Crested Auklets of Saint Paul Island: Citrus-Scented Seabirds in the Bering Sea

One of my favourite seabirds always reminds me of Christmas morning. Crested Auklets—charismatic, comical little birds with wild head feathers—have a unique trait: they produce a citrus-scented oil from a gland near their shoulders. The smell is surprisingly reminiscent of tangerines, which instantly takes me back to the scent of the fruit tucked into my Christmas stocking every year when I was a child.

I created this image with the trusty Sony a1 mirrorless camera and the versatile, portable Sony 200-600mm zoom lens as I sat atop a windswept cliff on Saint Paul Island, one of the remote Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, situated between Russia and Alaska. The day was blustery and overcast—standard weather for that far-flung corner of the world (and yes, that’s part of its charm).

Despite the grey skies, the Crested Auklets put on an incredible aerial show. With ease and joy, they rode the strong currents sweeping up from the sea, appearing to hang effortlessly in the wind. There was a sense of playfulness in their flight—as if they were simply enjoying the ride.

Crested Auklet in flight FLYBY (Aethia cristatella, stariques cristatelles, Mérgulo empenachado, CRAU) from my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop in the middle of the Bering Sea in Alaska. ©Christopher Dodds Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless camera & Sony 200-600mm Lens (@600mm) ISO 5,000, f/6.3 @ 1/5,000s. Full Frame image. Manual Exposure mode. Join me for my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop next July to learn more CLICK HERE.

Backlit Crested Auklet: Harnessing Harsh Light for Dramatic Flight Shots

After a spectacular morning photographing Crested Auklets from the Saint Paul Island cliffs, the sun turned intense – the kind of summer light that makes you understand why they cancel school! But instead of packing up, we saw an opportunity to continue to create.

Saint Paul Island is renowned for its often-overcast skies and persistent fog, a common characteristic of North Pacific maritime climates. While the sun can certainly break through, prolonged periods of dense cloud cover are the norm, which makes those rare moments of intense, clear sunlight even more appreciated by the residents.

The harsh light, often a photographer's bane, became our ally. I positioned everyone to use it to our advantage, aiming to capture striking backlit flight photographs as the auklets soared past the dramatic shadows beneath their nesting cliffs.

The Crested Auklet (Aethia cristatella) is a truly distinctive seabird of the North Pacific. Easily identified by its prominent, forward-curling crest of black feathers and a bright orange-red bill, these social birds also possess a unique citrus-like scent, particularly noticeable during the breeding season. They are highly gregarious, forming massive nesting colonies on rocky cliffs and lava flows, and are expert underwater 'fliers,' using their wings and webbed feet for propulsion to dive deep and forage on krill and other small marine invertebrates. Their energetic flights, often in tightly packed flocks, offer incredible photographic opportunities, especially against the rugged backdrop of their island homes.

This image was created using the portable and impressive Sony 200-600mm zoom lens paired with a Sony a1 body. The combination proved still excellent for seizing these dynamic moments, transforming a challenging lighting situation into a chance for dramatic, silhouetted action shots.

Crested Auklet in flight Vertical (Aethia cristatella, stariques cristatelles, Mérgulo empenachado, CRAU) from my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop in the middle of the Bering Sea in Alaska. ©Christopher Dodds Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless camera & Sony 200-600mm Lens (@600mm) ISO 2,400, f/6.3 @ 1/5,000s. Full Frame image. Manual Exposure mode. Join me for my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop next July to learn more CLICK HERE.

Crested Auklet Vertical

Shoot it vertical and practice!

Here is a Crested Auklet from my recent Saint Paul Island Workshop. If you want to improve your birds in flight skills, try shooting with your camera turned vertically to Portrait mode. As I age, my vision, reflexes and hand-eye coordination are all working hard to slow me down - I stay sharp by spending hours tracking super small, fast and erratic birds in flight and often orient the camera vertically - smile.

Crested Auklet in flight on black

Here’s another Crested Auklet in flight a la Sony 200-600mm lens and Alpha 1 camera. This combo is such a bomb that I am seriously considering leaving my prime 600/4 at home next year. Getting tired of Crested Auklet pics?

