JULY 10, 2019
Little is known about how
seabirds catch their food outside the breeding season but using modern
technology, researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Centre for
Ecology & Hydrology have gained new insight into their feeding habits.
Seabirds, including puffins, are
often elusive and spend much of their lives at sea, feeding exclusively there.
The period outside of the summer breeding season is particularly mysterious
as the birds spend their time far away from land.
Using depth recorders,
researchers compared the feeding behaviour of puffins with two closely related species,
guillemots and razorbills, to find out how deep and how long they dive for
during the non-breeding period.
They also fitted loggers to
seabirds breeding on the Isle of May National Nature Reserve in south-east
Scotland. These birds were then recaptured the following breeding season, when
they returned to land again after months away at sea.
Puffins are excellent divers and,
in a similar way to penguins, use their wings to "fly" underwater to
catch their prey.
Yet the study found that despite
this great diving ability, both common guillemots and razorbills can dive for
even deeper and longer than puffins can and continue to do so outside the
breeding season.
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