Newfoundland and Labrador is home to an enormous array of interesting and beautiful sea and shore birds. Here are some facts about our birds:

• Millions of seabirds nest here every year.
• A combination of geography, climate and ocean currents makes eastern Newfoundland an ideal breeding ground for seabirds.
• The fish-rich, shallow continental shelf south and east of Newfoundland provides abundant food.
• Many of the best places to see seabirds are windswept, sub-Arctic capes and headlands.
• Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve is the most accessible seabird colony in Canada.
• The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, one of the top seabird viewing sites, is accessible by tour boats.
• Over half of North America’s Atlantic Puffins nest in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• The Atlantic Puffin is the province’s Official Bird.
• St. John’s is the best place to see gulls in winter, with more than a dozen species.
• There are more than 300 seabird colonies in Newfoundland – and more than 1,000, almost all of them remote, in Labrador.
• More than 7 million Leach’s storm petrels - the largest colony of storm petrels in the world - nest on Baccalieu Island, but only come out at night.
• The local name for these petrels is “Mother’s Carey’s Chickens”.
• During spring migration, rarities from Europe sometimes blow right across the Atlantic.
• The Harlequin Duck and the Piping Plover are endangered species that breed here.