Dovekie

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Dovekie
Animal Diversity Web
University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology

Habitat
Dovekies are adapted for marine habitats and live and feed offshore near upwelling zones or at oceanic fronts. They only come ashore to breed, when they seek out rocky scree slopes, eroded cliff faces, talus nooks, or porous lava flows from recent volcanic actions. They spend most of the winter in the northwest Atlantic foraging where plankton is abundant.

Food Habits
Dovekies are carnivores. They eat crustaceans, annelids, and mollusks, and small fish, but mainly depend on planktonic crustaceans for survival. Euphasiids, amphipods, Arctic cod, Calanus finmarchius, Gammarus species, Mysis species, Atylus carinatus, Argonauta arctia, and Parathemisto libella are all eaten by dovekies. (Freethy, 1987; Gaston and Jones, 1998; Sibley, 2001)

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