Lifelist pins 500, 600, 700
500 WHITE-TAILED TROPICBIRD (500-WTTR)
White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). Usually seen along shorelines only during the breeding season as it approaches its nesting site, this is a truly pelagic species. Similar to the Red-billed tropicbird, the White-tailed haunts the Gulf Stream from the Gulf north to the Canadian Maritimes far out to sea. Records of this species have been documented in some strange habitats in the west and s.w. U.S.
600 ATLANTIC PUFFIN (600-ATPU)
Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica). Similar to but smaller than the Pacific's Horned Puffin, the Atlantic cousin is also a burrow-nesting pelagic species. The ecological equivalent to the southern hemisphere's penguins, puffins and the other related auks and auklets are primarily cold water feeders.
700 SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS (700-STAL)
Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus). Among the rarest birds in the world, this albatross is usually seen--if at all--far out at sea. Long-lived, as are all albatrosses, it may not begin breeding until late in life and then produce only one egg per year.
