Birds of the Seacoasts and Arctic

Birds of the seacoasts

Some American and Canadian water birds normally nest along seacoasts. Along the Atlantic coast, such birds include the American oystercatcher, black skimmer, and common tern. The black oystercatcher, western gull, and Cassin's auklet nest along the Pacific coast. The brown pelican, laughing gull, and Wilson's plover nest along both coasts. Some species, such as oystercatchers and plovers, are shore birds. Certain others, including auks and auklets, gulls, and terns, sometimes hunt fish far out at sea.

In winter, the southeast, south, and southwest coasts of North America provide homes to numerous ducks, geese, and many other birds that nest in the Arctic. Many sandpipers and other Arctic birds visit U.S. and Canadian shores en route to winter homes in the tropics.




Birds of the Arctic

Northernmost North America, Asia, and Europe lie in the Arctic. Most of this land is tundra-that is, cold, dry, treeless marshland. The Arctic tundra remains frozen solid most of the year. It comes to life briefly in spring and summer. At that time, the tundra provides a rich source of the insects and other small animals that birds eat. Many birds that winter in warmer climates arrive in the tundra to breed. Most are water birds. They include the lesser golden-plover, Arctic tern, Canada goose, parasitic jaeger, red phalarope, and many species of ducks and sandpipers. Land birds that migrate to the tundra include the horned lark and snow bunting.

Only a few birds live in the Arctic all year. Probably the best known are ptarmigans. These extremely hardy, chickenlike birds survive almost entirely on twigs and leaf buds during the long Arctic winters.