Guam birds

Seabirds

Terns, noddies, boobies and frigatebirds

Over the reef and on the islets

White tern Gygis alba

CHamoru: chunge’ (University of Guam). Wikipedia now treats the Pacific birds as a separate species, the blue-billed white tern (Gygis candida) (Wikipedia).

Key marks: All white, with a black eye-ring and a bill that is bright blue at the base with a black tip; it lays its egg on a bare branch, with no nest (University of Guam).

At Guam: Soars over Guam and plunges for small fish (University of Guam). It was common and breeding on Cabras Island in 1983, and still common in 1998 (SPREP Pacific Seabirds).

Wikipedia · eBird · iNaturalist

Black noddy Anous minutus

CHamoru: fåhang (University of Guam).

Key marks: Black with a white cap and a small white crescent under the eye (Wikipedia).

At Guam: Arrives from March to May to nest, the only tern on Guam that nests in shoreline trees such as ironwood. It nests on Cocos Island and around the church bell tower in Merizo, where 601 nests were counted in mid-July 2023; best seen at sunset in southern Guam (UOG Sea Grant).

Wikipedia · eBird · iNaturalist

Brown noddy Anous stolidus

Key marks: Chocolate brown with a pale grey-white cap and a wedge-shaped tail; the largest noddy (Wikipedia).

At Guam: Common and breeding on Cabras Island in 1983 (SPREP Pacific Seabirds).

Wikipedia · eBird · iNaturalist

Great frigatebird Fregata minor

Key marks: Long, narrow wings and a deeply forked tail; males have a red throat pouch (Wikipedia).

At Guam: The only frigatebird on Guam’s bird list (Wikipedia).

Wikipedia · eBird · iNaturalist

Shore

Herons and shorebirds

On reef flats and rocky shores between dives

Pacific golden plovers and whimbrels (kålalang) also spend months on Guam’s shores (University of Guam).

Lost birds

The silent forest

The brown tree snake and the birds coming back

The brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) arrived on Guam by accident after World War II (Wikipedia), probably in cargo ships, between 1944 and 1952; by the 1980s 10 of the 12 or 13 native forest bird species had disappeared (Smithsonian’s National Zoo). A US Geological Survey study found that 17 of the 18 native forest birds were severely affected and 12 species were probably lost as breeding birds, most of them between about 1976 and 1986 (USGS). That is why Guam’s forests are so quiet, and why the seabirds and shorebirds above are now most of what a visitor sees.

• Guam rail, ko’ko’: a flightless rail. About 2,000 lived on Guam in 1981 and fewer than 100 by 1983; the last wild birds were taken into captivity in the mid-1980s (sources give 1985 and 1987) (Smithsonian’s National Zoo; Guam Daily Post). Since 2011 birds bred in zoos have been released on Cocos Island, a rat-free islet about a mile off southern Guam, where they breed (Smithsonian’s National Zoo). In 2019 the IUCN moved it from Extinct in the Wild to Critically Endangered (Guam Daily Post).
• Guam kingfisher, sihek: extinct in the wild since 1988 (ZSL). In September 2024 nine young birds were taken to Palmyra Atoll, in the central Pacific; by May 2025 three pairs had laid eggs, the first wild breeding since the 1980s (AZA).
• Mariana crow, åga: none remain on Guam; it survives only on Rota, and is Critically Endangered (Wikipedia).
• Mariana fruit bat, fanihi: not a bird, but Guam’s native fruit bat, threatened by habitat loss and poaching. The April 2026 count found 241 on Guam (NAVFAC Marianas).

Credits

Bird photo credits

Reference photos and their sources

There are no photos from Guam on this page yet. The tern, noddy and frigatebird photos are reference photos taken elsewhere, credited below; the other birds link to photos online.