Backlit Crested Auklet in flight

This image has been on my bucket lit for a very long time. Crested Auklets are the least abundant seabirds on the cliffs of Saint Paul Island, so finding them flying into the right background can be challenging. All of the other images in this sequence had busy and bright coloured rocks in the background. I was fortunate to have a few sequences as this bird circled multiple times waiting for the right wind to land.

Crested Auklet in flight

There was no shortage of Crested Auklets on Saint Paul Island during my recently concluded workshop there. They share the same habitat as the much more numerous Parakeet Auklet, so you really do need to focus on finding the few Crested Auklets amongst the masses of seabirds flying on windy days. The quick identifier is the dark belly compared to the pale underside of the Parakeet Auklet. Absolutely my favourite bird on Saint Paul Island - smile.

Crested Auklet Portrait

Crested auklets are known for their forehead crests, which are made of black forward-curving feathers. These forehead crests are highly variable and can have between two and twenty-three narrow forward curving feathers. The average auklet has 12 crest feathers, which are of variable length, between 8.1 and 58.5 millimetres. Auklets have auricular plumes and a bright orange bill with curved accessory plates. Like forehead crests, these features vary widely within auklet populations.

Join me on Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea, Alaska for an adventure of your lifetime: Saint Paul Island Workshop adventure details CLICK HERE.

Crested Auklet CURIOUS STARE

A Crested Auklet gives a curious glance during my last Saint Paul Island, Alaska Workshop.

Auklets produce a pleasant social odour during the breeding season, described as smelling like tangerines. This odour originates from tiny wick feathers located in a small patch of skin between their shoulder blades.

Crested Auklet Calling

The Bering Sea in winter, framed as it is by Alaska and Siberia, is frigid, stormy, and dark. But remarkably, some birds seem right at home there. The Crested Auklet is one such bird. And they have some unique qualities. Crested Auklets bark like Chihuahuas. Also, these seabirds exude an odor of tangerines from a chemical they produce that they thought repels ticks, but may, in fact, be a form of communication (read more HERE). They nest in immense colonies on Bering Sea islands, and remain nearby through winter, in flocks of many thousands. The auklets present a superb natural spectacle - sight, sound, and smell!

Crested Auklet in flight

Here’s a Crested Auklet in-flight image from Saint Paul Island, AK. We spent an incredible day perched at the top of the seabird cliffs on an incredibly windy day. The seabird activity was over-the-top. All of the stars were out and preforming for us: Crested, Parakeet and Least Auklets, Horned and Tufted Puffins, Red-faced Cormorants, Northern Fulmars, Black-legged and Red-legged Kittiwakes. It was a spectacular day!

If you missed them, be sure to see these related posts:

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

Here is a Crested Auklet from Saint Paul Island, AK. Saint Paul Island is part of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.

The tangerine-scented crested auklet is the first bird found to send fragrant signals.

Whenever I have been to seabird colonies over the years, I often smell seabirds before seeing them. Most often, the smell at a seabird colony is quite foul, especially on a hot sunny afternoon after some rain. When I smell what can only be described as someone peeling a tangerine next to me, I know there are Crested Auklets nearby - smile.

Crested auklets sniff necks when they meet. The birds seem to use perfume to make themselves attractive. When birds meet, they press their bills against each other's necks - feathers here have the strongest smell. It's not known what the perfume signifies. It could convey the bird's quality as a mate - well-fed birds might be able to produce more scent.

The perfume is a blend of oils, but how it's made is also a mystery. Oil from the auklets' preening gland is odorless, but bacteria on the feathers might break it down into something smellier. The birds only smell during the breeding season, with males and females becoming equally pungent.

Many birds, including vultures and pigeons, rely on scent to find food and navigate, but the use of chemicals to signal to others was unknown. The auklets open up a new field, says physiologist Bernice Wenzel of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"It's too soon to say whether [these signals] will turn out to be common," says Wenzel. "The important thing is that more research of this sort should be conducted."

