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Seabirds of Peru: seventy-seven species between wind and guano

Peru's coast receives birds that breed in the Galápagos, in New Zealand, in the Arctic or in the Atacama Desert, and it shelters others found nowhere else. The guide has accounts of 77 seabird species.

Published

A pair of Peruvian boobies perched on a rock, their backs mottled in black and white.
Sula variegata · A pair on the Ballestas Islands, Peru; the Commons page gives no date. · Photo: Marie de Carne · CC BY-SA 3.0

A group that is a place, not a lineage

Skuas belong to the family Stercorariidae, within the order Charadriiformes.1 Phalaropus fulicarius, although classified as a shorebird, behaves at sea like a seabird that feeds on zooplankton at the surface.2 Phoebastria irrorata is an albatross of the family Diomedeidae, described by Salvin in 1883.3 At the other end of the size range, seven adults of Oceanodroma tethys measured on Chao and Corcovado islands weighed 23 g on average.4

Oceanodroma hornbyi is restricted to the cold waters of the Humboldt Current, from northern Ecuador to central Chile.5 The Peruvian booby is endemic to the Humboldt Current upwelling and nests on islands and headlands from northern Peru to south-central Chile.6 The guanay is endemic to the Humboldt Current and is one of the three cormorants that breed on the Peruvian coast.7 Larus belcheri has a range restricted to the Humboldt Current region, from the far south of Ecuador to northern Chile.8 Sternula lorata is a bird of the Humboldt Current that, unlike other seabirds, breeds in the coastal desert.9

Residents, northern travellers and southern visitors

Larosterna inca is resident: it makes no regular migrations, though it may move to follow food, especially during El Niño episodes.10 Larus belcheri lives all year on the coast of Peru.11 Charadrius vociferus is a resident and is common along the Peruvian coast.12

Of the Sterna hirundo from North American lake colonies followed with geolocators, 70 % of those whose wintering site could be identified spent the boreal winter in Peru.13 In the Western Hemisphere, the main wintering area of Phalaropus lobatus is the Humboldt Current off Ecuador, Peru and northern Chile.14 From the Canadian Arctic, the large majority of Xema sabini tracks ended off the coast of Peru.15 Leucophaeus pipixcan breeds in interior North American marshes and spends the boreal winter on the Pacific coast of South America.16 It reaches the coasts of Peru in October and November.17

In the Peru Current, within a band up to 370 km from the coast between 3° S and 50° S, 2299 individuals of Procellaria aequinoctialis were counted on 14 cruises made from 1980 to 1995.18 In winter it is joined by Thalassarche melanophris, Thalassarche salvini, Fulmarus glacialoides and Daption capense, which eat mostly carrion or prey caught at the surface.18 Others come from the south: Stercorarius chilensis, which breeds in southern Chile and Argentina, disperses northward outside the breeding season and in Peru is regarded as a rare visitor to the coast.1920

As a breeding bird, Thalassarche bulleri is confined to the New Zealand region.21 Ardenna creatopus breeds on only 3 islands of central Chile: at least 70 % of the population nests on Mocha, up to 20 % on Robinson Crusoe and up to 10 % on Santa Clara, and the world population is put at about 60,000 birds.22

Oceanodroma markhami is a storm-petrel of 21 to 23 cm that lives mainly over tropical waters of the eastern Pacific, between 5° N and 29.9° S.23 In October 2022 a breeding site was found at Pampa Pie de Candela, in Tacna, 11.5 km from the coast at about 160 m elevation, with 15 nests and an estimated 30 pairs.24

Albatrosses, petrels and storm-petrels

Nearly all of Phoebastria irrorata breeds on Española Island in the Galápagos, and a few pairs breed on Isla de la Plata, near the mainland; while incubating and raising larger chicks, adults travel to feed in the coastal upwelling off Peru.25 In 2008, all long trips by birds tracked from Española and La Plata ended on the Peruvian coast, and the southernmost latitude reached had a median of 7.18° S in birds from Punta Cevallos.25

A waved albatross in flight over a rocky shore, with a yellow bill and dark outstretched wings.
Phoebastria irrorata · Española Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, July 2025. · Photo: E bailey · CC BY-SA 4.0

