Abstract
Kittlitz’s Murrelets (Brachyramphus brevirostris) nest during summer in glaciated or recently deglaciated (post-Wisconsin) landscapes. They forage in adjacent marine waters, especially those influenced by glacial meltwater. Little is known of their movements and distribution outside the breeding season. To identify post-breeding migrations of murrelets, we attached satellite transmitters to birds (n = 47) captured at sea in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands during May – July 2009 – 15 and tracked 27 birds that migrated from capture areas. Post-breeding murrelets migrated toward the Bering Sea, with short periods of movement (median 2 d) separated by short stopovers (median 1 d). Travel speeds averaged 79.4 km d-1 (83.5 SD, 449.1 maximum). Five Kittlitz’s Murrelets tagged in Prince William Sound in May migrated to the Bering Sea by August and four continued north to the Arctic Ocean, logging 2500 – 4000 km of travel. Many birds spent 2‒3 weeks with little movement along coasts of the Alaska Peninsula or eastern Bering Sea during late August through September, also the pre-basic molt period. Ship-based surveys, many of which were conducted concurrently with our telemetry studies, confirmed that substantial numbers of Kittlitz’s Murrelets migrate into the Arctic Ocean during autumn. They also revealed that some birds spend winter and spring in the Bering Sea in association with ice-edge, polynya, or marginal ice zone habitats before returning to summer breeding grounds. We conclude that this species is best characterized as a sub-Arctic and Arctic species, which has implications for future risk assessments and threat mitigation.
Highlights
The Kittlitz’s Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a small (~240 g) member of the Family Alcidae that typically nests on glacially modified landscapes and forages in adjacent glacial-marine seascapes
Of the 460,285 transects we examined in the NPPSD, 1657 transects contained observations of Kittlitz’s Murrelet and 10,926 individual murrelets were observed on those transects
When the birds left their breeding locales during late summer and autumn, they stopped at presumed feeding and molting grounds along coastal margins of the Gulf of Alaska, the Alaska Peninsula and Bristol Bay, and many continued north into the Bering Sea and Arctic regions
Summary
The Kittlitz’s Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a small (~240 g) member of the Family Alcidae that typically nests on glacially modified landscapes and forages in adjacent glacial-marine seascapes. During summer, this species is most abundant in glacially active areas of the Gulf of Alaska (Arimitsu et al, 2011; Kissling et al, 2011; Kuletz et al, 2011a, b; Piatt et al, 2011). In the Gulf of Alaska, Kittlitz’s Murrelets concentrate summer foraging in glacially influenced marine waters, where prey availability can be enhanced near tidewater glaciers and in glacialmarine waters up to 10 – 40 km “downstream” from glacial river outflows (Arimitsu et al, 2012, 2018; Renner et al, 2012). The species’ rarity and patchy distribution, frequent association with glacier and sea ice – dominated habitats that are receding rapidly (Kuletz et al, 2003; Arimitsu et al, 2016; Stempniewicz et al, 2017; Day et al, 2020), and population declines in core breeding areas have raised conservation concerns (USFWS, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
