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Seabird

Theoretically any species which has a marine habitat. In practice the term usually refers to specific bird groups, not all the members of which are truly marine, and some exclusively marine birds are not included, for example the Eider Somateria mollissima. The groups usually regarded as 'seabirds' comprise the order Procellariiformes (petrels and shearwaters), the order Pelecaniformes (the Gannet Sula bassana and cormorants), the family Stericorariidae (skuas), the family Laridae (gulls), the family Sternidae (terns) and the family Alcidae (auks). All these families are placed in the order Charadriiformes, which also contains the various wader groups.

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From Peter Weaver's Birdwatcher's Dictionary
Copyright © 1981 by Peter Weaver


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