Thalassarche salvini breeds almost exclusively in New Zealand: for 2013 the population was put at 39995 pairs, 99 % of them in the Bounty Islands.26 Outside the breeding season many cross the Pacific: on 15 cruises made off Chile and Peru between 1980 and 1995, 475 individuals were logged, spread along the current system and favouring waters over the continental slope.27

A Salvin's albatross resting on the water, with a grey head, brown back, white breast and a pale grey bill with a yellow ridge.
Thalassarche salvini · East of the Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania, Australia, February 2012. · Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Procellaria aequinoctialis breeds on sub-Antarctic islands of France, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as South Georgia and the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).28 Two birds from South Georgia, followed with geolocators, spent midwinter in the Humboldt Current off Chile and went straight back to the colony from there.29 In the Peru Current, the mean density of Procellaria aequinoctialis was 30.7 birds per 100 km² in summer and 55.8 in winter.18

A white-chinned petrel swimming, with dark brown plumage and a pale ivory bill with a white patch at its base.
Procellaria aequinoctialis · Off Kaikoura, New Zealand, February 2007. · Photo: Mjobling · CC BY 3.0

Oceanodroma tethys is a species of the tropical eastern Pacific, recorded at sea from Baja California Sur down to northern Chile.30 The nominate subspecies breeds in the Galápagos and ranges north over oceanic waters; kelsalli breeds in Peru and moves from Mexico to Chile over the continental shelf.30 Two new breeding localities were described on Chao and Corcovado islands, where there are no large colonies of guano birds and no guano has been taken for more than 20 years.4

A dark storm-petrel flying over a grey-blue sea, with the white patch at the base of its tail visible.
Oceanodroma tethys · Photograph of 11 February 2013 titled "Galapagos storm petrel"; the Commons page gives no exact place. · Photo: Brian Gratwicke · CC BY 2.0

Pelecanoides garnotii is a small, compact seabird: 46 birds weighed on Choros Island, Chile, gave a mean mass of 220 g.31 Underwater it propels itself with its wings, as penguins do, and not with its feet, as cormorants do.32

Gulls, terns, skuas and shorebirds

The Inca tern (Larosterna inca) is a dark-bodied tern with a bright red bill, white feather moustaches and yellow caruncles at the gape.10 In Peru it is known as «zarcillo».33

An Inca tern posed on a rock: dark grey body, red bill, curved white moustache and yellow caruncle.
Larosterna inca · Central coast of Peru (file coordinates: 12.48° S, 76.80° W), 5 January 2016 · Photo: Josue Hermoza · CC BY-SA 4.0

Larus belcheri is a coastal bird often found in rocky settings, although it will feed several kilometres from the shore.8 It is omnivorous and a scavenger: it eats fish, crabs, molluscs and dead animals, and it also preys on the eggs and chicks of the guano birds.11

A Belcher's gull perched on a post: white head, dark upperparts and a yellow bill with a red and black tip.
Larus belcheri · Lima, Peru, 13 October 2013 · Photo: DickDaniels ( http://theworldbirds.org/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sterna hirundinacea is a tern of the South American coasts: on the Atlantic side it lives from Brazil to Cape Horn, and on the Pacific side it reaches Ecuador.34 The northernmost known colony on the South American Pacific coast is on Isla Vieja, in southern Peru, at about 14° S.35 Sternula lorata is a bird of the Humboldt Current that, unlike other seabirds, breeds in the coastal desert.9

Stercorarius chilensis breeds on the coast and islands of centre-southern Chile, including Cape Horn, and in southern Argentina.19 Phalaropus lobatus breeds on freshwater tundra ponds and from there travels to the tropical ocean; of 8 birds of the western route with complete tracks, 6 wintered in the northern Humboldt Current.36

A Red-necked phalarope in breeding plumage: orange neck, white throat and fine bill, on a rock in the water.
Phalaropus lobatus · Northern Norway (file coordinates: 70.06° N, 29.76° E), 1 July 2011 · Photo: Andreas Trepte · CC BY-SA 2.5

