More than 350 species of birds are found throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. These range from resident birds, which stay year-round, to migratory breeders to visiting species and the unusual rarities that drop by en route to other destinations. The birds are found everywhere; inland, along the craggy shoreline and on nearby islands that dot our coastline.
Throughout the year, Newfoundland and Labrador provides great opportunities to watch seabirds in their natural habitat.
With more than 700 known seabird breeding sites, our province may be the “seabird capital” of the world. Several of our colonies are of global significance and are counted among the Earth’s largest and most accessible.
As the spring arrives, hundreds of thousands of seabirds come together in bays and along our coasts. Most seabirds will leave their breeding sites for open sea by September.
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The Auks is the most common seabird in Newfoundland and are numerous in Summer and Winter. This family is widespread throughout the northern hemisphere’s northern coastal area and consists of penguin-shaped, black-and-white seabirds. They typically lay one large egg, and dive after fish and other marine animals in our ocean to feed themselves. Newfoundland and Labrador’s most common auks are:
Atlantic Puffin
 Our provincial bird, the Atlantic Puffin, is one of our more colourful marine creatures and is one of the most famous birds in the world. With its thick orange, yellow, and grey bill and stout body, the puffin is a joy to watch in its natural habitat. The puffin flies and swims underwater and its razor-sharp claws allow it to dig deep burrows into the rich soil of seabird islands. It lays a single egg at the bottom of this protective burrow, which both parents nurture until the chick is ready for life at sea in late August or early September. Approximately 95% of North America’s Atlantic Puffins are found in our province.
Two great places to see Atlantic Puffins are Witless Bay and Baccalieu Island, home to North America’s largest and second largest colonies of puffins, respectively. |
Black Guillemot (sea pigeon)
 The brilliant red legs of the black guillemot when combined with its jet black body and brilliant white wing patches make this auk a very colourful subject for photographers from all over the world. It has the height of a puffin but is sleeker with fast, powerful wing beats. It is a quick flyer that stays low to the water and nests in inaccessible caves and crevices. While these habits make it one of the most challenging seabirds to photograph, it can usually be seen at a distance flying low to the water all around the northeast coast of our province. |
Common Murre (common guillemot or turr)
 The Common Murre is the deepest diving member of the auk family. These seabirds have frequently been captured in nets set 200 metres underwater. During the summer, it is the most numerous auk along our shores. Large numbers of adults crowd together on the flat cliff ledges along many coastal islands. Females lay a single colourful egg; and the pair takes turns warming and guarding it against gulls and ravens. The chick is still quite small when it jumps from the ledge in mid to late summer to sea with one if its parents. The chick may live for two or three years before it returns to the coastal islands and takes it place on the breeding cliffs.
Between May and early August, Cape St. Mary’s and Baccalieu Island are two prime areas for viewing murres. Funk Island and Green Island of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve are the continent’s largest and second largest colonies of common murres in North America, respectively. |
Thick-Billed Murre (Brunnich’s guillemot or turr)
 Thick-billed murres are scattered among the narrow cliff edges of most of our large common murre colonies. These are the most southerly thick-billed murres in the world. While their breeding biology and behaviour are very close to the common murre, in winter they have a different colouring. In summer, you can distinguish a thick-billed murre from a common murre by the white horizontal stripe on its upper bill. |
Razorbill (tinker)
Dovekies (little auks or bull birds)
 During the winter, the bays and coastline of Newfoundland’s northeast and south coasts are filled with millions of dovekies. These robin-sized seabirds arrive before of the Arctic ice to feed upon plankton and tiny fish. During the spring, they revisit the north where they breed along the Greenland coast in enormous colonies. |
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Birds in the gull family are among the world’s most familiar birds. Over 20 kinds of gulls and terns have been reported from waters of Newfoundland and Labrador. These long-winged birds, often called “sea gulls”, go through a series of colour patterns between hatching and adulthood and may have different winter and summer plumage. Common gulls in Newfoundland and Labrador include:
Herring Gull
 Herring gulls nest throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. They are white, with grey wings tipped with black and white. They have yellow bills and feet. |
Great Black-Backed Gull (saddle back gull)
 The great black-backed gull is the largest gull in the world. This gull is similar in appearance to a herring gull with the exception of its black wings and size. |
Black-Legged Kittiwake (tickle ace)
 Newfoundland and Labrador has the largest colony of black-legged kittiwakes in North America and dozens of smaller colonies. This gull is similar in appearance to the herring gull except for its black legs. |
Ring-Billed Gull (pond gull)
 This gull has grey, black-tipped wings, yellow feet and a yellow bill striped by a black ring. This gull nests in numerous sites along Newfoundland and Labrador’s coast and inland. |
Other common gulls are:
Arctic Terns
Common Terns
Black headed gulls
Caspian Terns
Ivory Gull
Eastern Iceland Gull
Glaucous Gull
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This family of northern, hawklike seabirds with slightly hooked beaks are the pirates of the bird world. They will capture some fish and other prey live, but they are best known for their habit of pursuing large seabirds and forcing them to give up their food. They have also been seen catching and eating smaller seabirds. They do not nest in Newfoundland but are seen along the northeast coast as they seek out other seabirds.
 You can distinguish the three types of jaegers by the shape of their central tail feathers. The pomarine jaeger has rounded tail feathers, while the parasitic jaeger has pointed central tail feathers projecting just a few centimetres beyond the other tail feathers. Long-tailed jaeger’s have pointed, central tail feathers that can project more than twelve centimetres (four inches) beyond the other tail feathers. There are a range of colours within each of these types of jaegers making them difficult to distinguish.
