Nizki Island (Avayax̂ in

Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...

; russian: Низкий) is an uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. Located at , it is the middle island of the

Semichi Islands The Semichi Islands (Samiyan in Aleut; russian: Семичи) are a cluster of small islands in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. They are located southeast of Attu Island and northeast of Agattu Island, near . Named islands ...

group of the

Near Islands The Near Islands or Sasignan Islands ( ale, Sasignan tanangin, russian: Ближние острова) are a group of American islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, between the Russian Commander Islands to the west and the Rat ...

. Flanked by

Shemya Shemya or Simiya ( ale, Samiyax̂) is a small island in the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands chain in the Aleutian Islands archipelago southwest of Alaska, at . It has a land area of , and is about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It is ...

to the east and Alaid to the west, three-mile-long (5 km) Nizki is periodically joined to Alaid by a sand spit. The name is said to derive from the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n ''nizkiy'', meaning "low," a term descriptive of the island's topography, with a maximum elevation of . Nizki's shoreline is very irregular and is fringed by numerous rocks, reefs, and kelp-marked shoals. Foxes were introduced to Nizki Island by Russian fur traders in the 19th century. This decimated the population of many bird species on the island. The last fox was removed from Nizki Island in 1976, and now Aleutian Canada Geese (once believed to be extinct), Puffins, and Aleutian Terns are common on the island.

References

External links

Nizki Island Photos
Photos from Nizki Island, July 2008

Semichi Islands Uninhabited islands of Alaska Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska {{AleutiansWestAK-geo-stub