The Arctic is a world of icy silence, majestic expanses and harsh natural conditions. However, it is the northern birds that enliven this inhospitable space with their presence and cry. Their existence is a real magic of the polar landscape, a miracle of adaptation and the power of life.
About 200 species of birds live in the Arctic, and about 60 of them regularly nest in this region. Most of them are migrants and come here only for the warm season to breed. Almost all Arctic birds are distinguished by their ability to accumulate energy reserves in the form of fat, as well as a dense down cover that protects them from the cold. Some can travel thousands of kilometers to their native breeding grounds in the Arctic.
Arctic birds
Northern birds – who are they?
Habits, migration routes and adaptation to the harsh climate make the feathered inhabitants of the Arctic the real heroes of the north.
A fork-tailed seagull. A graceful polar bird with a distinctive forked tail and contrasting black and white head plumage. Unlike ordinary gulls, fork-tailed gulls look especially light in the air, their flight is very graceful, almost like swallows. The birds nest in the Arctic tundra of Eurasia and North America: from Siberia to Canada, including Greenland and Svalbard. Birds spend the winter in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The white gull. One of the rarest and most unique Arctic gulls. This is a real ice nomad. These birds spend their entire lives in high latitudes, preferring icebergs and icy edges. The white coloring allows them to blend in with the landscape. This species is under threat of extinction. It breeds on remote islands: Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, and Severnaya Zemlya.
Silly. A representative of the petrels, continuously hovering over the icy seas. It has a powerful build, a yellow hooked beak, and sturdy wings that allow it to hover for hours over the ocean. It feeds on carrion and fish, so it often accompanies fishing vessels. The name “silly” is unfair. These birds are well-versed in the air and on the water. They nest on rocks, breeding their chicks in burrows or ledges.
The polar tern. The record holder for the range of migrations. These birds travel from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back (up to 70,000 km) every year. The polar tern is an elegant bird with a black cap on its head, long wings and a forked tail. In the Arctic, it breeds in May and June, choosing coastal zones and islands. It is known for its aggressive nest defense, and can even attack humans.
Thick-billed kiera. A large seabird from the chistikov family. It nests in colonies on steep cliffs, laying eggs directly on a rock, without a nest. The eggs are pear-shaped so as not to roll down. These birds are excellent divers and can dive to a depth of up to 100 meters. Their diet consists of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. The cries of the kair create a unique sound atmosphere of the Arctic colonies.
The skuas. Birds of prey, resembling seagulls, but with a more muscular build and aggressive nature. They specialize in piracy: they take prey from other seabirds by chasing them through the air. They also hunt small rodents, eggs and chicks. The most famous are the middle skua, long-tailed and Antarctic. They nest in open areas of the tundra and islands.
The cleaner. A small seabird with a black body and bright white spots on its wings. It breeds on the rocky shores and islands of the Arctic Ocean. An active diver, he gets fish and crustaceans.
The Arctic is also home to many waterfowl adapted to life on the border of water and ice.
Loons. Some of the most ancient and primitive-looking waterfowl. They have massive bodies, powerful necks and sharp beaks. They dive perfectly (up to 60 meters deep). In the Arctic, they nest near freshwater lakes and swamps. Their melodious cries sound mesmerizing and create a magical atmosphere of the northern expanses.
The Little swan. A representative of the Arctic swans. It breeds in the tundra of Siberia, and winters in temperate latitudes. It is a graceful white bird with touching family affection: pairs last for a lifetime, chicks accompany their parents for a long time. Swans feed on aquatic vegetation, and sometimes they come ashore. Their appearance is a rare and memorable encounter in the Arctic.
Duck. Among the representatives of these waterfowl in the Arctic,
the common gaga is a large sea duck, whose feather nest is used by people to collect valuable down.;
The mariner is a graceful sea duck with a long tail in males. It is found everywhere in the Arctic seas.;
tiny ducks with narrow beaks covered with notches are a device for catching fish.
Hunting bazaars
Nutrition of birds in the Arctic
Arctic birds are mostly universal predators or scavengers, using any opportunity to feed themselves. Marine species such as guillemots, luricans, puffins, and polar terns feed primarily on fish (such as capelin, gerbils), as well as zooplankton and small crustaceans. Some are able to dive to a depth of more than 40 meters.
For example:
puffins hunt in packs, synchronously diving into the water and quickly returning with prey in their beak.;
guillemots, similar to northern penguins, fish individually, diving even under the ice.;
The polar tern picks up prey from the surface of the water or in the air.
Birds in the north that live in tundra zones, such as sandpipers, geese, and puffins, feed on terrestrial resources: insects, spiders, seeds, berries, and young plant shoots. Their diet is varied, but strictly seasonal. With the onset of winter, they migrate to warmer regions, where they continue to feed in swamps and river floodplains:
geese and geese effectively eat mosses, lichens and grasses.;
The white owl is an active predator that hunts lemmings, small birds and hares.
Behavior of Arctic birds
Despite the harsh environment, the behavior of polar birds is characterized by complexity and social organization. Many species nest in colonies, sometimes numbering thousands of pairs. This increases the chances of survival. It is more difficult for predators to hunt among the many defenders, and the chances of detecting a threat increase.
There is a strict hierarchy within colonies:
larger birds, such as skuas, can dominate smaller ones by taking food from them.;
In close colonies, such as those of the cairns on the rocky cliffs, conflicts are minimal.
Some northern birds show striking forms of parental care:
hatchlings and guillemots feed their chicks with fish, bringing one at a time in a tightly clenched beak.;
Polar terns defend their offspring with ferocity, boldly attacking humans and animals approaching the nest.;
Geese and geese have a strong family, the chicks stay with their parents for a long time and learn migration routes from them.
In addition, Arctic birds exhibit a phenomenal sense of navigation. Many of them, despite thousands of kilometers of travel, return from year to year to the same nesting sites. This is especially pronounced in polar terns and geese.
Birds in the Arctic have adapted perfectly to the harsh conditions of the Arctic. They have sharp eyesight and refined hearing, which allow them to survive in conditions of snow cover and the impenetrable polar landscape. And birds such as kires and skuas nest on rocky cliffs – bird markets, where there are millions of them.
Great Migrations
Migrations are an integral and, without exaggeration, a heroic part of the life of most Arctic birds. These feathered wanderers travel thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of kilometers to take advantage of the unique conditions of the short but extremely productive northern summer.
Bright sun, almost round–the-clock light, absence of predators, abundance of food – all this makes the Arctic an ideal place for breeding offspring. It is for this reason that every spring the airways are filled with feathered streams. They fly from southern Europe, Asia, America, from the tropics and subtropics, from temperate latitudes and even from Antarctica.
For example, the polar tern travels up to 70,000 kilometers annually, flying from the Arctic coasts to the Antarctic and back. Thus, the polar tern observes two summers (northern and southern) every year and hardly sees winters. Sandpipers fly the route from Central Africa to the tundra of Eurasia, overcoming several climatic zones, crossing mountains and deserts.
These birds make incredible migrations: the polar tern and the Arctic tern, for example, lay their eggs in the desert tundra expanses to protect themselves from predators and climatic disasters. Punochka flies in huge flocks over the endless ice, greeting every dawn with her twitter.
However, with climate change and ecosystem disruption, these migrations are under threat. Warming disrupts nature’s calendar. Insects appear before birds arrive, and traditional stopping places are disappearing due to the drainage of swamps, urbanization and pollution. Migrations are becoming a vulnerable indicator of the state of the environment.
Olga Pastukhova
