Dovekie

Overview

Dovekie: Small seabird with black upperparts and hood, white underparts, and stubby, black, sparrow-like bill. Wings are black with thin white trailing edge, visible when folded, and dark underwings. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats, usually flies low over the water.

Range and Habitat

Dovekie: Breeds in eastern Arctic Canada. Spends winters south to New Jersey; also in northern Europe. Breeds on rocky cliffs; winters chiefly at sea.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Dovkie breeding population at Thule in northwestern Greenland is among the largest and densest breeding aggregations of all auks.
This population traditionally has been estimated as 30 million birds.
The latin name Alle may have come from the note of the bird which sounds like "try - eye" or to some " al- le". Linnaeus named it Alca alle. This was changed to Mergulus alle and to Plautus alle before it finally became Alle alle.
Historical names include: Bull Bird and Common Rotche.
They sometimes shows up out of range along the east coast of North America. Sustained, strong easterly winds may make feeding conditions unsuitable and push the weakened birds landward. The winter of 1932 -1933 saw Dovekies raining down on the streets of New York City and large numbers washing up along the entire eastern seaboard, from Nova Scotia to Florida.
A group of auks has many collective nouns, including a "colony", "loomery", and "raft" of auks.

The Dovekie has a large range, estimated globally at 100,000 to 1,000,000 square kilometers. It is native to the nations of North America and Europe as well as many island nations and prefers neritic, oceanic, intertidal, and coastal marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated to be 16,000,000 to 36,000,000 individuals and it does not appear to meet population decline criteria that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. The current evaluation status of the Dovekie is Least Concern.