Birds of the Skelligs
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 Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus)
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Characteristics: A very small, black seabird with an abvious
white rump. Its dark bill has tube nostrils and a slightly
hooked tip. It flies low over the water with dark feet trailing
picking small items of food from the surface. Only seen inland
during breeding season and a strange churring call ending
in a ‘hiccup’ is heard near nesting burrows.
Habitat: The Storm Petrel nests on rocky
islands and steep cliffs in burrows and crevices. In winter
they are found far out at sea south of the main breeding
range.
Habits: Small size, fluttering, flight and habit of picking
food from the surface without alighting make them easy to
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 Puffin
(Fratercula arctica)
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Characteristics:An unmistakable black and white seabird
with a massive colourful bill. The face is white in the breeding
season and the eyes are surrounded by a colourful eye-ring.
The large red and yellow bill plates are shed in the winter
and it is then smaller and less colourful
Habitat and distribution: Breeds in sometimes-huge colonies
on grassy cliffs and islands where burrows are excavated.
Some nesting material is used and a single egg is laid. More
numerous in the far northern colonies but there have been
huge decline in some areas
Habits: Dives for fish. especially sand eels and can carry
several fish at once due to serrated bill
At the breeding colony large numbers may gather in the evenings
outside their burrows then suddenly disappear below ground.
In winter birds may be confused with Razorbills
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 Gannet
(Sula bassana)
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Wing Span: Nearly 200cm
Characteristics: It is the largest seabird of the area.
The Gannet is gracefully black and white, with a pointed
head and tail and long rather narroe black tipped wings.
Habitat: Gannets breed on rocky islands and steep mainland
cliffs, in huge colonies. Few large colonies are home to
70% of the world’s gannets, with half of the whole
populayion in just 5 sites- St.Kilda, Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig
in Scotland, Grassholm in Wales, & little Skelligs in
Ireland. Gannets were 1 st mentioned as being on the skellig
in 1700, in what was described as “incredible numbers”.
The estimated population of these birds on the little Skellig
is in the region of 20,000 pairs.
Habits: Gannets dive steeply into the sea from great height
to capture their prey, which usually consists of large fish
including herring and mackerel. At the breeding colony they
are noisy and aggressive at intruders.
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 Kittewake (Rissa tridctyle)
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Wingspan:
Characteristics: A graceful, medium sized gull with short
black legs and webbed feet with claws enabling it to grip
on narrow rock ledges. Its grey wings have black tips but
unlike the common gull it lacks white patches at the tips
and also the orange spot on the small yellow beak. Juveniles
have dark zig-zag pattern on upper wing and a black band
across the back of the neck.
Habitat: Breeds on rocky coasts, nesting in large, noisy
colonies on steep cliffs and disperse over the Atlantic,
North Sea and Western Mediterranean in Winter.
Habits: Kittiwakes feed on the open sea on small surface-
feeding fish and offal they pick from the surface. They make
a far- carrying “ Kitti-wake” call incessantly
at the breeding colony.
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 Arctic
Tern (Sterna paradisaea)
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Characteristics: A medium sized tern with a black cap a red
bill and very short red legs. Very similar to the Common Tern,
however, tail streamers are longer and wings are narrower
Habitat: Common on shingle shores and rocky islands.Often
nests in mixed colonies with the common Tern. Migrate south
in the winter.
Habits: Dives for fish from the air but
will also eat small crustaceans and insects from the surface
of the water. Will pursue insects in flight.
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 Black
Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)
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 Guillemot (Uria Aalge)
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Characteristics: A black and white sea
bird with a narrow pointed bill. Often has white eye-ring
and narrow stripe behind its eye. In winter, checks, chin
and neck are white and has a dark line behind its eye.
Habitat: Guillemots breeding on inaccessible cliffs on rocket
coasts and islands with some colonies containing thousands of
birds. In winter, most of them go far out to sea, occasionally
inshore in bad weather.
Habits: Guillemots dive for fish from the
surface, they also swim well under water using their wings.
They often sit upright on the nesting ledges.
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 Gulls
(Larcus Canus)
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Characteristics: A small gull, with a rounded white head,
narrow yellow bill and dark eyes and greenish yellow feet.
In winter the white head is streaked with brownish marks.
There is a chuckling ‘kak- kak- kak’ call mage
when birds are in large migrating flocks.
Habitiats: Breeds commonly on the coasts of northern Britain,
Baltic and Scandinavia, and migrates south and west for the
winter.
Habits: May feed some distance from the sea, taking insects
and soil invertebrates on farmland; also feeds at sea usually
in noisy flocks.
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 Black-headed Gull (Larus Ridibundus)
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Characteristics: A medium sized gull
with a dark chocolate brown hood in summer and a red bill
and legs In the summer the hood does not extend as far as
the nape. In winter it is reduced to dark smudges behind
the eyes. The upper wings show large triangular white panels
at the tips in flight and the under wings are grey looking
darker towards the tips.
Habitat: A common breeding bird on freshwater
and marshes. Often nests in large colonies. Disperses over
the oceans and inland waterways in winter.
