Bibliography & Sources

Literature Sources

Skua Stercorarius spp. Photo by Dmytro Pylpenko/Shutterstock.

More than 2,300 sources were used in the creation of this database, drawing on everything from books and journals as far back as 1869 to technical reports, websites and up to the minute online resources. Many of these papers are now available for free on the web. Where possible, links are provided. Notornis, Auk, Condor, PLoS One, Marine Ornithology (and its other incarnations and sister publications: Cormorant, Atlantic Seabirds) are freely available (some through SORA), as are older (5 or more years) papers from Marine Ecology Progress Series. ACAP (Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels) often has up-to-date abstracts and papers for the species covered under the agreement. Birds of the World (subscription fees apply) has summary information for all species, and now contains all information previously held in The Birds of North America, The Handbook of Birds of the World, and Neotropical Birds Online--all three have now been rolled into a single web site. J-Stor also provides access to over 1700 journals, with various levels of subscription fees. Finally, authors sometimes provide copies of their work on their personal pages, so it is always worth doing a search for the paper’s title. To resolve DOIs (provided for some, but not all papers) use the resolver at: http://dx.doi.org/ 

The following resources (5 books and 4 online resources) together provide coverage of the basic biology of all the species covered here and are a great place to start:

• BirdLife International. Data Zone. http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/home.
• Howell, S. N. G., and K. Zufelt (2019). Oceanic Birds of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
• Howell, S. N. G. 2012. Petrels, Albatrosses and Storm-Petrels of North America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Howell, S. N. G., & Dunn, J. 2007. Gulls of the Americas. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Lebbin, Daniel J., Parr, M. and Fenwick, G. 2010. The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation. Lynx Edicions. Barcelona, Spain.
• Miskelly, C.M. (ed.). 2014. New Zealand Birds Online. http://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/
• Onley, D., & Scofield, P. 2007. Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Map Sources

Users have the choice of several base maps, with which you may be familiar from other mapping applications. Optional maps which you can display as additional layers include:

• International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) statistical areas
• Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) fishing areas
• North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) divisions
• Tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) -- for more information on these see here
• Protected areas, are provided by the World Database on Protected Areas which is a joint initiative between IUCN and UNEP, managed by UNEP-WCMC. 
• National Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs)

Species range maps used for the queries, and displayed on the Comprehensive Species Reports were created specifically for this project in 2013 and 2014, and reflect the best state of knowledge at that time. The range maps reflect marine range only, and do not differentiate between breeding and non-breeding season. The maps are typically informed by more than one source; you can download a list of all the references for each range map here.