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Can anyone tell me what this is (1 Viewer)

jamesrtaylor

Well-known member
Hi I am from Scotland and photographed this bird on Inchcolm Island in River Forth Estuary last week. the sort of nazal passage on top of beak threw me a bit
thanks

Jim
 

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the sort of nazal passage on top of beak threw me a bit
thanks

Jim

Hi Jim - a bit of info for you

All procellariiformes (Fulmars, Petrels, Albatrosses, Shearwaters etc) have these external nostrils/'tubenose' which enables them to excrete salt from their food intake and allows them to have a very keen sense of smell (cf. to other species of birds) necessary for hunting fish at sea. Since they spend all their time out of the breeding season at sea and travel vast distances, it's also thought they convert much of their food intake in the stomach to oil (in this case 'Fulmar Oil') to conserve/carry energy which is obviously easier to carry than bulky food stuff when flying long distances - The stomach oil is also used to used to feed chicks (being rich in nutrients). It's also used as a defense mechanism (sort of like vomiting you get in some species, or ink ejection from squid etc) especially by chicks who squirt it out from the nostril or throat (with some venom!) at potential predators. The oil is also thought to be an additional preening oil to supplement that from the preen glands.

Btw. It stinks! Which is how the Fulmar got it's name - it's Icelandic for ''foul gull' referring to the rotten fish smell of the oil!
 
Last edited:
Deborah,
I felt your little description was so good that it deserved to be saved in a better place than just this thread, so I copied it (with minor edits) to the Opus entry for Procellariidae. (maybe it should have been used in Procellariiformes instead, but what the heck ...)

Niels
 
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