Natural History Wanderings

Audubon Magazine has a brief article explaining how seabirds are able to drink salt water. They have a pair of salt glands above theirs eyes. These glands serve as kind of desalination plant for the birds.

The salt they take in from drinking saltwater is absorbed and moved through the blood streams and into the salt glands above the eyes. The salt is then excreted as a thick salty fluid and runs down the grooves of their bill. If you notice a seabird with a drop of water on water on its bill it is a product of this process. Birds that process saltwater include penguins, loons, gulls, albatrosses and puffins.

From What Happens When Seabirds Drink Saltwater? | Audubon Magazine.