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Rocky Shores

43 Bird Species

Atlantic Puffin

Unmistakable; the only puffin found in the Atlantic Ocean. Crisply marked with black upperparts, white underparts, a black breast band, white face, orange legs, and large blue and orange bill. A bit smaller than Tufted and Horned Puffins, which are unknown from Eastern North America. Without range as more...

Length: 32 cm Wingspan: 53 cm

Bald Eagle

Familiar to most as the avian symbol of the United States; adults are instantly recognizeable. They are dark brown overall with a gleaming white head and tail. The bill and feet are yellow, as is the eye. When soaring, the wings are held flat. At a distance, when the white head and tail blend in with more...

Length: 86 cm Wingspan: 183 cm

Barnacle Goose

This small goose is a rare visitor from Europe. Single birds in North America have long been presumed escapees, but there is increasing evidence that at least some are legitimate vagrants. The mostly white face contrasts with the otherwise black nape, neck, and breast. A dark line extends through the more...

Length: 58 cm Wingspan: 132 cm

Belcher's Gull

A stocky, medium-sized, four-year gull. Relatively long yellow legs and long, straight-edged, yellow bill with black ring and red tip. Dark eye. Adult: White underparts; slaty-black upperparts. Nonbreeding are dark-hooded with white eye arks. White head in breeding plumage contrasts with smoky-gray w more...

Length: 51 cm Wingspan: 124 cm

Black Guillemot

In alternate plumage, adults are black with a broad white wing patch, red legs, and a slender bill. In basic plumage, mostly white with black flight feathers and mottled black back. Compared to its western counterpart, Pigeon Guillemot, Black is paler in basic plumage, and has no dark bar in the whit more...

Length: 33 cm Wingspan: 53 cm

Black Oystercatcher

Unmistakable. A large, stocky, all-black shorebird with a long, bright red bill and strong, pale pink legs. Upperparts usually with a brownish tinge. Eyes bright yellow with a reddish eye-ring. Juveniles are similar to adults, but their upperparts show pale brown edging and buffy tips to the coverts; more...

Length: 45 cm Wingspan: 81 cm

Black Turnstone

This stocky shorebird of rocky West Coast shorelines is recognized by its bold black and white pattern. The black bill is fairly short and chisel-shaped. The legs are dull brown to dark orange. Alternate Adult: Upperparts are glossy black, with fine white streaks on the crown, a white spot near the b more...

Length: 22 cm Wingspan: 43 cm

Black-tailed Gull

This Asian species is one of the few gulls that shows black on the tail as an adult. Distinguished in all plumages by its long thin bill with no gonydeal expansion. Alternate Adult: The mantle is dark gray. The head and underparts are white. The tail has a broad black band, completely edged in white. more...

Length: 46 cm Wingspan: 119 cm

Blue-footed Booby

Boobies are large and distinctive in shape with long slightly crooked, pointed wings, fairly long necks that taper into a slender head and long pointed bill, with a lot of neck and head extension in front of the wing. The rump and tail extend well behind the wings tapering to a fairly narrow wedge-sh more...

Length: 81 cm Wingspan: 157 cm

Brandt's Cormorant

Similar in length, but slightly slimmer overall than Double-crested Cormorant. In flight, they hold their necks straighter; neck and head more streamlined than Double-crested. Adults are all black. During nesting season, they show some greenish iridescence, a bright azure blue throat pouch, and may h more...

Length: 80 cm Wingspan: 120 cm

Bridled Tern

A slender, dark-backed tern, breeds in the Florida Keys. Alternate Adult has black wings, dark gray back, forked tail extending past wings, gray stripe down center of spread tail, white underparts, black legs, black cap and eyeline, white forehead extending past eye, and thin black bill. Basic Adult more...

Length: 39 cm Wingspan: 76 cm

Bristle-thighed Curlew

This species gets its name from the odd bristles at the base of the legs. It matches Whimbrel in size, shape, and head pattern, but Bristle-thighed shows much more buff, compared to the cold gray-brown of Whimbrel. In all plumages, the buff tail with black barring and plain buffy rump are distinctive more...

Length: 41 cm Wingspan: 81 cm

Brown Pelican

Large, swan-sized mostly brown waterbird with a massive, long beak with extensible pouch. Atlantic populations have greenish to brown pouches and pale yellowish bills. Western birds have red pouch. Adults have grayish backs with darker brown underparts. Broad, crooked, long wings. Black legs and shor more...

Length: 130 cm Wingspan: 200 cm

Common Eider

This large sea duck is recognized by its wedge-shaped bill with long fleshy lobes that extend from the nostrils toward the eyes, and with feathering that extends down the sides of the bill. The shape of these features varies among the four different races that breed in North America. Male: In alterna more...

Length: 58 cm Wingspan: 89 cm

Common Sandpiper

This Eurasian species strongly resembles Spotted Sandpiper in appearance and behavior. Alternate Adult: Dark brown above, with fine black streaks. The tertails are barred with black. The sides of the upper breast match the color of the upperparts and are also finely streaked with black. The remainder more...

