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Look Closer . . . St. Lazaria Island

Life in the coastal rainforest
– soft soil and darkness –
just right for seabirds of the night

As Different as Day and Night

Stand under the boughs of a Sitka spruce on St. Lazaria Island during the day and you will see a peaceful forest. Come nightfall, the island magically transforms. Something whizzes by your head and something else scurries over your toes. You hear odd, high-pitched laughter and rasping cries all around you. Welcome to the world of seabirds of the night!

Seabirds of the Night

The most familiar seabirds nest openly on cliffs and fly to and from those cliffs during the day. Few people know that a "night shift" of seabirds exists. Fewer still see them nesting! Let your eyes adjust to the darkness on St. Lazaria and you will spot a storm-petrel or auklet tumbling out of the air after it crashes into tree branches. The small bird patters over the forest floor until it finds a hole in the ground - its burrow entrance - where deep inside its partner is sitting on an egg or a chick awaits food.

St. Lazaria’s Seabirds of Day and Night

Under the Cover of Darkness

Arriving and departing their nests under cover of darkness is an adaptation that certain seabirds have developed to avoid predators. Gulls, especially, will make a meal of these small night birds if they are tardy leaving the island before dawn. Once at sea, their agile flying or swimming protects them, but on land they are much slower and more clumsy than the big gulls. When chicks of nocturnal seabirds are ready to go to sea, they leave their burrows at night, too.

Inside the Earth

Not only do these nocturnal seabirds come and go at night, but they also hide their nests out of sight – underground. They dig tunnels and nest chambers in the soft soil of the forest floor. These burrows keep them out of reach of hungry gulls as pairs take turns incubating their eggs and raising their chicks. Their earthen homes also insulate them from temperature changes above ground and maintain a more constant humidity.

Safety in the Tunnels?

All the safety defenses of nocturnal seabirds won’t stop a fox or rat if it reaches a seabird island. Burrow nesting birds are among the first to disappear from an island’s ecosystem when non-native predators arrive. Well-meaning humans, too, can cause havoc. Now that you know how families of seabirds hide in tunnels, you can imagine how walking over an island could collapse these nest chambers.

Small, but Mighty

St. Lazaria is so small – 65 acres – that as storm surf slams against the cliffs, you can feel the impact. A saltwater lagoon rises and falls with the tide. Despite it’s size, St. Lazaria is one of the more productive seabird colonies in Alaska. Half a million birds nest here – more than 7,000 birds per acre.

Visitor Information

Last updated:September 8, 2008