Creagrus furcatus is near-endemic to the Galápagos Islands, where the colonies studied are located.37 According to its authors it is the only gull that forages exclusively at night: across 114 GPS-tracked trips, 99.5 % of the time at sea fell in night hours.37 Xema sabini has a fragmented breeding range around the Arctic and outside the breeding season is highly pelagic.15 Every breeding population is presumed to reach one of two large upwelling zones of the southern hemisphere: the Humboldt Current off Peru or the Benguela Current off South Africa and Namibia.15

A Sabine's gull swimming: dark grey hood with black collar, black bill with a yellow tip and forked tail.
Xema sabini · Kigigak Island, Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, 19 June 2023 · Photo: Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from Anchorage, United States · Public domain

Haematopus palliatus is represented on the South American Pacific by the subspecies Haematopus palliatus pitanay, from Ecuador to southern Chile.38 At Pantanos de Villa, in Lima, it nests on sand less than 50 m from the highest high-tide line, and oystercatchers in general tolerate people poorly.39

Two adult American oystercatchers with long red bills and yellow eyes, and a chick beside them.
Haematopus palliatus · Fort Tilden Beach, New York, 26 July 2020 · Photo: Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0

Guano birds: boobies, pelicans, cormorants and the penguin

The trio known as the guano birds is made up of the Peruvian pelican, the guanay cormorant and the Peruvian booby, and the pelican is the least numerous of the three.40 The Peruvian booby breeds along the Peruvian coast, from Lobos de Tierra Island to Morro Sama.41

The Peruvian pelican (Pelecanus thagus) is bulky, with broad wings and a long bill, and an adult weighs between 5 and 7 kg.4042 The Peruvian pelican lives in the cold sea off the coast, mostly between Tacna and Piura, although it has been recorded as far as the far north of Tumbes.43 Its southernmost breeding site in the country is Punta Coles, in Ilo.40

A Peruvian pelican swimming, with its long bill and gular pouch drawn in.
Pelecanus thagus · Pucusana, near Lima (Peru), 15 October 2010. · Photo: Manuel González Olaechea y Franco · CC BY-SA 3.0

The guanay is a two-coloured bird: its throat, breast and belly are white, and its head, back and wings are black.7 At Punta San Juan, about 137 thousand breeding pairs of guanay were estimated in January 2017, 46 thousand in January 2019 and 20 thousand in January 2020.7

A guanay cormorant, white below and black above, perched on a log.
Phalacrocorax bougainvillii · A captive bird, Weltvogelpark Walsrode (Germany), 18 October 2009. · Photo: Quartl · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Humboldt penguin breeds on the Pacific coast of South America, from La Foca Island in northern Peru to Metalqui Island in southern Chile.44 The Humboldt penguin was censused in Peru in 1999 and 2000, after the 1997-1998 El Niño, and was found from La Foca Island to Punta Coles.45 Almost four of every five birds, 78 %, were in only five localities: Punta San Juan, San Juanito islet, Hornillos Island, Pachacamac Island and Tres Puertas.45

A Humboldt penguin standing at the water's edge, with the black breast band and the pink skin by the bill.
Spheniscus humboldti · A captive bird, Copenhagen Zoo (Denmark), 31 October 2025. · Photo: Christian Ursilva · CC BY-SA 4.0

The blue-footed booby breeds on Lobos de Tierra and Lobos de Afuera, where it lives alongside the Peruvian booby but far outnumbers it.41 In the monthly censuses of 2014, up to 239980 birds were estimated on Lobos de Tierra, in January, and up to 60000 on Lobos de Afuera, in March and April.46

Telling them apart

The masked and Nazca boobies were recognised as separate species only in 1998.47 The masked booby has a yellow bill and pale olive-green legs, whereas the Nazca has an orange bill in the male and coral red in the female, and khaki-grey legs.47 In the breeding season the adult of Sterna hirundinacea has pale grey upperparts that contrast with a black cap, and a vermilion bill; outside the breeding season the forehead and crown turn white and the bill becomes blackish or dull red.48

