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Yellow-billed Loon Stellar's eider Pelagic cormorant
Blacked-legged Kittiwake Pomarine Jaeger Arctic Tern
Gulls
Horned Puffin Short-tailed Shearwater Red phalarope
   
   

 

Sea Birds

Murres

What’s here

This section provides images and background on the marine birds of the Arctic.

There are 64 species of 'seabirds' that breed in the Arctic. At present, pages are limited to the 34 species of marine birds that nest in the US EEZ of the Western Arctic, and six species migrating into it for some portion of spring-fall to feed on locally-abundant prey resources. About 50 million seabirds nest on Alaska's coast each summer, nesting in more than 1600 seabird colonies around the coast.

Marine birds have special adaptations that allow them to live at sea and get all their food there.  Thye come to land to raise their young each summer. Many nest on protected cliffs or islands, often in dense groups called colonies.

Page Author: adapted from USFWS
Created: Aug 23, 2008

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