A trip to the beach always means beach birds. They often can be seen standing by the water’s edge ready to meet and greet visitors at the first light of day.
Informally we call them gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers and more. Formally they group together as water birds, (order Charadriiformes) and they not only share the beach with humans, they also share many freshwater shorelines with them from coast to coast. This presentation covers representative beach bird species such as gulls, plovers and sandpipers for help with basic identification questions.
The video at the top of the page shows a Kildeer, Because of their continental range, perhaps the Killdeers and Semipalmated Plovers best represent the North American plover population.
Killdeers like the one in the video at the top of the page come close to breaking the plover mold by living in habitats outside of traditional plover coastal or inland shoreline habitats.
The Piping Plover populations decreased in the Post WW II era, due largely to human encroachment on their breeding territory. By 1986 the population levels decreased to the point of requiring protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Three different breeding populations, the Great Lakes, the Northern Great Plains Population and the Atlantic Coast, receive protection, with the Great Lakes population listed as endangered and the remaining two populations listed as threatened.
Wilson’s plover inhabits the Atlantic and Gulf coastal areas of the Southeast.
The black chin and belly along with the checkered back feathers of the Black-bellied Plover in breeding plumage presents an eye catching image for even the least enthusiastic of bird enthusiasts.
They are fairly large plovers that nest in the Arctic and winter along both coasts. Lack of competition in their breeding grounds contributes to a stable population.
Golden Plover on the beach.
Gulls and terns also qualify as common beach birds. Fortunately identification of adult gulls can be straightforward. Most identification problems stem from the fact that juvenile gulls go through a series of molts prior to gaining what constitutes standard feathers for the particular adult species.
The red bill of the Heermann’s Gull makes for a great beach bird sighting. It’s strictly a West Coast Gull, found along the edges of rocky beaches from British Columbia to Mexico.
Yellow legs and a black ring around a yellow bill distinguish the Ring-billed Gull. It’s one of the more common North American gulls, wintering in the south from coast to coast.
With a global breeding range that extends from the Arctic, south into northern climates of North American, Asia and Europe, the Common Tern might be one of the world’s most common terns.
Identifying juveniles and adults with winter plumage can be a bit more difficult. Picture two shows a Common Tern with muted red legs and dark bar across the wings.
The Forster’s Tern, an almost exclusively North American species, splits its time between its summer breeding grounds in the Great Lakes and prairie regions and its coastal winter grounds. The black cap, red legs and black-tipped red bill of the breeding adult population makes them very similar in appearance to the Common Tern.
The picture shows a Forster’s Tern in winter plumage. The dark comma mark across the face, the muted red legs and white belly serve as good winter plumage identification clues.
The yellow-tipped bill serves as the key identification feature for the Sandwich Tern, a medium sized bird that lives along the coastal areas of the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico.
Royal Terns are popular beach birds in their East Coast and Gulf Coast habitats. The large size, black legs and orange bill of the Royal Tern provide for fairly easy species identification.
Cormorants the large, social, fish eating birds, inhabit both fresh and salt water locations across North America.
All six native cormorant species share similar physical features from the head down, dark feathers, slender bodies, webbed feet and a medium-sized set of stiff tail feathers. This guide helps with basic Cormorant identification questions.
Eye color helps with field identification for some species. Brandt’s Cormorant, for example, have blue eyes and Double-crested Cormorants have green eyes.
The Double-crested Cormorant shown in the top picture spreading his wings in the sun to dry, is habitual for a water bird without water proof wings. It’s the most common across the United States.
Pelicans identification in North America is straight forward, with two native species, the Brown pelican and the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).
The American white pelican, the more common of the two, inhabits both coastal and inland areas. The Brown pelican, primarily a coastal bird, splits into two subspecies, the Eastern Brown pelican, the more common, and the California Brown pelican, the West Coast version.
Louisiana, with the nickname, The Pelican State, calls the Eastern Brown Pelican its official state bird.
The long legs, necks and bills of species in the Threskiornithidae family (Ibis and Spoonbills) serve as the families initial field identification clues.
They are not very picky about their water habitat and will occupy fresh, brackish and salt water areas, where they spend their times searching for insects on the land and invertebrates in the water. Their bill is sufficiently long and sharp enough to peck in the mud of shallow water.
A small, year round population resides along areas of the Gulf Coast, with the bulk of the population migrating as far south as Coastal Argentina during the winter.
The Calidris sandpipers are generally known for their small size. The Least Sandpiper, pictured, ranks as North America’s smallest shorebird. During migration they seek out food in freshwater mudflats, and often congregate in large flocks.
Dull yellow legs and a bill that looks long compared to the short body tend to characterize the species.
Moving up the size scale a bit, Pectoral Sandpipers rank among the long distance shorebird champions, typically breeding in northern latitudes like Canada and Alaska. Most migrate to South America for the winter.
Flying such a long distance means they make inland and coastal appearances across the continent during their migrations.
Size represents a good initial clue for Pectoral sandpiper identification. They grow a bit larger than the smaller sandpipers. The orange-reddish coloring at the base of the bill provides a good field identification clue.
Sanderlings commonly get descried as the shorebird that runs up and down the beach with the tide while they search for food. They breed in northern freshwater locations as far north as the Arctic circle.
Medium sized, with black legs, their top feathers range from chestnut to gray, depending on the season.
Western Sandpipers often congregate in large numbers across many North American locations. Contrary to the name, their range extends as far east as the coastal areas of the South Atlantic.
Identification can be a fairly straightforward task that begins by documenting a pair of black legs on a small sandpiper.
Dunlins are also fairly common along the beaches of the United States and can often be identified by their longer the average bills. The picture shows a juvenile.
Red Knots, long distance flying marvels, breed in the Arctic and then winter in South America. During the long migrations they can often be spotted at local ponds and shorelines eating and gathering energy for their travels.
Rock Sandpipers are a specialty bird of the Pacific Coast. They breed in the Arctic.
Purple Sandpipers, another rarity that breeds in the arctic, occasionally stray south into the United States and get noticed by some happy birders looking for a species to add to their life list.
The large number of shorebird species also allows for additional ‘one of a family’ or genera species. In the sandpiper family, for example, Surfbirds (Aphriza virgata), account for the entire North American Aphriza genus. They inhabit the furthermost rocks and ledges of western shorelines and feed on insects and spiders that hide among rock crevices, as well as consuming small amounts of seeds and marine organisms.
With the rare visit of the Eurasian Oystercatcher), North America officially hosts three oystercatcher species.
In addition to oysters, they all feed on mussels and other shellfish found in their territory during low tides.
The more widespread American Oystercatcher lives along the coastal areas of the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico.
The Black Oystercatcher), the West Coast species, lives and breeds in a very narrow range along rocky coastlines.
Sleek bills and long legs characterize, the American Avocet, a fairly large (two feet) shorebird of western salt and fresh water habitat, depending on the season. They breed in freshwater areas and gather along beaches during the winter season.
Black-necked Stilts inhabit a variety of waterways along the West Coast, Gulf Coast and South Atlantic Coast. Their long red legs and black and white bodies make easy to identify in the field.
Black skimmers add some variations to the shorebirds category. They can be found along the Atlantic, Gulf and California coasts, often in large numbers. The name comes from the fact that they use their bills to skim the water for food as they fly.