Macronectes halli is separated from its sister species by the horny plate at the bill tip, which is reddish at every age.49 Macronectes giganteus, by contrast, has two plumage phases, one white apart from a few scattered black feathers and one dark.50 In Oceanodroma tethys the white covers more than half the length of the tail, and the webbing between the toes is black, not yellow as in Oceanites oceanicus.30

Feeding at sea: anchoveta, discards and night

The Peruvian boobies followed with GPS and depth recorders on Lobos de Tierra and Lobos de Afuera fed only on anchoveta, which they caught with shallow plunge dives: the median was 2.5 m and the deepest reached 8.8 m.51 Larosterna inca feeds mainly on small fish, usually anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), and also on scraps left by fishing, so it often approaches boats.10 Pelecanoides garnotii is a remarkable diver: in 22 adults the mean maximum depth was 31.6 m and the deepest dive reached 83.1 m.52 In 118 stomach samples from La Vieja Island, the main prey by mass were the anchoveta Engraulis ringens (33.9 %), the krill Euphausia mucronata (26.8 %) and the squat lobster Pleuroncodes monodon (24.3 %).53 Anchoveta thus appears in the diet of birds from three different families: the Peruvian booby, the Inca tern and the Peruvian diving-petrel.511053

On Pescadores Island, the guanay, which dives from the surface, reached 32 m, while the Peruvian booby, which plunges from the air, stayed at a median of 2 m, so it can only reach the shallowest schools.54 The Peruvian pelican does the opposite: 87 % of the sea trips of 5 adults carrying GPS were strictly nocturnal.42 The authors propose that feeding at night would let them avoid competition with boobies and guanays, which fish only by day.42

Observers aboard the industrial anchoveta purse-seine fleet recorded top predators in 12,778 hauls between 2015 and 2019: the Inca tern was present in 26.69 % of them and was the most frequently sighted seabird in the whole study.33 Around the small-scale Humboldt squid boats in southern Peru, close to 17 % of all birds observed fed on fishery discards.55 Procellaria parkinsoni follows dolphins: 469 of the 618 birds recorded in the eastern tropical Pacific, 76 %, were with herds of 10 dolphin species.56

The frigatebird, known as the pirate of the seas, chases other seabirds in flight, mostly boobies, until they regurgitate, and takes their food; it also exploits fishing waste.57 At sea off the north-central coast of Peru, an individual Leucophaeus modestus was seen taking food from a Sterna hirundinacea.58 On the northern islands, Larus dominicanus often ate eggs and stole food from blue-footed boobies.59

Breeding elsewhere, or breeding at odd times

The Bounty Islands, where Thalassarche salvini nests, lie 760 km east of New Zealand and are 22 outcrops of bare granite totalling 135 ha.60 The Pyramid, home of Thalassarche eremita, is an islet of 1.7 ha rising 174 m.61

On the Pacific side, Sterna hirundinacea seems to breed from May to July, with late cases into August, in Ecuador, Peru and northern Chile.34 At the 31 breeding sites followed between 2003 and 2012, breeding in the three guano birds starts mostly between the austral winter and early spring, so that chicks fledge when food is at its best.62

At Punta San Juan, between 1993 and 1997, Humboldt penguin females laid eggs from mid-March to the first week of December, with one peak in April and another in August and September.63 In some shorebirds the roles are reversed: in Actitis macularius females compete for territories and for males, often take more than one mate, and it is the male that incubates.64

Conservation status and threats

The IUCN Red List classifies Phoebastria irrorata and Pterodroma phaeopygia as Critically Endangered.6566 The Peruvian list approved in 2014 also places them in that category and prohibits hunting, capture, possession, trade, transport and export for commercial purposes.67 The two lists do not always agree on the other species: Thalassarche eremita is Vulnerable for the IUCN and Critically Endangered in Peru.6867

The Humboldt penguin is Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List69, and the official Peruvian list of threatened wildlife approved in 2014 places it Endangered.70 The Peruvian booby is Least Concern for the IUCN71, but in Peru it is classified Endangered.70 The same bird can be of Least Concern for the IUCN and Endangered, or even Critically Endangered, on the Peruvian list, as happens with the Peruvian booby and with Sterna hirundinacea.71706772 Larosterna inca is Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.73

