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The common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.
Common murres are fast in direct flight but are not very agile. They are highly mobile underwater using their wings to fly through the water column, where they typically dive to depths from 100 to 200 feet (30–60 m), with maximum depths of close to 600 feet (180 m) having been recorded.
Breeding
Common murres breed in colonies at high densities. Nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighboring pairs. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated between the adult′s feet on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face. Eggs hatch after about thirty days of incubation. The chick is born downy and within ten days, it can regulate its body temperature. Some 20 days after hatching, the chick leaves its nesting ledge, accompanied by its male parent and heads for the sea, unable to fly, but gliding for some distance with fluttering wings.
Male guillemots spend more time diving, and dive more deeply than females during this time. Chicks are capable of diving as soon as they hit the water. The female stays at the nest site for some 14 days after the chick has left.
After Breeding
Both male and female common murres moult after breeding and become flightless for 1–2 months. Some populations have short migration distances, instead remaining close to the breeding site year-round. Such populations return to the nest site from autumn onwards. Adult birds balance their energetic budgets during the winter by reducing the time that they spend flying and are able to forage nocturnally.
This species of FFF bird is
Taxonomy:
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Charadriiformes
Family:
Alcid
Genus:
Uria
Species:
U. aaige
Common Name:
Common Murre
Conservation Status:
LC
Subspecies:
Yes, five have been recognized. (see text)
Description
Western form is black back, white underside. Head and neck brown during the summer. Winter has more white on sides of face.
Atlantic form has white eye ring and white thin strip rearward from eye. Winter have dark eye line on white face.
Bill is longer, more slender and more pointed than the Thick Billed Murre
Length:
15-18 inches
Wingspan:
24-29 inches
Male:
Female:
Juvenile:
First Year:
Habitat:
Alone or in small flocks. Nests in colonies on rocky coasts and cliffs.
Range:
Pacific: Very numerous off US west coast, from Aleutians south to Northern Baja. Also common in the northwest Pacific on coastal Kamchatka Peninsula, islands of eastern Russia, island of north Japan
Atlantic: coastal Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Scotlan, Norway, Baltic sea. Also along European coasts: British Isles, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany
Year-round:
In many shore locations within their range.
Breeding:
In many shore location at high latitudes within their range.
Non-Breeding:
In many offshore locations within their range.
Subspecies:
1. U. aalge aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763) – coastal southeast Canada, southwest Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Scotland, south Norway and Baltic Sea. Includes intermedia and spiloptera.
2. U. aalge hyperborea Salomonsen, 1932 – coastal north Norway to Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya (northwest Russia)
3. U. aalge albionis Witherby, 1923 – coastal British Isles, Heligoland (north of Germany), northwest France and west Iberian Peninsula
4. U. aalge inornata Salomonsen, 1932 – coastal Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin, Kuril and Commander Islands (east Russia), south Kuril Islands (north Japan), Teuri Island (northwest of Hokkaido; formerly also Hokkaido; north Japan); Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea islands to west Alaska and southwest Canada
5. U. aalge californica (Bryant, H, 1861) – coastal north Washington to south California (east North Pacific)
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