Common Murre - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Common Guillemot.

Breeding plumage including "bridled" morph
Photo © by Dafi
Copansay, Orkney, UK, 20 June 2006

Uria aalge

Identification

Length: 17.5" (44.5cm); Wingspan 26" (66cm.)
A large alcid, relatively more slender than others in this family. Pacific birds average larger than Atlantic birds.
Adult breeding birds have brown-black upperparts and throat, white underparts, long dark bill, short tail. On first-year and non-breeding birds, the throat is white, which extends to the back of the neck. A thin dark line extends from the eye down behind the cheek. Long straight bill that appears pointed upward with the birds usual posture in the water.
The "bridled" form has a white lining around the eye.

Photo © by Copout
Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK, 11 May 2009

Similar Species

Quite similar to the Thick-billed Murre, which is also genus Uria. The bill of Uria aalge is longer and straighter.

Distribution

Northern Palearctic, coastal northern North America. Accidental vagrant inland.

Taxonomy

Non-breeding
Photo © by Joseph Morlan
Half Moon Bay, California, USA, 30 August 2020

Subspecies

This is a polytypic species, consisting of four currently recognized subspecies^[1]:

U. a. aalge:

Breeds in the North Atlantic from eastern North America, Greenland, and Iceland through the Faeroes and Scotland to southern Norway and the Baltic Sea

U. a. hyperborea:

Breeds Svalbard through northern Norway and northwestern Russia east to Novaya Zemlya

U. a. albionis:

British Isles to western Iberian Peninsula; winters to Helgoland

U. a. inornata:

Korea, Japan and Kamchatka to Bering Sea and British Columbia

U. a. californica:

Northern Washington to southern California

Additional subspecies U. a. hyperborea and U. a. ibericus not recognised by all authorities^[2]

Habitat

Rocky coasts.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes fish and invertebrates.

Breeding

They breed in colonies. The single egg is incubated for 30 days, on bare rock.

Vocalisation

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Lepage D. (2020) Common_Murre in Avibase - The World Bird Database. Retrieved 1 September 2020
Ainley, D. G., D. N. Nettleship, H. R. Carter, and A. E. Storey (2020). Common Murre (Uria aalge), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.commur.01
Whatbird

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Common Murre. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 1 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Murre

External Links

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