Procellaria aequinoctialis is the seabird killed in greatest numbers on longlines in the Southern Ocean.74 On Española, the 2007 census counted 6045 pairs of Phoebastria irrorata, 88.1 % of the 6857 of 2001.75 According to the authors, the death of adults in Peru's artisanal fishery remains the most convincing explanation for that decline, while plastic looks like a minor threat: only 3 of 43 dead birds examined in 2007 (7.0 %) had any in the proventriculus.75

Incidental capture in fishing nets is one of the most serious threats to the Humboldt penguin.76 Surveys of 779 fishers at 39 landing sites in Peru and Chile estimated 4067 penguins caught in 2023, most of them in gillnets.76 According to a 2012 paper, in some 50 years the guanay went from about 21 million to 2 million individuals, while the Peruvian booby stayed near 2 million.54 A model of carbon flow to the three guano birds explained 94 % of the variation in their populations between 1925 and 2000, and attributed the fall after 1955 to competition with the fishery, which came to take about 85 % of the anchoveta.77

On San Cristóbal, in 2002 and 2003, only 23.6 % of breeding attempts of Pterodroma phaeopygia ended in success, and rats, which took both eggs and chicks, caused 72.2 % of failures.78 On land, artificial light is the best-documented threat in Peru for Oceanodroma hornbyi: SERFOR explains that intense lighting disrupts the birds' navigation and can cause disorientation, momentary blindness and collisions with buildings, poles and vehicles.79 In the San Fernando National Reserve, in a year of monitoring no pair of Larosterna inca with eggs or chicks was seen, and the authors suggest that tourism and seaweed collection may have led it to stop breeding there.80

Between November 2022 and January 2023 the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak left at least 55,000 seabirds dead on Peru's beaches and islands; a juvenile Inca tern found dead in Villa El Salvador (Lima) tested positive, the first confirmed detection in the species in Peru.81 On 29 November 2022 SERFOR counted 2919 Peruvian boobies and 614 blue-footed boobies dead among more than 13869 seabirds.82 In 1907, 100000 Peruvian pelicans were recorded on Lobos de Tierra Island; Peru's population was estimated at 350000 birds in 1953 and reached its recorded maximum, 509000, in 1988, but during the 1997 El Niño it fell from 300000 to 1800 birds.83

What is still unknown

For Sterna hirundinacea in Peru no population estimates exist.34 Oceanites gracilis is Data Deficient on the IUCN list.84 The IMARPE study includes it among the species with proven breeding sites in Peru and refers to a 2008 paper, but that paper describes a colony of a different species, Oceanodroma tethys kelsalli, on Santa Island.8586

The authorities reported between 39633 and 47414 dead pelicans, when in August 2022 125794 had been counted in protected areas.83 Another study cites about 558000 seabirds of at least 14 species dead in Peru, mostly from December 2022 to June 2023, with 58000 Peruvian pelicans among the most recorded.87 For Pterodroma phaeopygia the figures do not agree either: there were optimistic estimates of up to 100,000 pairs in the Galápagos, and in 1991 the authors noted that recent research pointed to about 7500 breeding pairs as the more likely figure.88 Calidris alba is Least Concern for the IUCN, but the management plan of the Illescas National Reserve states that its population may be suffering a serious decline.89

Of the masked booby in Peru, the study cited describes a single record, from a single visit.47 In 1997 masked boobies were reported nesting on Lobos de Tierra, but their features resemble the Nazca booby's more.47 According to the 2016 master plan, the Lobos de Tierra colony between Ñopo beach and Punta Sáenz is of Nazca boobies.46 On Sula leucogaster in Peru, the authors of the study assigned the Guañape bird to the subspecies brewsteri and the others to etesiaca.90 Under the current classification, both forms belong to Sula brewsteri and not to Sula leucogaster in the strict sense.91

For Oceanodroma microsoma, the author calls for regular monitoring of seabirds in coastal waters to understand the movements of these little-known birds.92 Along the Pacific coast of South America little is known about the at-sea ecology of several skuas.20

The species in this article

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