 Two types of skuas (also known as sea hens) are also found off the coasts of our province. Every summer, great skuas and south polar skuas steal and scavenge from other seabirds inour province. In winter, larger numbers of great skuas travel to the Grand Banks and coastal headlands from the Canadian Arctic to feed.
These dark birds are the same size as a herring gull and have a white wing patch on its dark brown body. Some south skuas have blond head parts, but it requires experience to distinguish between two skuas from a distance.
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The interior of Newfoundland and Labrador is home to a variety of ducks. Many of these feed from the ocean during some or most of the year.
Eider (shore duck)
 The eider, our largest duck, numbers a few thousands pairs along the northern peninsula, northeast coast, and south coast of Newfoundland. During the winter, these are joined by king eiders and tens of thousands of northerly nesting eiders. Both varieties of eider feature brilliant black, yellow, green, and white adult males and drab brown juveniles and females. The king eider’s bill is thicker than other eiders and the male has a large, orange knob-like shield on its forehead. |
Scoter
 Three types of scoter are found in Newfoundland and Labrador: surf, black, and white-winged. You can identify a male black scoter by its black plumage and yellow beak. Surf scoter males have two white patches across the forehead and back of the head, while white-winged scoters have a white patch below the eye and on the tip of the wing.
Most of these birds nest north of Newfoundland but flocks of non-breeders can be seen during the summer. During the fall and winter these are joined by adults and young from the north. |
Harlequin
 The harlequin is one of the world’s most beautiful marine creatures. This endangered duck nests beside fast flowing rivers in our province and move to the coast during the fall where it can sometimes be seen feeding on small marine animals along the rocky shoreline. Locals call the females “ladies” and males “lords” because of their rich blue-and-white coloration. Wildlife officers and naturalists value hearing from anybody who spots one of these colourful, endangered birds. |
Merganser (shell duck, shell bird or fish duck)
 In winter, two types of mergansers with their crested heads and saw-like bills are commonly seen along Newfoundland and Labrador’s coastlines. The specialized bills of the red-breasted and common mergansers allow them to catch and hold fish and other aquatic prey. |
Oldsquaw (hound)
 This pretty seaduck spends its winters off our province’s coasts and its summers in the arctic. It is known to dive deeper than 150 metres in search of shrimp, mussels, small fish, and other seafood and its males have long pointed tails.
Other ducks in Newfoundland and Labrador include black ducks, buffleheads, and goldeneyes. |
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 Members of the Shearwater family have long wings that allow them to glide effortlessly over the tops of the waves. Shearwaters have tubelike external nostrils and are birds of the open sea, seldom seen from land. One exception to this rule is Newfoundland where during the summer, greater, sooty, and manx shearwaters are often seen from the headlands. At St. Vincent’s, on the southern Avalon, shearwaters pursue caplin into a freshwater pond. Visitors can stand on the beach between oceans and pond and watch these seabirds soar by.
 The Northern fulmar (also known as noddy) is a stiff winged oceanic glider that also belongs to the shearwater family. It somewhat resembles a herring gull and is often seen with flocks of gulls, but can be distinguished by its tubed bill and thicker, shorter wings. Although low numbers of fulmar nest in a variety of Newfoundland colonies, they are a common sight far out to sea.
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 Storm-petrels are small, starling-sized seabirds with sooty brown plumage and a white rump stripe on the tail. They have a tube-shaped nose and clawed, webbed feet which aid them in digging their small burrows in the grass of offshore islands. Many small islands off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador are honey-combed with tens of thousands of storm-petrel burrows.
Although they are seldom seen near land in the day, occasionally summer and fall storms will drive them close to the shore during daylight hours. Specific storm-petrels that you might see while in Newfoundland and Labrador include Wilson’s, fork-tailed Leach’s.
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 The Northern Gannet is a magnificent bird with a gleaning white body, golden head, black wingtips and two metre wingspan. These birds are plunge divers and will drop into the sea from heights of 40 or more metres. Northern Gannets crown the colonies at Cape St. Mary’s, Baccalieu Island, and Funk Island; but they can often be spotted at many locations along the northeast and south coasts. Photographers enjoy capturing their blue eye rings, bill-fencing, graceful flight, and other social activities on film.
Gannets arrive in Newfoundland in early spring and depart for warmer waters as far south as Florida in October. During the summer, the colonies are joined by black-and-white juveniles from previous years who come to search for nest sites. Gannets are the only member of the booby family found in cold climate and you can stand within 15 metres of these graceful giants at the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological reserve.
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In our province, two birds of prey are often included among lists of seabirds; the osprey and the eagle.
Osprey (fish hawk)
 The osprey sometimes nests close to the ocean where it fishes for flounder and other small marine fish. Although the osprey is an endangered species, Newfoundland and Labrador is home to a strong population of these birds. It is possible to watch osprey all over our province, including ponds in the heart of St. John’s. |
Eagle
 The bald eagle is a year-round resident of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although it is an occasional predator of gulls, murres, and other prey, most of its food comes from the ocean. High numbers of eagles can be seen in parts of Placentia Bay and Trinity Bay but they are found all around the coasts of our province. |
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A variety of other seabirds are also found in Newfoundland and Labrador including:
Loons
Double-crested cormorants and Great Cormorants (also known as shags)
Phalaropes
Grebes
Numerous and diverse, our seabirds create an exciting experience for bird watchers and nature lovers alike. To help you identify the birds that you see on your trip to Newfoundland and Labrador, print this listing and keep it with your traveller’s guide for easy reference!
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