Seabirds of the Oregon Coast and Where to See Them

Seabirds spend most of their lives on the open ocean, and they are built for it: thick waterproof feathers for warmth, a gland near the eye that rids the body of excess salt, sharp pointed bills for holding slippery fish, strong pointed wings that let some of them "fly" underwater, and webbed feet for chasing prey. These are some of the notable species at Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and other refuges in the Pacific Northwest. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific Northwest seabird brochure has more.

Auks, puffins and their relatives

Common murre. Oregon's most abundant nesting seabird: more than 700,000 arrive each spring to breed in colonies of tens of thousands on rocks and cliff ledges. Colony Rock has the most; watch from Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area in summer, or from Coquille Point in Bandon, Heceta Head and Cape Meares.

Common murres on a coastal rock. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tufted puffin. The bird most visitors want to see, sometimes called the "parrot of the sea," returning each year to a few nesting islands. Look at Haystack Rock (Cannon Beach), Face Rock (Bandon) and Goat Island (Harris Beach State Park). The Service monitors the Haystack Rock puffins.

A tufted puffin. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Pigeon guillemot. Named for its chunky, pigeon-like build, but closer kin to the puffins. In breeding season its bright red legs and feet and white wing patches make it easy to spot. Pairs nest in rock crevices and both raise the chicks. Haystack Rock, Yaquina Head and Seal Rock State Park are good places to look.

Pigeon guillemots courting. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rhinoceros auklet. One of Oregon's rarer breeding alcids (the family of duck-like ocean birds that come ashore only to nest). In breeding season it grows a horn-like knob at the base of its bill. It feeds on sand lance, herring, anchovies and smelt offshore by day and returns to the colony at night to avoid gulls. It breeds in the Sea Lion Caves south of Cape Perpetua.

A rhinoceros auklet. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Cassin's auklet. A small, chunky, blue-legged auklet that digs nest burrows two to six feet long, and the only Northern Hemisphere seabird known to raise two broods in a season. It is the most common alcid off Oregon in winter, yet fewer than 1,000 nest at less than a dozen sites.

A Cassin’s auklet. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Marbled murrelet. Unique among alcids: it nests alone, high in old-growth conifer forest, in trees up to 250 feet tall and up to thirty miles inland. The first nest was found only in 1974, and by the late 1980s only ten had ever been seen. At sea in breeding season, look at Boiler Bay (Depoe Bay), Yaquina Head and Cape Perpetua.

A marbled murrelet. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Cormorants and pelicans

Brandt's cormorant, the most common cormorant on the summer coast, has a short tail and a blue throat in breeding season and nests in colonies on rocks and headlands; see it from April to August at Yaquina Head, Heceta Head and Coquille Point. Like all cormorants, its feathers are not waterproof, which reduces buoyancy and makes diving easier.

A Brandt’s cormorant on its nest. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The double-crested cormorant is Oregon's most abundant cormorant, in fresh and salt water alike, named for the white plumes of breeding adults and recognized most of the year by its yellowish face; it perches with wings spread to dry. The pelagic cormorant, the smallest, has a thin neck and bill and iridescent green-black plumage, rarely goes inland, and nests at Coquille Point, Haystack Rock and Yaquina Head.

California brown pelicans visit after breeding (January to May) in southern California and Mexico, spending the summer "wintering" in Oregon. They dive sideways into the water, scooping fish with their three-gallon throat pouches; only the related Peruvian pelican also feeds by plunge-diving, among the world's eight pelican species. Watch for low squadrons gliding over the waves, wingtips almost touching.

Brown pelicans on the Oregon coast. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Shore and open-ocean birds

Black oystercatcher. A noisy, lively bird of rocky intertidal shores with a bright red bill. Despite the name it eats mostly mussels and limpets. It nests just above the high-tide line where food is plentiful, and outside breeding season forages in flocks.

Black oystercatchers on the shoreline. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Western gull. Coastal Oregon's most abundant gull, pink-legged and slate-backed, and hard to identify with certainty because it hybridizes readily with other gulls. It is an opportunistic feeder and often preys on the young of other seabirds.

A western gull. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Leach's storm-petrel. About the size of a robin, narrow-winged, and rarely seen near shore outside the breeding season. It nests in burrows on fifteen offshore rocks in the refuge, the smallest seabird breeding in Oregon, flying more than 100 miles out to feed on shrimp, fish and squid and returning at night to feed its chick, finding its own burrow in the colony by smell.

A Leach’s storm-petrel. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sources

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Seabirds of the Pacific Northwest"; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Photographs: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, kept only where the Service marks them public domain. Two cormorant photographs credited to a private photographer are not reproduced here.