edgepedia

Seabirds and waterbirds

138 articles

California gull

The California gull (Larus californicus) is a medium-sized gull of western North America that breeds at inland lakes, winters on the Pacific Coast, and is Utah's state bird.

Calonectris

Calonectris is a genus of medium to very large shearwaters, seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae, established in 1915, and includes Cory's Shearwater and Streaked Shearwater.

Charadriiformes

Charadriiformes (shorebirds, gulls, terns, skuas, auks) is a monophyletic bird order with three suborders, Lari, Scolopaci, and Charadrii, about 392 species in 19 families, a debated Cretaceous-to-Paleocene origin, and many declining migratory species.

Chayka

Чайка (чайка, "gull") is the Russian and Ukrainian name for gulls, covering species like the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) and herring gull (Larus argentatus), plus many places and enterprises named Chayka.

Chlidonias

Chlidonias (Rafinesque, 1822), the marsh terns or black terns, is a Laridae tern genus with four species: Black, Whiskered, White-winged, and Black-fronted Tern; the last is Endangered, and the others breed in freshwater marshes.

Chroicocephalus

Chroicocephalus (Eyton, 1836) is a gull genus of the masked-gull clade in Laridae, revived after Pons et al. 2005 mtDNA work showed Larus paraphyletic; includes Black-headed, Bonaparte's, Gray-hooded, Slender-billed, Silver, and Andean Gulls.

Ciconia boyciana

Ciconia boyciana (Oriental Stork, コウノトリ) is an endangered East Asian migratory stork breeding in the Amur and Ussuri basins, with 1,000–2,499 mature individuals, reintroduced in Japan after 1971 extinction.

Ciconia nigra

Ciconia nigra, the black stork (Cigogne noire), is a large glossy-black migratory stork with white underparts and red bill, breeding from Iberia to Siberia and in southern Africa; IUCN Least Concern globally, 24,000-44,000 individuals, but regionally Endangered in South Africa.

Ciconiiformes

Ciconiiformes, an order of long-legged wading birds (storks, herons, ibises, spoonbills; traditionally also shoebill, hamerkop, New World vultures), now often restricted to the stork family Ciconiidae within the waterbird clade Aequornithes.

Cochlearius

Cochlearius (boat-billed heron, Kahnschnabelreiher) is a monotypic heron genus from Mexico to Brazil, named for its 7.5 cm scoop bill; nocturnal, Least Concern, subfamily Cochleariinae.

Cocos booby

Cocos booby (Sula brewsteri), formerly Brewster's booby, an eastern Pacific sulid seabird split from the brown booby by the AOS in 2024; about 65,000 breeding pairs, expanding westward across the Pacific.

Common loon

Common loon (Gavia immer), also great northern diver, a large fish-eating diving bird breeding on northern North American lakes and wintering on coasts; least concern, but lead fishing tackle is its leading documented cause of death.

Coot

Coot (genus Fulica, family Rallidae): plump, chickenlike waterbirds with white bills, frontal shields, and lobed toes instead of webbed feet; includes the American Coot (mud hen), Fulica americana.

Cormorant

A cormorant is a large fish-eating waterbird of the family Phalacrocoracidae, about 40 species that dive from the surface to catch fish in both marine and fresh waters.

Crested penguin

Crested penguins, genus Eudyptes, are sub-Antarctic penguins with yellow crests that lay two eggs but raise one chick; species include macaroni, rockhopper, Fiordland, Snares, royal, and erect-crested penguins.

Crex

Crex, a rail genus (Rallidae) erected by Bechstein in 1803, holds the corncrake Crex crex and formerly the African crake C. egregia; phylogenomics shows it is not monophyletic, and Crecopsis is proposed for the African crake.

Diomedea

Diomedea (great albatrosses) is a Linnaean 1758 genus of six Southern Ocean albatross species, including the wandering, Amsterdam, Tristan, Antipodean, and royal albatrosses, threatened mainly by longline bycatch.

Dusky moorhen

The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a dark waterbird of the rail family, found across eastern and south-western Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea, and known for its communal breeding.

Egret

An egret is any of several white wading birds in the heron family Ardeidae, named for their plumage rather than their ancestry, and known for breeding plumes called aigrettes.

Egretta

Egretta, the true egrets, is a genus of medium wading birds in Ardeidae erected by Forster in 1817, including the snowy egret, little egret, little blue heron, tricolored heron, and reddish egret; molecular work shows it paraphyletic as formerly circumscribed.

Emperor penguin

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), largest living penguin and the only one breeding during the Antarctic winter on Antarctic sea ice; sister lineage to all other penguins, extreme diver, IUCN Endangered since April 2026 due to sea-ice loss.

Eudocimus ruber

Eudocimus ruber, the scarlet ibis (guará, corocoro rojo), is a scarlet-plumaged Threskiornithidae wader of northern South America and the Caribbean; its species rank versus the white ibis is disputed, its color comes from dietary carotenoids, and it is Trinidad and Tobago's national bird.

Eudyptula

Eudyptula (Bonaparte, 1856) is the penguin genus holding the Little Penguin, Eudyptula minor (kororā), the smallest and only nocturnal penguin, endemic to southern Australia and New Zealand; debated split into E. minor and E. novaehollandiae.

European herring gull

European herring gull (Larus argentatus), a large gray-backed, black-wing-tipped gull of northern and western Europe with subspecies argentatus and argenteus; declining coastal populations but expanding urban roof-nesting colonies that read human cues to find food.

Flamingo

Flamingo (Phoenicopteridae, Phoenicopteriformes): six pink filter-feeding wading bird species, sister to grebes in Mirandornithes, split ~43 Mya, Plio-Pleistocene radiation, vortical-trap feeding.

Frigatebird

Frigatebirds (Fregatidae) are tropical seabirds known as pirate birds for kleptoparasitism, though stealing supplies only about 5% of their food; great frigatebirds stay aloft for months, and the Christmas Island frigatebird is endangered.

Galapagos penguin

Galapagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus, Pingüino de Galápagos): the smallest banded penguin and the only penguin breeding partly north of the equator, endemic to the Galapagos Islands, IUCN Endangered, dependent on the Cromwell Current and vulnerable to El Niño.

Gallinula

Gallinula (moorhens), Brisson 1760, a genus of Rallidae rails in Gruiformes; includes Eurasian Moorhen G. chloropus and Common Gallinule G. galeata; traditionally polyphyletic, revised by Sangster et al.

Gannet

Gannets (Morus) are large plunge-diving seabirds of Sulidae, distinct from boobies (Sula). Three species: Northern (North Atlantic), Cape (Vulnerable, southern Africa), Australasian; one-egg clutches, colonies, up to 2 m wingspan.

Gentoo penguin

Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), third largest living penguin, breeding on sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula; about 387,000 pairs, red-orange bill, inshore deep-diving forager, IUCN least concern with stable population.