Habits: A noisy and gregarious gull feeding
on a wide variety of foods.
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 Herring Gull: (Larus Argentatus)
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Characteristics: The Herring gull is white with a pale
grey back and wings. Their wings are black tipped while they
possess a powerful yellow with red spots bill, yellow eyes
and can be seen to have pink feet. In winter, the birds head
has brownish streaks. Juvenile herring gulls are speckled
brown, with black terminal tail-band, gradually attaining
adult plumage in the fourth year. They have a very vocal
call with a repeated ‘kyow’. Their alarm call
on their breeding ground resembles a ‘ga- ga- ga’ sound.
Habitat: The bird can be found in coastal meadows, dunes,
on shingle banks, small islands and rock ledges during breeding
season. In some cases they can be found on buildings. Outside
their breeding season they are usually found on the coast,
but also on inland water and rubbish tips.
Habit: Tend to remain fairly local. They have developed more
of a liking to refuse tips, sewage outlets and fish quays:
in fact anywhere which provides rich pickings.
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 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (Larus
Fuscus.)
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Characteristics: Their size and shape resemble that of
the Herring Gull. However, these have a dark slate-grey back
with slightly proportionately longer wings. The birds legs
are yellow. In winter they have a streaky yellow head with
yellowish-pink legs. The birds juveniles are difficult to
separate from the young herring gulls, but they do tend to
be darker. The shade of colour on the back and wings deepens
from grey in south of range to black in Baltic area.
Habitat: The bird breeds on low-lying coasts and islands,
usually with higher vegetation than Herring Gull, also on
inland moors and bogs. Outside the breeding season they can
be mainly found on the coast, but also regulars on inland
lakes. Hunts over open sea but can be found over rubbish
tips. Their call is similar to Herring Gulls, but slightly
deeper in pitch.
Habits: These birds can be interbreed woth the Herring gull.
However it normally behaves as a good species, with differences
in habitat, behaviour, leg, beak and back colour.
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 Greater Black-backed Gull:
Characteristics: A
very large gull withal black wings and back . Its massive
yellow bill has an orange spot at the tip and its legs are
flesh –coloured. Often seen standing
on an outcrop surveying the surrounding coastline
Habitat: Breeds on rocky coasts and islands. Found with
other nesting seabirds but in the winter may disperse widely
sometimes gong inland to join other gulls
Habits: Able to consume quite large prey
such as nesting auks or rabbits and often their solitary
nests are littered with bones of their prey.
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Fulmar: (Fulmarus
Glacialis)
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Characteristics: Gull- Like but stockier with thicker head
and neck. Fulmars have greyish upper parts and a white head
and body, their ‘tuber nose’ bill and the straightness
of the wings in flight make identification easy.
Habitat: Common around all coasts with nesting ledges.
In winter the Fulmars disperse over the sea often following
fishing boats fro discarded fish scraps.
Habits: Intruders to the nest are attacked with a vile-smelling
oil which the fulmers spit at them. The birds may also spend
hours gliding past a possible nesting ledge trying to land
on it, only to be repelled by other birds.
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 Razorbills: (Alca Torda)
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Characteristics: Razorbills are black with white underpants
and an add bill as the name implies. The bill is latterly
compressed and is crossed by a white line running to the
eye. In winter cheeks and throat become white. Flight appears
fast, usually low, and the wings are also used underwater
in pursuit of fish and crustaceans.
Habitat: Breeds on rocky cliffs and islands forming quite
large colonies, in suitable areas.
Habits: Dives for fish from the surface, and swims well undersea
using wings as flippers.
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 Common Tern
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Characteristics: A medium sized tern with a black cap a red
bill and very short red legs. Very similar to the Artic Tern,
but the underside is whiter and the wings are darker. The bill
and legs are slightly shorter and in flight the forked tail
shows shorter streamers
Habitat: Common visitor to Ireland during the summer months.
Fishes further out to sea than other terns and is seldom seen
inland Winters in Africa and Eastern Mediterranean
Habits: Usually the first of the terns to arrive in the spring
Dives for fish and sand eels are a favourite.
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 Cormorant
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Characteristics: A large dark seabird with long neck and
powerful straight hook tipped bill. In breeding season the
throat and thighs are white
Habitat: Nests around the coast on rocky islands and cliffs
but also on man made buildings. In winter they disperse around
the coast moving inland to estuaries and large lakes.
Habits: Spends much of its time sitting
on posts or buoys over the water, often with wings outstretched.
Dives from the surface for fish , sometimes known as ducky
divers.
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 Manx Shearwater
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Characteristics: The contrast between the
dark upper parts and the white underside along with his gliding
flight over the sea makes him easily recognisable He is rarely
seen on land due th his nocturnal habits.
Habitat: These birds nest on rocky islands on the western
coasts in deep burrows sometimes on cliffs high above the sea.
Habits: Shearwaters catch their food on
the surface of the sea sometimes making shallow dives. Fishing
trips sometimes takes them far out to see for days but they
can navigate back to their burrows on the cliff face easily.
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