A young kittiwake on a warm summer day in Vardø, northern-most Norway.

Here kittiwakes (rissa tridactyla) have started breeding in the center of town, where they are protected from the eagles in the area. In order to avoid the kittiwakes making nests on people's houses, kittiwake hotels where they can nest in peace were built in several locations.

This family was nesting on an abandoned building near one of the kittiwake hotels, and all members were sitting beak open, cooling down from the temperatures.

Picture taken from a safe distance, with telezoom lens, and further cropped in post production, so no chicks were disturbed.

Black-legged kittiwake sitting on top of one of the Kittiwake hotels in Vardø.

Here the kittiwakes have more and more moved from the bird cliffs into town, so locals built kittiwake hotels (breeding platforms) so they would nest away from the houses.

It was really nice to see so many healthy kittiwakes breeding in those boxes this year, especially after a catastrophic year with avian flu in 2023.

Portrait of a black-legged kittiwake, taken in the habor in Vardø (Finnmark, Norway), after our visit to Hornøya.

Second year kittiwake, photographed at Hornøya, an island which around a hundered thousand seabirds call home.

Black-legged kittiwake, photographed in Varanger, northern Norway.

Kittiwakes are so cute 🤍 Unfortunately, they have it really tough these days. Overfishing, climate change and human activity threaten their food and habitat, and last year they had a disastrous bird flu outbreak. Additionally, in Norway the white-tailed eagle conservation has been so successful that the eagles are now so plentiful that the kittiwakes are being chased away from their cliffs, and into the coastal towns, like this one.

In order to avoid the kittiwakes nesting on people's homes and offer the kittiwakes a safe breeding ground, people in the "kittiwake towns" built hotels for their kittiwakes. This gives them an easy but controlled space to nest.

Kittiwake about to land on a platform at the kittiwake hotel in Kiberg, Vardø kommune (Varanger/Finnmark, northern Norway). Here kittiwakes are starting to make their nests in the cities, rather than the nearby birdcliffs, where they find protection from predators like white-tailed eagles.

In order to avoid the kittiwakes nesting on people's homes and offer the kittiwakes a safe breeding ground, people in the "kittiwake towns" built hotels for their kittiwakes. This gives them an easy but controlled space to nest.

Kittiwake flying past a red wooden building, somewhere in Vardø municipality in Varanger (Finnmark, northernmost Norway).

I took this picture in the spring of '24 at one of the "kittiwake hotels" in Vardø.

Here kittiwakes have taken over the town, seeking shelter from the white-tailed eagles that roam the coastline, and kittiwake hotels (boxes stacked on top of eachother) have been built to discourage the kittiwakes from building their nests on the houses.