Join me for my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop this July to learn more CLICK HERE.

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

2020 marks the sixth consecutive year of seabird die-offs in Alaska. Alaska's northern oceans have been experiencing record-breaking, above-average sea surface temperatures. Seabirds eat zooplankton and cold-water fish that are both reliant on cold water. If the cold-water fishes have relocated because the ocean is too warm, or less zooplankton are reproducing in the warmer water, then the seabirds have a more difficult time finding enough food. Coldwater fish are fattier and provide more calories and nutrients for the birds, so even if they can find warm-water fish to eat, they may still have trouble meeting their calorie needs.

The seabirds affected in 2020 are:

• Crested Auklets

• Horned Puffins

• Common Murrs

• Short-tailed Shearwaters

• Northern Fulmars

• Black-legged Kittiwakes

Most of the dead birds appear to have died of starvation. Murres, for example, have a high metabolic rate and consume 10-30% of their total body weight every day. Changes to their food supply can impact their basic functions such as flying, feather molt and weatherproofing, and thermal regulation. Seabird die-offs also impact the entire population because of the reduction in breeding adults and the low productivity rate (success of eggs becoming chicks and becoming adults). Some species have experienced reproductive failure because the females are not in good enough body condition to produce eggs.

Join me on Saint Paul Island, AK for the trip of a lifetime. Learn more HERE.

Creating Intimate bird portraits

Crested Auklet Portrait (Aethia cristatella, CRAU) Saint Paul Island, The Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, Alaska. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Canon 1DX, 600mm F4 L IS II , 2X Teleconverter III & 25mm Extension Tube, Jobu Designs Algonquin Tripod & Jobu Jr. 3 ISO 2,500 f/16 @ 1/500s Manual Mode.  PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION HERE.

Here's an intimate portrait (of what has to be my favorite bird) from my recent Saint Paul Island Workshop; the Crested Auklet. Getting close and isolating the subject against the dark cliffs requires lots of patience, but the real secret is simply approaching the cliff edge slowly so they don't flush before you even know they are there. Always remember to use a small enough aperture to maximize the depth of field, which is extemely narrow at the lens/extender/extension tube minimum focusing distance. Choose your shutter speed to freeze the birds sudden movements and any feathers blown around by the wind if there are any.

Using a sturdy tripod with a good tripod head and micro-calibrating your camera are, of course, the foundation to crisp and sharp images.

THE X FACTOR Canon EOS 1DX

Crested Auklet Profile (Aethia cristatella, CRAU) Saint Paul Island, The Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, Alaska. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Canon 1D MK IV, 500mm F4 L IS , 2X Teleconverter III & Canon Extension Tube EF 25 II, Tripod & Jobu Jr. 3 ISO 1,600 f/14 @ 1/160s Manual Mode. Fill flash Canon Speedlite 580EX II with Better Beamer @ -3. PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION HERE.

Here's another Crested Auklet from my recent Saint Paul Island Photo Safari. I really do love these dark, out-of-focus wet rocks as backgrounds that we got by pointing straight down from the top of the cliff edge. 

The X Factor

Canon Canada has loaned me a Canon EOS 1DX from their VIP loaner pool. I've just taken it ouf the box and set it up for birds in flight photography and will be "putting the boots to it" during my Puffins Galore Workshop; Stay tuned for my mini review after my return home. I am quite excited to try out the latest and greatest offering from Canon - Thank you CPS services Canada!

Canon EOS 7D Firmware V2.0 Announced

Crested Auklet Portrait (Aethia cristatella, CRAU) Saint Paul Island, The Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, Alaska. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Canon 1D MK IV, 500mm F4 L IS , 2X Teleconverter III & Canon Extension Tube EF 25 II, Tripod & Jobu Jr. 3 ISO 1,600 f/8 @ 1/160s Manual Mode. Fill flash Canon Speedlite 580EX II with Better Beamer @ -2&2/3. PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION HERE.

