Editing Great auk (section)

===Diet===
[[File:Alca Impennis by John Gould.jpg|alt=A summer great auk tilts its head back, swallowing a fish.|thumb|Great auk eating a fish, by [[John Gould]]]]
This alcid typically fed in shoaling waters that were shallower than those frequented by other alcids,<ref name="BNAFood">{{Cite web | last = Montevecchi | first = William A. |author2=David A. Kirk | title =Food Habits-Great Auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') | work = The Birds of North America Online | publisher = Cornell Lab of Ornithology | year = 1996 | url = http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/260/articles/foodhabits| access-date =29 April 2010 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> although after the breeding season, they had been sighted as far as {{convert|500|km|nmi|abbr=on}} from land.<ref name="BNAFood" /> They are believed to have fed cooperatively in flocks.<ref name="BNAFood" /> Their main food was fish, usually {{convert|12|to|20|cm|in|frac=2|abbr=on}} in length and weighing {{convert|40|to|50|g|oz|frac=8|abbr=on}}, but occasionally their prey was up to half the bird's own length. Based on remains associated with great auk bones found on [[Funk Island]] and on ecological and morphological considerations, it seems that [[Atlantic menhaden]] and [[capelin]] were their favoured prey.<ref>{{cite journal |last =Olson |first = Storrs L|author2 = Swift, Camm C. |author3 = Mokhiber, Carmine |year =1979 |title = An attempt to determine the prey of the Great Auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') |journal = [[The Auk]] |volume = 96 |issue =4 |jstor =4085666 |pages = 790–792}}</ref> Other fish suggested as potential prey include [[lumpsucker]]s, [[shorthorn sculpin]]s, [[cod]], [[sand lance]], as well as crustaceans.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=311}}<ref name="BNAFood" /> The young of the great auk are believed to have eaten [[plankton]] and, possibly, fish and crustaceans regurgitated by adults.<ref name="BNA" /><ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=313}}