species are used except where accepted common names do not exist. Taxonomic 

 names of all species mentioned are given in the appendix to chapter 1. 



DATA SOURCES 



The primary data source for breeding seabirds is Maine Coastal Waterbird 

 Colonies 1976-197 7 (Korschgen 1979). This source will be referred to 

 hereafter as the coastal waterbird inventory. The list of important seabird 

 nesting islands was obtained from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and 

 Wildlife (MDIFW) files. These files also contain more recent (1978) 

 information on certain seabird colonies, especially those in Penobscot Bay 

 (region 4), and common eider moulting areas. Data on least terns and piping 

 plovers were acquired from the Maine State Planning Office (Dorr 1976a and 

 1976b) and unpublished reports on least terns (Lee 1977). Data for coastal 

 heron colonies were taken from the coastal waterbird inventory (Korschgen 

 1979) and Herons and Their Allies : Atlas of Atlantic Coast Colonies , 1975 and 

 1976 (Osborn and Custer 1978) , while data for inland heron colonies were 

 provided by the Maine State Planning Office (Tyler 1977). 



Important feeding, roosting, and staging areas for shorebirds were obtained 

 from published field reports in the Bulletin of the Maine Audubon Society 

 (1946 to 1956), Maine Field Naturalist (1957 to 1967), Maine Field Observer 

 (1956 to 1961), Maine Nature (1969 to 1973), and New Brunswick Naturalist 

 (1970 to 1979). A card file of bird observations organized by the Portland 

 Museum of Natural History and Maine Audubon Society (currently in special 

 collections at the Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono, ME) was 

 examined for specific details on locations of published and unpublished 

 shorebird sightings. Newsletters from local Audubon chapters also were 

 reviewed for information on sightings of shorebirds. International 

 Shorebird Surveys of Maine (ISS) and unpublished field notes were examined and 

 numerous interviews with coastal residents familiar with shorebirds were 

 conducted. Historical information was extracted from Bent (1921, 1926 ,1927, 

 and 1929), Norton (1923a, 1923b, 1924a, 1924b, 1924c, 1925a, and 1925b), 

 Palmer (1949 and 1962), Stout (1967), and Drury (1973 and 1974). Data for the 

 regional overviews came from Drury (1973 and 1974), Brown et al. (1975), ISS 

 reports (Harrington and Haber 1977; and Harrington 1979), and Maritime 

 Shorebird Survey Reports (Morrison 1976a, 1976b, 1977, and 1978; and Hicklin 

 1978). 



WATERBIRD GROUPS 



In this chapter, waterbirds are grouped into four categories based on 

 taxonomic affinity and, to a lesser extent, by feeding habits, as follows: 



1. Seabirds. Birds that spend most of their lives at sea or along the 

 adjacent coast and obtain most of their food while flying, swimming, or 

 diving. Representatives of this group include shearwaters, storm petrels, 

 cormorants, gulls, terns, and alcids (table 14-1). 



2. Shorebirds. Birds that obtain their food by either probing, pecking, or 

 stalking prey in intertidal habitats, shallow fresh water, marshes, and 

 wet meadows. Representatives of this group include sandpipers, plovers, 

 turnstones, and curlews (table 14-2). 



14-2 



