Pair of parakeet auklets (Aethia psittacula) displaying mating behaviour while perched on the cliffs of St. George Island, Alaska, USA. The parakeet auklet is a small seabird of the North Pacific. Parakeet auklets used to be placed on its own in the genus Cyclorrhynchus but recent morphological and genetic evidence suggest it should be placed in the genus Aethia, making them closely related to crested auklets and least auklets. Breeding adults are blackish above, mostly white below, with orange bill, and wispy white plumes behind the whitish eye. Nonbreeding adults are similar but breast and throat whitish, bill dusky orange, and reduced plumes. Juvenile similar but bill smaller and duskier. Nests in small, loose colonies of a few dozen pairs on rocky shorelines and cliffs of North Pacific islands. Forages in deep, open waters of the north Pacific, often very far from land.