u/reindeerareawesome

Black-legged kittiwakes are a species of gull. Unlike other species of gulls, kittiwakes are incredibly picky eaters, as they only eat fish and squid. This means you can put a whole bag of fries in front of them and they wouldn't eat it.

This is a huge problem for them, as the main reason they are in decline is due to overfishing, as their main food source is being fished away. Other gulls manage by eating other foods, but kittiwakes don't have it so easy.

Even if they find prey, the behavior of the fish have also changed. Due to the oceans warming up, the fish they hunt have started swimming at deeper depths where the preffered temperature is. Since kittiwakes grab fish at the surface, they can't follow them into the deeper parts.

Then lastly add in the fact that humans have taken a lot of the nesting spaces, meaning they have less space to breed in. Then when they do build nests and get their chicks, a lot of invasive predators will kill their offspring.

Lastly, while all those points have slowly declined the numbers, the bird flu has taken a proper toll on the population, and while in certain parts of the country they are doing fine, the population in northern Norway has declined by atleast 90%, which is why any chicks raised into adulthood are great news for this species