[Collins New Naturalist 28] • Sea-Birds

Sea-Birds introduces us to the sea-birds of the North Atlantic, an ocean in which about half the world sea-bird species have been seen at one time or another. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com Few of the higher animals have successfully invaded the polar regions and the sea; but those that have - the whales, seals and sea-birds - have made a wonderful success of it. There are only about 250 true sea-birds in the world (there are over thirty times as many others); yet among this select 250 are some of the most numerous and well-adapted of living species, ranging from the magnificent albatrosses, with their powers of sail-planing, to the curious diving petrels; from the penguins to the auks; from the cormorants to the gulls and terns. The arctic tern makes the longest migratory journey of any known bird, travelling 20,000 miles between the two polar regions in the course of a year. Some sea-birds species probably spend the first seven or eight years of their lives...