Nearshore Birds in Puget Sound

Puget Sound is home to a great number of birds closely associated with the marine environment. All birds associated with the Puget Sound nearshore environment use one or more of three general habitat types – open water, rocky shoreline and mud flats. The species associated with these diverse habitats that are included in this document are Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) and Dunlin (Calidris alpina). This white paper provides a summary of literature describing the relationship between these species and nearshore ecosystems.