Beach-nesting birds of the Gulf of Mexico
| Topics: |
Credit: FWS
The Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem) is a globally unique ecosystem, with a diversityof habitats, fish and wildlife that make it one of the nation’s great natural treasures. Gulf habitatsare essential to the annual cycles of many species of breeding, wintering and migrating waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds and songbirds. The U.S. Gulf Coast is of particular significance to beach-nesting birds, species that breed on beaches, flats, dunes, bars, barrier islands and similar near-shore habitats. The northern Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem), from the Mississippi Delta of Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle which represents 18 percent of the southeastern U.S. coastline, supports a disproportionately high number of beachnesting bird species. Following are a just a few:
Sandwich tern. Credit: FWS
- Sandwich Tern - Breton National Wildlife Refuge off the Louisiana coastsupports one of the world’s largest colonies of Sandwich Terns. These gregarious birds, marked by a black crest and black bill, are found almost exclusively along [[coast]al areas] and barrier islands. The northern Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem) harbors about three-quarters of the population of Sandwich Terns in the southeastern United States.
Brown pelican. Credit: Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
- Brown Pelican - Nearly half the southeastern population of Brown Pelicans live in the northern Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem), generally nesting on protected islands. The Brown Pelican, Louisiana’s state bird, has made a comeback in this region since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. It was recently removed from the Endangered Species List.
Wilson's plover. Credit: FWS
- Wilson’s Plover - The northern Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem) is also home to about one-quarter of the Southeast’s Wilson’s Plovers. The medium-sized plovers, with heavy black bills, nest along beaches and salt marshes.
The northern Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem)is home to a large proportion of many other birds found in the Southeast, from south Texas to southeast Virginia. Some of these other Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico large marine ecosystem) birds, and their estimated portion of their southeastern populations, are:
Laughing gulls. Credit: FWS.
- Black Skimmer, 35 percent;
- Forster’s Tern, 41 percent;
- Gull-billed Tern, 16 percent;
- Laughing Gull, 25 percent;
- Least Tern, 42 percent;
- Royal Tern, 36 percent;
- Snowy Plover, 22 percent.
Sources: Southeast U.S. Waterbird Conservation Plan and the Southeastern Coastal Plain Shorebird Conservation Plan
