Thick-billed Murre

Thick-billed Murre in flight; Gambell, AK, August.

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Thick-billed Murre, nonbreeding plumage, January

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Food
7. Behavior
8. Reproduction
9. Conservation Status
10. Other Names

A common bird of the far northern oceans, the Thick-billed Murre is found in Arctic waters all across the globe. It remains up to the limits of pack ice in winter, using its wings to swim underwater to find its fish and invertebrate prey.

Cool Facts

• The Thick-billed Murre is one of the deepest underwater divers of all birds, regularly descending to depths of more than 100 m, and occasionally below 200 m. It can remain submerged for more than three minutes.
• The Thick-billed Murre does not build a nest, but incubating birds often shift pebbles or other debris, sometimes dropping them close to the site. When cemented by feces, these fragments may help to keep the egg from rolling off ledge if it is dislodged.

Description

• Size: 45 cm (18 in)
• Weight: 750-1481 g (26.48-52.28 ounces)

• Medium-sized waterbird.
• Black back and head, white underside.
• Rather stout, pointed bill.
• Throat white in nonbreeding plumage.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Similar to nonbreeding adult, but has slimmer, shorter bill and browner upperparts.

Similar Species

• Very similar to Common Murre, which has a longer and thinner bill, lacks the white line on the gape, is browner on the back, has flanks streaked with gray, and in winter, has a white face with thin black line extending behind the eyes. In breeding plumage the white of the breast meets the dark throat in a straight line or shallow inverted "U" in Common Murre, but in a sharp inverted "V" in Thick-billed.
• Razorbill very similar from a distance, but is more robust, and has a deeper and blunter bill, and often holds it longer tail cocked up into the air.

Sound

Gives a variety of guttural calls.

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds in Alantic and Arctic Canada and Alaska, southward to British Columbia and Newfoundland. Also in Greenland, northern Europe and Siberia.

Winter Range

Winters at sea, from edge of open ice southward to Nova Scotia and northern British Columbia. Also off Greenland, northern Europe, and southward in Pacific to northern Japan.

Food

Fish, crustaceans, squid, and other marine invertebrates.

Behavior

Foraging

Dives underwater to capture prey, using its wings to swim.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Shallow depression in rocky ledge on steep cliff. Nests in colonies.

Egg Description

Very pointed at one end. Color variable, ranging from white to tan without markings, to dark green or turquoise with extensive black spots and scrawls.

Condition at Hatching

Covered in down, able to stand within one day.

Conservation Status

Numerous, but vulnerable to oil spills and gill-netting. Atlantic populations appear to be stable or slightly increasing. Greenland population decreasing.

Other Names

Guillemot de Brünnich (French)
Brünnich's Murre, Brünnich's Guillemot (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Gaston, A. J., and J. M. Hipfner. 2000. Thick-billed Murre (Uria lomvia). In The Birds of North America, No. 497 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.