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Australian bird habitats:
Pelagic

"terlungo", "tingara" = Sea [Aboriginal]

Description of habitat

About 75 bird species, that is nearly 10% of all native Australian bird species, basically never set foot on land (except for breeding), but spend most of the year living out beyond the coastal waters, in what is called the "pelagic", i.e. open waters above the continental shelf and beyond. Many of these bird species will nest on offshore islands, often in colonies.

Bird species found in this type of habitat or plant

This is not necessarily a complete list. We display here some examples of bird species found by us in this kind of habitat or plant. Hover your cursor on thumbnails to see names of species; click on thumbnail to go to the page describing the species.

Photos

View off Wybung Head (Munmorah State Conservation Area, NSW), with Bird Island Nature Reserve on the right, looking out towards the Tasman Sea

Example of a photo taken on a pelagic, i.e. a trip out onto the open sea: Frontal view of an Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on the water
[22 NM (40 km) ESE of Terrigal, NSW, July 2013]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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