Scientific name: Aethia psittacula
Formerly: Cyclorrhynchus psittacula
Alternate name: Paroquet Auklet
Aleut: Abocheearch; Krechmogatha; Bailie Brushkie
Japanese: Umi-omu (Sea-parrot)
Russian: Belobryushka; Morshkoi Kamas
St. Lawrence Island: Sukluruk

The Parakeet Auklet breeds amid the rock piles and crevices of islands in the North Pacific Ocean. It is found along the coasts of the Chukotski Peninsula of Siberia, Diomede Island in the Bering Strait, Komandorskie Islands, St. Lawrence Island, St. Matthew Island, the Pribilofs, and the entire Aleutian chain to the Kenai Peninsula. Total Alaskan populations may reach as many as 800,000 birds. At least 430,000 have been catalogued breeding at 125 locations. ⁵⁷⁰

In winter, the species ranges in the open ocean, occasionally visiting the coast of Oregon, California, the Kuriles, and northern Japan. In all its breeding locations, the Parakeet Auklet is closely associated with the Horned and Tufted Puffin, Pigeon Guillemot, the Crested and the Least Auklet.

It is a distinctive bird with a white belly, a curiously upturned red bill, and conspicuous white eyes. Both the upper and lower mandibles bulge, and bear, in the breeding season, four ornamental plates which are shed during the autumn or prebasic molt. The basal plates are almost white.The Parakeet Auklet is larger than other species of auklet and flies swiftly and directly. The body length of adults varies from 23.4 to 27.2 centimeters with a wing span of 52.5 centimeters. ¹⁵⁴ Average male and female body weight on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, is 289 grams with a range of 245 to 347 grams. ⁵⁴⁴

The Parakeet Auklet is a tame, unsuspicious, and gentle bird which tends to be less gregarious then the other small auklets of the North Pacific. Population dynamics, its breeding habits, and the ecology of the species have been studied most intensively on St. Lawrence Island, where the Parakeet Auklet breeds in the cliff areas of the southwestern coast between Omwalit Mountain and the Southwest Cape. Small numbers breed on the ridges of Kongkok Basin, a glacial cirque that opens to the seas, and small aggregations are frequent along the northcentral coast of the island. About 2,000 birds breed along the rim of the bluff of Seyuokok Mountain and it is found elsewhere in suitable nesting cavities. Most nests are located on cliffs or along the shoulders of talus slopes where cracks between and under angular rocks or peaty vegetation provides suitable cover, or in deep fissures out of reach of predators and observers. Rock size appears to be the principal regulation feature of breeding density. The species chooses areas where rock size is variable rather than uniform, because such areas provide the most suitable cavity dimensions. However, there must be yet undiscovered factors which limit the nesting habitat of the species, since some parts which ornithologists consider suitable are left uninhabited. ^{58, 544, 538}

The Parakeet Auklet returns to the same nest each year at different times, according to the severity of spring weather and snow cover. On St. Lawrence Island it is usual for snow to cover the nesting crevices for at least three weeks after its mid-May arrival. Courtship occurs at sea not far from land, or on the snow-covered slopes. Its single egg is laid, as a rule, two or three days after the snow has melted from the nest crevice.⁵⁴⁴ Displays during courtship include billing, duetting or chattering bill-to-bill, and flicking the bill upward. Besides the "flight-intention-call" given as an alarm, the Parakeet Auklet utters a variety of sounds. A common one is a rather loud trill "Chi, chi, chi, chi, chi- chirrrrip." Like other alcids, it engages in water chases, diving, wing-flapping, bill-dipping, and short bouts of fighting. ³⁸²

While observing Parakeet Auklets on the Pribilof Islands early in the breeding season, I saw a mated bird land near its nesting cavity and utter repeated trilled or warbled songs until its mate arrived, whereupon the two duetted and billed momentarily, before settling to rest quietly side by side. If a third bird arrived, both of the resting pair would respond by hunching with bills up and open, uttering trilled chirrings, and at the same time waving their heads toward the intruder. If the intruder did not leave, the pair might lock bills, momentarily waggle their heads, or continue to duet and bill while gradually edging the intruder off the ledge. Occasionally, the intruder acted as if appeasing the pair and was permitted to stay, though not too closely.

During Spencer Sealy's and Jean Bédard's study, the first eggs on St. Lawrence Island appeared on 21 June and most birds had completed laying by 7 July. No nesting material is used and the dull, white egg is placed on the bare soil or on a mat of pebbles. The egg averages 37.5 grams or 13 percent of the average 286 gram weight of the adult female. If the egg is lost early in the season, it is occasionally replaced within sixteen days. Although only one egg is laid, both male and female birds develop double brood patches.⁵⁴⁴

Both parent birds incubate for thirty-five to thirty-six days, and during incubation the egg loses about 5.4 grams or 14.4 percent of its weight. The hatching period on St. Lawrence Island is 24 July to 3 August, and the chick averages 28.1 grams in body weight upon hatching, or 9.9 percent of the average adult body weight. The chick is left alone in the nest after the third or fourth day, at which age it maintains its own body temperature. Dorsally the downy chick is brownish-gray and ventrally grayish-white. Each day it is fed at least six times, consuming about 132 grams of food. This food daily adds about 6.4 grams of body weight until an average total of 223.0 grams of fledging weight is attained. Fledging occurs in thirty-four to thirty-seven days when the chick is about 77 percent of the adult weight.⁵⁴⁴

During the breeding season, the Parakeet Auklet feeds chiefly on pelagic amphipods which, although less abundant than the euphausiids used by other auklets, is a stable prey item in the sea. The food is carried to the young in a throat pouch which enlarges during the breeding season.⁵⁶ While raising a chick the parents spend about 60 percent of their daylight hours feeding at the sea and about 40 percent of their time at the colony site. Half of the time spent near the colony is spent in social activities and mutual displays.³⁸²

Spencer Sealy and Jean Bédard record that hatching success on St. Lawrence Island was 68 percent, and fledging success in 1967 was 76 percent. Overall breeding success was only about 52 percent.⁵⁴⁴

After several days of strengthening its wings at the entrance of the burrow, the young Parakeet Auklet leaves for the sea, usually in the early hours of the morning. Its first flight is strong and direct with little or no ceremony displayed when leaving the nest for an independent life at sea. It is believed that it does not attempt to breed until it is at least three years old.⁵⁴⁴

Predation was not found to be a great problem on St. Lawrence Island, where the nests are usually located out of the reach of foxes and dogs.⁵⁴⁴ On St. Paul of the Pribilof Islands, foxes restrict the nesting areas to the steep cliffs. Here the very edges of the cliffs are actively patrolled by foxes as the trails, dens, and abundant scat piles show. Tundra voles and red-backed voles are abundant in the breeding areas of St. Lawrence Island and here 2 percent of the eggs and 20 percent of auklet chicks were depredated by voles in 1967.⁵⁴³ River otters have been known to kill a few birds on East Amatuli Island, Alaska.382 Compared with other auklets, predation by humans on the Parakeet Auklet is not great. It appears, then, that the population of the species is limited mainly by available nesting locations and the distribution of its chief food item, the pelagic amphipods.