Seabirds that look like pint-sized penguins blown ashore in Newfoundland after storms

Devin Roberts is shown holding a dovekie found next to an arena in Triton, N.L., in a Dec. 28, 2025, handout photo. The bird was later released safely into the ocean. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Danielle Thomas (Mandatory Credit)

ST. JOHN’S — Scores of tiny seabirds that look like pint-sized penguins have been blown ashore by back-to-back storms in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Dovekies are part of the auk family and live in the cold ocean waters, typically migrating from the Arctic to the North Atlantic Ocean around Newfoundland and Labrador.

But residents have been surprised to find dovekies on local wharfs, front lawns and even on highways, according to social media posts over the past few days.

Karen Brown-Gosse with The Rock Wildlife Rescue said she has never seen so many reports at once about wayward dovekies. Her group near St. John’s has received at least 50 calls about them in the past few weeks, she said.

They’re tough little birds, but many have been no match for the howling winds and blowing snow that have pounded the province this month, she said. “They’re exhausted,” Brown-Gosse said. “They can’t withstand that long, fighting these winds and trying to find somewhere to land.”

“They need to get back to the water, and the only way to the water is us,” she added.

Dovekies are divers, and they feed in cracks in the sea ice called leads, Brown-Gosse said. To a dovekie flying over Newfoundland in a storm, a sudden stretch of black highway among the white blowing snow might look like an ice lead.

“So all of a sudden, in this exhaustion and rain and snow and everything else, they just they land,” Brown-Gosse said. “And then they’re shocked by pavement and cars.”

The birds are built to paddle in the ocean, with their legs set back on their bodies toward their tails. That makes it impossible for them to take flight once they’ve touched on land, she said.

Anyone who sees a dovekie -- and can safely stop to retrieve it -- should gently pick up the bird and put it in a box or even a reusable shopping bag and then take it to the ocean to place in the water, she said.

“They’ll just paddle and go, and then they can take off once they’re where they need to be,” she said.

By Sarah Smellie

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2025.