Razorbill on the beach in Agadir, Morocco. (1 Viewer)

[pjacobs]

On a family holiday in Morocco, and while I've taken a few mornings to go out for some proper birding, today was just a beach day. But after lunch while walking the beach, I noticed a small white and black bird flapping it's wings in vain in the shallow surf. It seemed to be stuck or injured. Unfortunately I didn't have my bins or my camera, but I had a cell phone and I was able to get a few shots of what appeared to be a razorbill. The lifeguard saw the bird as well and came to join me, he was convinced we needed to take the bird out of the water and dry it off to let it fly away. I convinced him it was a sea bird, and we gently coaxed it out of the sand and into deeper water. Once it was in deeper water it seemed to swim just fine. Hopefully it wasn't injured and is on its way to some rocky cliff in the UK.

I'm curious, do razorbills winter this far south? Is it normal to spot a razorbill in Morocco this time of year?

Just wanted to share my exciting (for a birder) discovery, as the rest of my party weren't very interested.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Dortmundbirder]

Razorbills in Southern Spain are at elast regular, so they should be in Moroccan waters as well.
An Auk on the beach is usually a sign for certain death of the bird rather soon.

 

[pjacobs]

Razorbills in Southern Spain are at elast regular, so they should be in Moroccan waters as well.
An Auk on the beach is usually a sign for certain death of the bird rather soon.

Thanks for the response. Will they likely die because they're on the beach and it's too difficult to get back into safer deeper water? Or, because only sick or injured birds would end up on the beach in the first place?

 

[DMW]

Generally the latter, it's probably either sick or malnourished.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

I have seen an auk offshore in Morocco, but can’t remember whether it was a Razorbill or a Guillemot.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

As stated by others it's within the normal limits of the range. SURVIVAL AND AGE AT FIRST BREEDING IN THE RAZORBILL (Alca torda) on JSTOR mentions Morocco and that was published in 1977.

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Lots of Razorbills all along the coast, north and south of Agadir two weeks ago, with both Balearic and Yelkouan shearwater also.

Owen