Thick-billed Murre

Overview

Thick-billed Murre: Medium-sized seabird with black upperparts, head and neck, and white underparts. A thin, white stripe extends from bill to cheek. The bill is short and black. Legs and feet are black. Feeds on fish, marine worms, crustaceans and squid. Strong swift flight low over water.

Range and Habitat

Thick-billed Murre: Breeds on the Arctic coast south to southern Alaska and Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Spends winters on coasts south to southern Alaska and New Jersey; also in Eurasia. Found along rocky coasts.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Thick-billed Murre is also known as Brunnich's Guillemot, after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich.
The Pacific race is larger than the Atlantic race, especially in bill dimensions.
The thick-billed murre can dive to depths of close to 600 feet. It uses its short, stubby wings to "fly" through the water.
A group of murres are collectively known as a "bazaar" and a "fragrance" of murres.

The Thick-billed Murre has a large range, estimated globally at 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 square kilometers. Native to the United States and Canada, Russian Federation, Japan, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and many island nations and territories, this bird prefers neritic, oceanic, or coastal marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 22,000,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Thick-billed Murre is Least Concern.