Specie's Page                                               Water Fowl - Black-legged Kittiwake

Black-legged Kittiwake:

UK Status: Summer visitor.

Habitat: Breeding on rocky islands, cliff ledges and other rocky out crops. After breeding it is a sea faring bird, sometimes going well out into the Atlantic, but can sometimes be seen inshore bobbing up and down on the waves, or more usually soaring around in the sky.

Breeding: This bird nests on cliff ledges, and occasionally nests as far as twenty kilometres inland on man made ledges, such as river bridge parapets. These birds nest in large colonies on the sheerest of vertical cliff. Nests are built atop a platform of mud, isolating the eggs from the cold ground underneath. A cup is built above the platform, and is lined with vegetation and feather. Once a year they lay a single clutch of about , eggs being laid in late May, or more usually in June. Two eggs are normally laid, but now again there can be three. They are very pointed, and are buff in colour dappled with blotches of dark brown and grey.

Comment: Not as common as it once was, there is concern over the UK decline of the numbers nesting here.