Seabirds

Seabirds

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Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene. In general, seabirds live longer, breed later and have fewer young than other birds do, but they invest a great deal of time in their young. Most species nest in colonies, which can vary in size from a few dozen birds to millions.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED.

Published: 2012-08-10 21:00:00 UTC

2/11

Yellow Eyed Penguin

The Yellow-eyed Penguin or Hoiho is a penguin native to New Zealand. Like most other penguins, it is mainly piscivorous.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED. PHOTO BY Christian Mehlführer, cban Some rights reserved

3/11

Pelicans on a Rock in the San Francisco Bay

From the fossil record it is known that pelicans have been around for over 30 million years, the earliest fossil Pelecanus being found in Oligocene deposits in France.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED. PHOTO BY Christian Mehlführer, cban Some rights reserved

4/11

Atlantic Puffin

The curious appearance of the bird, with its colourful huge bill and its striking piebald plumage, has given rise to nicknames such as '"clown of the ocean" and "sea parrot". The Atlantic Puffin is the provincial bird for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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King Penguins

King penguins have adapted well to their extreme living conditions in the subantarctic. To keep warm, the penguins have four layers of feathering.

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Black Headed Gull

The Black-headed Gull is a small gull which breeds in much of Europe and Asia, and also in coastal eastern Canada.It is a bold and opportunist feeder and will eat insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps and carrion in towns, or take invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED. PHOTO BY Petr Jan Juračka, cbn Some rights reserved

7/11

Australian Pied Cormorant

The Australia Pied Cormorant is found around the coasts of Australasia. Although typically found in marine habitat—sometimes solitary, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in vast flocks of hundreds or thousands—it is also attracted to inland waters, including lakes, deep and open swamps, and rivers.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED. PHOTO BY Christian Mehlführer, cban Some rights reserved

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Greated Crested Terns

The Greater Crested Tern occurs in tropical and warm temperate coastal parts of the Old World from South Africa around the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and Australia.

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Cormorant

Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds. All are fish-eaters, dining on small eels, fish, and even water snakes.

TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA, cba SOME RIGHTS RESERVED. PHOTO BY Christian Mehlführer, cban Some rights reserved

10/11

Great Cormorant

Many fishermen see in the Great Cormorant a competitor for fish. Because of this it was nearly hunted to extinction in the past. Thanks to conservation efforts its numbers increased

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Northern Gannets

The Northern Gannet is a seabird and is the largest member of the gannet family, Sulidae. Their breeding range is the North Atlantic. They normally nest in large colonies, on cliffs overlooking the ocean or on small rocky islands.