Name: Common murre, common guillemot, guillemot
Scientific Name: Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763)
Family: Alcidae
Group: Birds
Class: Birds
Size: 26-50 cm.
Common murres spend the winter at sea to avoid the ice, and only move to land in the summer. It is during this time that they mate and each pair lays one single egg on escarpments crowded with birds and often whipped by strong winds and rain. To stop the forces of nature from driving their egg out to sea, the parents attach it to rocks with guano. Over 40 days, they alternate the incubation and afterwards, both feed the chick. When they are only 25 days old and still unable to fly, the small murres courageously launch themselves into the sea at night, to avoid predation from seagulls. For the first 2 months in the sea, they are protected and fed by the male parent.
Photo by:
Alf Tore Mjøs (www.birdingnorway.no)
North Atlantic
