Seabird order
Charadriiformes
Gulls, terns, skimmers, skuas and auks
This large and varied order includes shorebirds as well as some of the most familiar seabirds: gulls, terns, skuas and auks.
A mixed order
Most of the roughly 390 species are shorebirds such as plovers and sandpipers. The seabird members are the gulls, terns and skimmers, the skuas, and the auks.
Gulls and terns
Gulls are adaptable generalists, found from open ocean to city streets. Terns are slender, graceful plunge divers. The Arctic tern makes the longest migration of any animal.
Skuas
Skuas, called jaegers in North America, are powerful predators and pirates. They chase other seabirds until they drop their catch.
Auks
Puffins, murres, guillemots and razorbills are the auks of the Northern Hemisphere. They fly underwater with their wings, much as penguins do in the south. The flightless great auk was hunted to extinction in the 1840s.
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