Marine birds

Each winter, thousands of seabirds, seaducks, and waterfowl migrate from all directions to converge in the relatively calm and food-rich waters of Puget Sound. In summer, colonies of seabirds are busy attending their young. In spring and fall, the shorelines are full of shorebirds that stop to feed and rest during migration.

But Puget Sound is undergoing significant changes that impact birds. Some marine birds have suffered significant declines in Puget Sound, yet restoration projects are underway to improve ecosystem function. Professional scientists, citizen scientists, students are monitoring these changes and producing results.

Citizen science and monitoring in Puget Sound

The who, how and where of citizen science and monitoring in Puget Sound

Marine birds Vital Sign

The Puget Sound Partnership’s Vital Sign indicators for marine birds

Species lists

Natural history and other resources

Overview

Marine birds

More than 70 bird species regularly utilize Puget Sound during some or all stages of their life histories, but only a portion of these are actively being investigated.

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Brandt's cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus). Photo by Finley and Bohlman, courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Related Articles

Two people on a rocky beach with driftwood, holding sticks, surrounded by seagulls under a partly cloudy sky.

Coming into the colony

Gulls are perhaps our most familiar seabird. Pick a seashore or even an occasional landfill, and you are likely to see at least a few. But casual sightings don't always paint a true picture of population health. Recently, scientists took to the field to see how glaucous-winged gulls are faring in the Salish Sea. The gulls were ready for them.
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Seabirds with black and white plumage taking flight from choppy ocean water, wings spread mid-flight with water droplets spraying.

Science letter: Bird declines in North America and Puget Sound

Citizen science bird counts are providing more detail than ever about North American bird declines. While the overall numbers are discouraging, new levels of understanding may help conservation efforts. Biologist Eric Wagner writes that despite larger trends, species recovery can be important on a very small scale, perhaps a few birds at a time.
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Two seabirds with black and white plumage floating on water.

Science notebook: Winter studies of Puget Sound's threatened marbled murrelets

For years now, scientists have been braving the cold winter waters of Puget Sound to study one of the region's most enigmatic seabirds, the marbled murrelet. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in Washington, Oregon, and California, marbled murrelets nest in old-growth forests but find their food at sea. Much research on the birds has centered around the spring and summer breeding season, but less is known about what the murrelets do in winter. That puzzle prompted a team of scientists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to head out on the water last January. Writer and biologist Eric Wagner joined the expedition and brought back these notes from the field.
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A person wearing a Tyvek suie and orange vest standing on a beach next to two full garbage bags. Water, land, and blue sky in the distance

Avian flu comes to the Salish Sea

A new strain of avian flu has been sweeping the globe since 2020, leaving thousands of dead seabirds in its wake. This past summer, it arrived at a colony of Caspian terns at Rat Island in the Salish Sea, with catastrophic results.

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Adult breeding rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata). Photo: Frostnip (CC BY-NC 2.0)

A tale of two islands

Were the islands half full of auklets or were they half empty? One scientist offers an insider's view of a newly published study of two Pacific seabird colonies. He says having good data for the paper was key, but finding the right title didn't hurt.

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Puffin in flight

Dispatch from the last colony

Tufted puffins have become an increasingly rare sight in the Pacific Northwest. Biologist and writer Eric Wagner recently visited Puget Sound's Smith Island, home to one of the region's last surviving colonies of these colorful seabirds. 

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