Shorebirds on the Alabama Gulf Coast

Coastal Alabama is a birdwatcher’s paradise. There are tons of different species to spot and catalog. Avid birdwatchers flock to the area because it is home to such a wide variety of avians. Shorebird identification for some of the most common species:


• Great Blue Heron

The great blue heron is nearly four feet long and has a wingspan of about five feet. These wading birds are commonly found on the shoreline of open water. They are the largest of all of the herons found in North America.

The call of the great blue heron is very distinctive. The sound is reminiscent of a gigantic frog croaking. Herons are more vocal when it is breeding season.

For the most part, the great blue heron feeds on small fish, crabs, shrimp, rodents, small mammals and even birds. They usually swallow their food whole and occasionally will choke trying to consume something that is too big.

• Brown Pelican



Pelicans are large water birds that have long, pouched bills. They are good swimmers as they use their strong, little legs and webbed toes to propel themselves through the water. The tail of a Pelican is squared off and short with about two dozen feathers. The wingspan is large and the breast muscles are strong which aid in their ability to glide and soar.

A pelican’s diet is mostly fish but they will eat crustaceans and frogs. Though a rarity, they will occasionally consume small birds. Pelicans will generally search for food in large groups. They will chase schools of fish toward the shore and scoop them up for a quick meal. Pelicans will also catch fish by piercing the fish with their bills. They will then pop it into the air and catch the fish in the air and slide it down into the gullet.

• Killdeer


The killdeer is technically a plover and it is customarily found near the shore. They will also congregate in large, grassy fields such as golf courses and football fields. They eat insects and they stir up the bugs by running around in the grass. Killdeer have the typical characteristics of all plovers. Their bodies are slim and lean with long tail feathers that end in a point. They have round heads with short bills and large eyes. They are tawny colored with a white breast. The breast has two bands of black on it. The face has black and white markings. The rear area of the killdeer is orange in color.

• Oystercatcher

Oystercatchers are wading birds. The feathering is usually solid black or black to brown with a white breast. They have large and long bills that are either red or orange. These birds are noisy. By noisy, I mean incredibly loud and boisterous and they can be very annoying.



The diet of the oystercatcher is shockingly varied. They will eat bugs, worms, oysters, clams, crabs, mussels and fish too. When they’re hungry they certainly have many options for finding dinner.

All oystercatchers are monogamous birds. They are very territorial and will not only defend each other but their nesting site as well. Researchers studied a pair of oystercatchers that stayed together and defended the same nesting area for more than 20 years!

The Great Blue Heron

No bird is more regal than the great blue heron. These are large wading birds which are found in wetlands and near open water. Their territory runs over a majority of North and Central America, the Galapagos Islands, and the West Indies. This bird shows up in Europe rarely, and it has also been spotted in the Azores, England and Spain.

The great white heron was once thought to be a separate species, but it's not. The white heron roams south Florida and the Caribbean and is actually a white morph of a blue heron. Another species of heron called the Wurdemann's heron looks similar to the great blue heron, but it has a white head.

In Europe and elsewhere a similar but smaller bird, the grey heron, is predominant. Along with the cocoi heron and the great blue, the grey forms a sort of super-species. There are also five subspecies.

The bird's territory goes up to Alaska and Canadian provinces. Birds normally living in the northern part of their range migrate South for the winter. On the West Coast and in the southern U.S., they stay put. In the north, some of the birds do remain during cold winters, as these are hardy birds.



The blue is the biggest of the herons in North America and grows up to fifty-five inches tall. Stretched out, the wings may cover a length of seventy-nine inches. It can weigh up to eight pounds and it has lovely, slate-blue feathers, reddish brown thighs, and two stripes down the flanks. Its neck is a rust-grey color with white and black streaks down the front. It features an almost-white face and a pair of bushy black "eyebrows" on its head.

The great blue heron has a dull-yellow beak and this turns orange at the start of the breeding season. Young birds have an overall duller color, no plumes, and a beak which is dull gray-yellow. The bird walks in an almost straight line and the distance between steps is about nine inches. It has small talons which imprint as it walks.

Habitat is varied for this large bird. It is very adaptable to its surroundings. The great blue is always found close to bodies of water, and it prefers nesting in an elevated location such as bushes or trees. The great blue heron might be spotted in both saltwater and freshwater marshes, at the edges of lakes, shorelines, and in temporarily flooded meadows, like their cousins the egrets.

They are a favorite of birdwatchers because they are regal, refined and elegant. Watching them wait patiently for prey and then lightning quick catching it, brings a few of those gorgeous Audubon paintings to life.

You are likely to spot these large and beautiful birds if you visit the coast or inland waterways of Alabama. They are very common on the beach, and there you will normally see a solitary heron in search of food. They are very accustomed to humans, so it is easy to get close enough to take a good photo. If you are in a watercraft, look for their nests (from the water, of course) on the islands in and near Perdido Pass.