Thick-billed Murre

§ Quick facts

§ Encyclopedia

The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies Uria lomvia arra is also called Pallas' murre after its describer.

Source: Wikipedia — Thick-billed murre · Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

§ Identification

Field marks. Stocky black-and-white seabird with a shorter, thicker bill than Common Murre, marked by a thin pale line along the gape; the white of the breast comes to a sharp point on the throat.

Similar species. Common Murre has a slimmer, longer bill and a white face in winter; the Thick-billed has a stouter bill, a pale gape line, and a darker face.

Voice. Low, growling colony calls; silent at sea.

§ Diet & behavior

Diet. Small fish caught by wing-propelled diving.

Behavior. A high-arctic seabird that dives deeper than almost any other flying bird (well over 100 m) to catch fish and invertebrates; nests on narrow cliff ledges in vast colonies.

§ Range

Arctic

§ Habitat

Cliffs, coastal waters

§ Threats

Climate change.

§ Conservation status

According to the IUCN Red List, the thick-billed murre is currently classified as Least Concern.

§ What helps

Support Arctic conservation.

§ Further reading

• Wikipedia — Thick-billed murre
• www.allaboutbirds.org — authoritative profile of Uria lomvia
• IUCN Red List — search for Uria lomvia
• GBIF occurrence records
• Encyclopedia of Life — Uria lomvia

§ Sources cited

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology — All About Birds
• National Audubon Society
• iNaturalist
• IUCN Red List