Length: 18 cm Wingspan: 38 cm

Common Tern

This species is one of several small white terns that do not attain a definitive alternate plumage until at least their third spring (nearly three years after hatch date). Alternate Adult has gray back and upper wing surface, pale gray underparts, forked tail shorter than folded wings, white face, bl more...

Length: 31 cm Wingspan: 76 cm

Non-vegetated Areas

0 species

Salt Water

43 species

Atlantic Puffin

Fratercula arctica

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Estuaries and Bays, Rocky Shores, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs, Ponds and Rivers, Eastern Deciduous Forest, Western Confierous Forest, Streamside Gallery Forest and Riparia

Barnacle Goose

Branta leucopsis

Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Saltmarshes, Open Country and Grasslands

Belcher's Gull

Larus belcheri

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows

Black Guillemot

Cepphus grylle

Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores

Black Oystercatcher

Haematopus bachmani

Rocky Shores, Beaches

Black Turnstone

Arenaria melanocephala

Rocky Shores, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows

Black-tailed Gull

Larus crassirostris

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes

Blue-footed Booby

Sula nebouxii

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores

Brandt's Cormorant

Phalacrocorax penicillatus

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches

Bridled Tern

Onychoprion anaethetus

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Coastal Dunes

Bristle-thighed Curlew

Numenius tahitiensis

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Open Country and Grasslands

Brown Pelican

Pelecanus occidentalis

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Mangroves

Common Eider

Somateria mollissima

Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Ponds and Rivers

Common Sandpiper

Actitis hypoleucos

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs, Ponds and Rivers, Streams and Brooks

Common Tern

Sterna hirundo

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Saltmarshes, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs

Double-crested Cormorant

Phalacrocorax auritus

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Saltmarshes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs, Ponds and Rivers, Southern Wooded Swamps

Elegant Tern

Thalasseus elegans

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows

Glaucous-winged Gull

Larus glaucescens

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Lakes Resevoirs

Gray-tailed Tattler

Tringa brevipes

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Lakes Resevoirs, Ponds and Rivers

Great Black-backed Gull

Larus marinus

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Coastal Dunes, Saltmarshes, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

Great Cormorant

Phalacrocorax carbo

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Lakes Resevoirs

Harlequin Duck

Histrionicus histrionicus

Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Ponds and Rivers, Streams and Brooks

Heermann's Gull

Larus heermanni

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores

Herring Gull

Larus argentatus

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

Iceland Gull

Larus glaucoides

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Sewage Treatment Plants, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

Laughing Gull

Leucophaeus atricilla

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Saltmarshes, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs

Least Auklet

Aethia pusilla

Open Ocean, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

McKay's Bunting

Plectrophenax hyperboreus

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Open Country and Grasslands

Parakeet Auklet

Aethia psittacula

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Pelagic Cormorant

Phalacrocorax pelagicus

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Pigeon Guillemot

Cepphus columba

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Purple Sandpiper

Calidris maritima

Rocky Shores

Razorbill

Alca torda

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Red-faced Cormorant

Phalacrocorax urile

Open Ocean, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs

Rock Sandpiper

Calidris ptilocnemis

Rocky Shores, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Alpine Tundra and Meadows

Roseate Tern

Sterna dougallii

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows

Ruddy Turnstone

Arenaria interpres

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Fresh Water Marshes

Savannah Sparrow

Passerculus sandwichensis

Rocky Shores, Coastal Dunes, Saltmarshes, Open Country and Grasslands, Alpine Tundra and Meadows

Surfbird

Calidris virgata

Rocky Shores, Alpine Tundra and Meadows

Wandering Tattler

Tringa incana

Rocky Shores, Streams and Brooks

Whimbrel

Numenius phaeopus

Rocky Shores, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Fresh Water Marshes, Alpine Tundra and Meadows

White Wagtail

Motacilla alba

Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Ponds and Rivers

Human-altered Areas

7 species

Black-tailed Gull

Larus crassirostris

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes

Double-crested Cormorant

Phalacrocorax auritus

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Saltmarshes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Fresh Water Marshes, Lakes Resevoirs, Ponds and Rivers, Southern Wooded Swamps

Glaucous-winged Gull

Larus glaucescens

Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Tidal Mudflats and Shallows, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Lakes Resevoirs

Great Black-backed Gull

Larus marinus

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Beaches, Coastal Dunes, Saltmarshes, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

Herring Gull

Larus argentatus

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Urban Landscapes, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Sewage Treatment Plants, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

Iceland Gull

Larus glaucoides

Open Ocean, Estuaries and Bays, Inshore Waters, Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Beaches, Sewage Treatment Plants, Dams, Lakes Resevoirs

White Wagtail

Motacilla alba

Rocky Shores, Coastal Cliffs, Suburban/residential Landscapes, Ponds and Rivers

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Rocky Shores

Non-vegetated Areas

Salt Water

Human-altered Areas

Fresh Water

Grassland and Scrubland

Forest and Woodlands