 2 lbs). The smallest of the seabirds that I
observed, the Least Auklet weighs about 85 grams (about 3 oz).
Although most of their time is spent at sea during the year, the birds
must find land upon which to nest. The great thing about the Pribilof
Islands are that the cliff faces are perfect for nests of all kinds.
Some birds like the murres, lay their eggs right on the bare cliff
ledges hundreds of feet above the sea. Kittiwakes fashion nests on the
cliff face out of dried grasses and other plants. Puffins and crested
auklets nest deep in crevices on the cliffs, whiles least auklets nest
in crevices in the massive boulder fields that are at ground level.
I hope that this helps to answer your questions!
Tom Harten