The Benowitz-Fredericks Research Lab

Avian endocrinology at Bucknell University

Physiological and behavioral ecology of birds

A white fluffy chicks stands with beak partially open, looking sideways at the camera. The belly and legs of a white adult kittiwake, which blue, orange and white color bands visible, can be seen behind the chick, along with a single unhatched egg.
A kittiwake chick peers out from under it’s banded parent at Middleton Island.
The top half of a loomed, grey, dodecahedral tower fills the frame, with many white dots visible all over it (each a nesting kittiwake). Horizontal beams on the upper third of the tower and a metal grid roof that extends over the edge of the structure both hosts many nests.
“The Tower” on Middleton Island
Two adult kittiwakes with beaks open (white gulls with black legs, grey wings, yellow beaks and bright orange skin inside their mouths) stand at a nest with two chicks (white, fluffy, black beaks) below them. Behind them green vegetation and other structures are visible - this nest is high up.
Kittiwake parents and chicks, seen from inside The Tower

Our current research on black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) happens on Middleton Island, in the Gulf of Alaska, at the field station owned and run by the Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation.