Seabirds

Birds of North America

Anhingidae, Alcids, Diomedeidae, Fregatidae, Hydrobatidae, Laridae, Pelecanidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Procellariidae & Sulidae

Lives, Habitats & Pictures of the Seabirds

A male Forster's Tern in breeding plumage flying
over Hillman's Marsh with an impaled minnow on its' bill, near Leamington, Ontario, Canada

There are many types of seabirds, most species can be seen along the different coasts of North America. Other seabirds described as pelagics, are the ones who remain out in the open ocean. These birds may nest on the mainlands or on islands out in the seas, where there is less chance of land predators eating their eggs or their young.

Included in these seabirds are the gulls, terns, kittiwakes, guillemots, jaegers, skuas, shearwaters, storm-petrels, petrels, puffins, gannet, boobies, razorbill, dovekie, murres, cormorants, auklets, murrelets, albatrosses, fulmar, pelicans, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, noddies, and skimmer. All of these birds species can be seen at one time or another on the oceans, and some of these birds species can be found on fresh water.

Most seabirds at one time or another can be seen flying along coastlines or overland, some by choice and others pushed off course by bad weather and strong winds. There are those such as the albatrosses, that you might have a better opportunity of seeing from a boat or a ship.

The birds and the bird species identified above, are a general summary of the seabirds of North America. There is hybridizing among the species which creates sub-species, which should be identified on an individual basis and there are others that may be vagrants from the surrounding continents.

Click on the bird names listed below to see pictures of Seabirds of North America
Albatrosses	Auklets	Boobies	Cormorants
Dovekie	Frigatebird	Gannet	Guillemots
Gulls	Jaegers	Kittiwakes	Murrelets
Murres	Noddies	Northern Fulmar	Pelicans
Petrels	Puffins	Razorbill	Shearwaters
Skimmer	Skuas	Storm-Petrels	Terns
Tropicbirds