page_title: Great auk
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Great auk / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: Stac an Armin with Boreray behind, Stac Lee in the middle ground and Hiorta (St Kilda) in the distance ....and loads of gannets!
context_page_description: The great auk is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, which were discovered later and so named by sailors because of their physical resemblance to the great auk.
  It bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to the ocean and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for the great auks. When not breeding, they spent their time foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as northern Spain and along the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.
  The great auk was 75 to 85 centimetres tall and weighed about 5 kilograms, making it the largest alcid to survive into the modern era, and the second-largest member of the alcid family overall. It had a black back and a white belly. The black beak was heavy and hooked, with grooves on its surface. During summer, great auk plumage showed a white patch over each eye.
context_section_description: The great auk was found in the cold North Atlantic coastal waters along the coasts of Canada, the northeastern United States, Norway, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Great Britain, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Pleistocene fossils indicate the great auk also inhabited Southern France, Italy, and other coasts of the Mediterranean basin.
  The great auk left the North Atlantic waters for land only to breed, even roosting at sea when not breeding. The rookeries of the great auk were found from Baffin Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, across the far northern Atlantic, including Iceland, and in Norway and the British Isles in Europe. For their nesting colonies the great auks required rocky islands with sloping shorelines that provided access to the sea. These were very limiting requirements and it is believed that the great auk never had more than 20 breeding colonies. The nesting sites also needed to be close to rich feeding areas and to be far enough from the mainland to discourage visitation by predators such as humans and polar bears. The localities of only seven former breeding colonies are known: Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, St. Kilda off Scotland, Grimsey Island, Eldey Island, Geirfuglasker near Iceland, Funk Island near Newfoundland, and the Bird Rocks (Rochers-aux-Oiseaux) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Records suggest that this species may have bred on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the breeding range of the great auk was restricted to Funk Island, Grimsey Island, Eldey Island, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and St. Kilda Island. Funk Island was the largest known breeding colony. After the chicks fledged, the great auk migrated north and south away from the breeding colonies and they tended to go southward during late autumn and winter.
  It also was common on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. In recorded history, the great auk typically did not go farther south than Massachusetts Bay in the winter. Archeological excavations have found great auk remains in New England and Southern Spain. Great auk bones have been found as far south as Florida, where it may have been present during four periods: approximately 1000 BC and 1000 AD, as well as, during the fifteenth century and the seventeenth century. (It has been suggested that some of the bones discovered in Florida may be the result of aboriginal trading.)
  Pleistocene fossils indicate the great auk also inhabited Southern France, Italy, and other coasts of the Mediterranean basin.
caption: Stac an Armin, St. Kilda, Scotland, one locality where the great auk used to breed
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