Seabirds of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Shearwaters (Puffinus spp.)and Albatrosses(Phoebastria spp.)
SUMMER
TRAVELERS
These relatives of fulmars and petrels do not breed in North
America, but they migrate to Alaska waters during the northern summer. They are
a major elements in the food web that includes the seabirds that do nest on the
Alaska Maritime Refuge.
BREED DOWN UNDER
Short-tailed
(Puffinus tenuirostris) and sooty (P. griseus) shearwaters
breed in the southern hemisphere.
FOOD
They spend their winter
(our summer) here feeding on squid, fish (especially capelin) and zooplankton
at or near the ocean surface.
RANGE IN ALASKA
Many sooty
shearwaters remain south of the Aleutian Islands. Short-tailed shearwaters
spend late summer in the Bering Sea where they are more numerous than any of the
birds that breed there.
ALBATROSSES
Laysan (Phoebastria
immutabilis), black-footed (P. nigripes), and short-tailed
(P. albatrus) albatrosses breed in Hawaii and Japan and feed in
the north Pacific during the summer. Sometimes they can be seen in the passes
between refuge islands. The short-tailed albatross is endangered. Its only known
breeding site is a small island off Japan.
Learn
More
Endangered Short-tailed Albatross FACT
SHEET (2-page pdf)
