Marine Biology: Birds

shorebird

found full time along the shore including feeding in sandy areas or mudflats

seabird

nest on land but otherwise depend on open ocean for foraging, highly migratory

order sphenisciformes

• 18 species of penguins

• almost all antartic

• highly adapted- no flight

• wings for long-distance swims

• thick layer of fat

• IUCN, some critical, endangered and vulnerable

order procellariiformes

• 100 species of albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and shore petrels

• global distribution but largely temperate to polar

• external nares open at prominent horny tube

• pair bonds

Order Ciconiiformes

• 127 species of herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills, storks, and shoe bill

• Long legs with elongated toes

• wading birds looking for fish and crustaceans

  such as the great blue heron and snowy egret

order pelicaniformes

67 species of tropicbirds, frigatebirds, pelicans, boobies, gannets, cormorants, and darters

• among the earliest evolutionary flighted lineages

• 4 toes fully webbed

• gular pouch

order Charadriiformes

390 species od gulls, auks, shorebirds

• mixed flocks

• make scrapes or shallow depressions in sand relying on camo