Dovekie

Voice

Practically mute in our waters. At colonies on Svalbard and Greenland it gives a shrill, chattering laugh, roughly chirr-chirr-chik, that ripples across the scree slopes with thousands of birds joining in, above all in the morning hours of June and July. Whenever a flock lifts off this swells into a surging rush of sound over the slope. Storm-driven birds found on a beach or in a harbour are usually silent, at most giving a short high squeak.

Identification

Compact and rounded, bull-necked, with a domed head and a tiny blunt bill that barely projects. Upperparts black with fine white streaks on the scapulars, underparts white; in summer the head, throat and upper breast are wholly black, in winter throat and cheek turn white and the white curls up behind the eye like a crescent. In flight: very fast buzzing beats, a stubby, almost tailless silhouette, and a dark underwing. Birds bounce low over the swell and keep vanishing behind wave crests.

Confusion species

Razorbill and Guillemot are two to three times the size, with far longer bills and white underwings. Atlantic Puffin is clearly bulkier, with a grey face and a deep triangular bill. At range a Little Auk passing over the sea suggests a Starling rather than an auk; the whirring wingbeat and the crisp black-and-white contrast settle it. On swimming birds the sudden, soundless dive with half-open wings helps.

Habitat

Breeds in vast colonies in boulder fields and scree on Greenland, Svalbard, Jan Mayen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. Outside the breeding season entirely pelagic in the northern Atlantic, diving for copepods and other zooplankton. Only persistent north-westerlies push birds into the shallow coastal zone and occasionally inside the sea dykes.

Range and movements

The core of the population lies in north-west Greenland, where numbers run into millions of pairs. The Netherlands sees the species mainly in November and December, on seawatches along the Holland and Zeeland coast and, after storms, sporadically on the IJsselmeer or in harbours. In Spain it is a scarce winter visitor and vagrant along the Cantabrian and Galician coasts, far rarer than Razorbill or Guillemot.

• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Pick a November day with force 7 or more from the north-west or north, seawatch from a pier or dam and scan low over the surf: Little Auks fly close to the water between parties of Guillemots and Razorbills. After such a blow walk the tideline too and check sheltered harbours, where weakened birds sometimes drift right below the quay. Take a telescope and work systematically through the wave troughs, because the birds are visible only seconds at a time.

Conservation status

Not threatened, with an enormous world population, though the inaccessible colonies make it hard to count. Arctic warming is shifting the plankton supply from fat-rich cold-water copepods to smaller, less nourishing species, which is the main long-term threat; colonies at the southern edge of the range, as in Iceland, have already declined. Arctic fox predation and disturbance play a part locally.