Here's a portrait of a one of my favorite birds of Saint Paul Island. This portrait was made by slowly working my way to the cliff edge and pointing my camera straight down at the bird. It took a little patience to get the bird looking directly at me as I wanted it, and I just love the dark out-of-focus rocks that makes the background. We had amazing weather for June, with barely a sprikle of light rain during our entire eight day trip. Our return to Anchorage was delayed 24 hours due to fog, but that was a small price to pay for such a rewarding trip.

Do be sure to book early for my 2013 Safari to Saint Paul Island next June to avoid planned price increase.

Canon EOS 7D Firmware V2.0

Canon has announced an upcoming firmware update, 7D Firmware Version 2, for the 18 Megapixel EOS 7D that includes a raft of new features to further enhance the capabilities of Canon’s flagship APS-C format DSLR.

The new EOS 7D Firmware Version 2 update will enhance the camera with the following additional features:

Improved RAW maximum burst

In the EOS 7D the maximum burst of RAW file frames was 15 – with the firmware update this will be significantly increased so that the camera’s buffer will handle up to 25 RAW frames in a continuous burst.

In-camera RAW conversion

The EOS 7D will allow for in-camera post-processing of images. RAW images can be edited in-camera and options can be changed before saving the finished file as a ready-to-print JPEG or for sending wirelessly. This function can be used with full resolution RAW files, but not with M-RAW or S-RAW files.

The settings for in-camera RAW processing include White balance, Picture Style, High ISO speed noise reduction, Colour Space, and lens data corrections (Peripheral Illumination Correction, distortion correction and Chromatic Aberration Correction).

Image rating capabilities

Like other Canon EOS DSLRs, such as the EOS 60D, EOS-1D X and EOS 5D Mark III, the EOS 7D will be able to rate images from 1 to 5 stars in-camera for quicker and easier sorting of images within your workflow. The ratings can be used to sort images in applications such as Adobe Elements, Adobe Bridge and Apple Aperture. The ratings are XMP compliant and Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software has been updated to reflect this.

Auto ISO maximum setting

Within the EOS 7D’s shooting menu photographers will have the ability to set a maximum ISO speed for ISO Auto, within the ISO range of 400-6400, so that you can minimise the amount of noise in your images.

Manual adjustment for audio recording levels

During EOS Movie shooting you will be able to manually adjust the audio recording levels to one of 64 levels, whilst the sound volume during playback can be set to one of 11 levels. During movie recording noise from the aperture is reduced and the camera also has an automatic wind cut filter.

JPEG resizing

Within the camera’s image-recording menu with all JPEG images you will be able to resize the image (for image downsizing) and save it as a new image. JPEG L and M images can be resized and saved as separate JPEG M or S images. Note that the aspect ratio cannot be changed.

Support for the GP-E2 GPS unit

The GP-E2 unit arrived with the EOS 5D Mark III and this firmware update will enable the GPS unit to be used with the EOS 7D, via a cable connection, so that photographers can geo-tag images with latitude and longitude data in the EXIF fields.

Quick Control during playback

With the Quick Control (Q) button pressed during image playback photographers will be able to select options for protect images, rotate images, rate images, resize images, highlight alert, AF point display and image jump.

File name setting

In the EOS 7D’s camera settings menu in user setting 1 the first four characters of the file name can be adjusted, whilst in user setting 2 the first three characters of the file name can be adjusted and the fourth will be set automatically according to the recording quality.

Time Zone setting

Within the EOS 7D’s camera settings menu you will be able to set the time zone, plus daylight saving time can also be set.

Faster scrolling of magnified images

The screen scrolling speed will be faster for scrolling through images when they are enlarged. The ease of use is improved when using the camera to zoom in and check focus.

The existing impressive specifications of the EOS 7D include up to 8fps shooting speed, high ISO sensitivity up to 12,800 for low light shooting, an iFCL metering system with a 63-zone Dual-layer Metering Sensor for superbly accurate exposures, plus outstanding in-camera Speedlite Transmitter flash technology.

Stay tuned here for the new firmware when it becomes available soon.