Skattøra's Kittiwakes: overlooked and on the edge.

The highly endangered black-legged kittiwake has settled in Skattøra, an industrial zone filled with warehouses, car dealerships, tall metal buildings, and heavy machinery. Yet, acceptance and coexistence remains a challenge, even far away from Tromsø’s city center. Fortunately, a solution exists that could pave the way for peaceful coexistence.

Kittiwalker Rita Weenås Larsen counting kittiwakes in Skattøra.

In 2024, according to bird scientists at the Norwegian institute for nature research/NINA, Skattøra was home to two kittiwake colonies, respectively 128 and 84 pairs strong. Additionally, 157 pairs were using the floating dock. In total, the ornithologists mapped 369 pairs in Skattøra.

But after finding kittiwakes trapped between a cliff and a net earlier this month, the Kittiwalkers decided to include Skattøra in their monitoring area. They reached out to several owners and started an encouraging dialogue with them. Then, they inspected the cliffs in the area, and discovered kittiwakes in locations that were not previously mapped.

Kittiwake colonies in Skattøra in April 2024.

In Skattøra, most kittiwakes nest on cliffs rather than buildings. While this might seem like good news for coexistence, the proximity of these cliffs to nearby workspaces means that noise and smell still spark frustration and resistance toward this endangered seabird. One of the land owners warded off a cliff with netting, and others may follow the example. As a deterrent, netting is not always effective though. Kittiwakes are faithful to their previous nests, and some pairs manage to build a nest on top of nets. Alternative breeding sites such as mobile kittiwake hotels must be provided, to lure the kittiwakes towards a more desirable location.

Kittiwakes finding their nest covered in netting in spring 2025.

Even though Skattøra lies outside Tromsø’s city center and away from residential areas, it doesn’t offer complete safety for the kittiwakes. However, a promising opportunity for long-term coexistence may lie in a large municipal property located just above one of the main colonies and within close range of the others. The area is quiet, used only for equipment storage, and is far from offices, workspaces, and parking lots. Installing kittiwake hotels there, just a few meters from an existing colony, has a strong chance of success.

Conveniently, two unused kittiwake hotels are currently standing near Strandvegen 8, near Framsenteret. Relocating them to Skattøra now could offer displaced birds—whose nests have recently been netted—a much-needed alternative breeding site.

The two kittiwake hotels standing near Strandvegen 8, waiting to be deployed again.

The property owned by Tromsø municipality sits directly above the cliff where nearly a hundred pairs of kittiwakes are currently nesting (pictures below). It is ideally located: less than 100 meters from the nearest neighboring colony and under 500 meters from the most distant one. Rissa Citizen Science is engaging in dialogue with the relevant stakeholders to propose this long-term solution.

Nearly a hundred pairs of kittiwakes were nesting on this cliff in 2024. It is located far away from houses and workspaces, and could be an ideal place to provide an alternative breeding site to kittiwakes whose nest has been destroyed.

Kittiwake hotels are both a solution to coexistence, and a measure that partly compensates for the destruction of their nests. The black-legged kittiwake is listed as highly endangered (EN) on Norway's Red List, which means the species faces a high risk of exctinction in the wild. It is also legally protected: during the breeding season (from late March and until late August) it is illegal to disturb kittiwakes, or to destroy their nests.