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The answer is found in the laryngeal
pouch that the dovekie develops below
its beak before the breeding season.
This enables it, pelican-wise, to carry up
to 4,000 small water fleas at a time.
Thus the dovekie is the only species of
bird in the North Atlantic which has
adapted to a source of food where
there is no competition from other birds.
The nearest competitors can be found
in fish and the large baleen whales.
Nevertheless, the most impressive
characteristic of the dovekie is not its
adaptation to a specific food; it is the
number of birds that are found in a
dovekie colony.
Millions of birds
The dovekie is truly a real arctic breeding
bird. In Greenland, the species is
found in enormous numbers in Qaanaaq
in North Greenland, the Ittoqqortoormiit
region of North East Greenland
and in small individual colonies in the
Upernavik and Disko Bay regions. In
addition to Greenland, the dovekie is
widespread on Svalbard and on some
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of the northern Siberian islands, although
it is not found in such large numbers as
Greenland anywhere else in the world.
The precise number of birds found in
colonies in Greenland is difficult to
determine because the dovekie builds
its nest in loose stones hidden in halfmetre
deep cavities. The enormous
numbers of birds which congregate in
the same place mean that it is not possible
to use the usual method of counting
in the case of the dovekie.
Bird researchers estimate than between
20 and 40 million dovekie pairs
breed in the Qaanaaq region and that
the colonies in the Ittoqqortoormiit
region probably consist of between 5 –
10 million pairs. This means that more
than 80% of the world's population of
dovekies can be found in Greenland
and that, with these numbers, the species
is one of the world's most abundant
seabirds.
Although the dovekie is not large, it
is an important element in the ocean's
ecosystem because of its enormous
numbers. Calculations have shown that
while the chicks are being fed, the
parent birds in a colony with 100,000
pairs will collect more than 5 tons of
food from the sea. Since the dovekie
spends a considerable time in and
around the colony, a great part of this
food, in the form of droppings, will be
deposited on land around the colony.
The usual natural cycle involves transport
of nutrients from land to sea. But
in the case of the dovekie, this transport
takes place in the opposite direction:
from the sea to the land.
■ Although the dovekie is just a small bird, it has a
loud voice. When several thousand birds take to
air at the same time the noise is deafening.
■ Appaliarsuk mikigaluarluni nipituumik
qarlortarpoq. Appaliarsuit 1000-it arlallit
ataatsikkut tingisut nipaat qoqernaannartarpoq.
■ På trods af at søkongen kun er en lille fugl, har
den er kraftig stemme. Lyden af adskillige tusinde
fugle går i luften samtidigt er øredøvende.