Surfbirds

are small birds (approx 8” in length) that live primarily in Alaska and other regions of the North American continent. They breed on tundra but winter on rocky costal areas such as race rocks and other similar regions. The surfbird has short orange/yellow legs, a dark grey plumage that doesn’t change with age and doesn’t differ that much between the male and female of the species. In filght one can see a black triangle on the end of its white tail.
Due to having their wintering habitats on oil tanker routes,the major threat to this species of bird is the human activity in this field and therefore there is an increasing threat of oil pollution.

Diet: Surfbirds feed mainly on insects during the breeding season. During other seasons the Aphriza virgata feeds on other shore creatures such as mollusks and crustaceans .

Plumage: The young don't differ too much from the parent. There is no difference in plumage between the sexes. the plumage is more colourful during the breeding season.

Other similar species are the Black Turnstone Arenaria melanocephala (also found at Race Rocks). Below is a graph of abundance of surfbirds and turnstones at Race Rocks from the Christmas Bird Count during the years 1998 - 2002.

References:

http://birdcentral.net/naturalhistoryc.htm#surf