Common Murre

The Common Murre is a streamlined, penguin-like seabird that spends most of its life on open water, coming ashore only to breed in some of the densest and noisiest seabird colonies in the world. Adults have a chocolate-brown to blackish head, back, and wings contrasting with a clean white breast and belly, and a long, slender, pointed bill that distinguishes it from the shorter-billed Thick-billed Murre. In winter, the throat and face turn white with a dark line extending back from the eye.

Despite an ungainly, upright waddle on land, Common Murres are powerful swimmers, using their wings to "fly" underwater in pursuit of fish at considerable depths.

Key field marks

• Long, slender, pointed black bill
• Dark brown-black upperparts, white underparts
• Upright, penguin-like posture on land
• White throat and face in non-breeding plumage, with a dark eye-line

Similar species

• Thick-billed Murre has a noticeably shorter, thicker bill with a pale stripe (gape line) and a sharper border between dark throat and white belly in breeding plumage.
• Razorbill has a deep, blunt bill marked with a white line, quite different from the murre's slender bill.
• Non-breeding murres of both species can be tricky to separate at a distance; bill shape and the extent of white on the face are the best clues.

Common Murres breed in enormous, densely packed colonies on narrow ledges of sea cliffs and offshore rock stacks across the North Atlantic and North Pacific, from Arctic Canada, Greenland, and Iceland to Britain, and from California and Alaska across the Pacific to Japan and Russia. Outside the breeding season, they disperse widely over open ocean, often well offshore, following productive cold-water currents.

Many populations move south in winter in response to sea temperature and prey availability, though the species generally remains within temperate to subarctic latitudes year-round.

Behavior

Common Murres are exceptional divers, capable of reaching depths over 100 meters in pursuit of fish, using their wings for underwater propulsion much like a penguin, though they retain the ability to fly in air as well.

Voice

Colonies are extremely noisy, with birds giving a distinctive rolling, growling "arrr" or "murre" call that gives the species part of its name.

Feeding

Small schooling fish such as capelin, sand eels, and sprat form the bulk of the diet, supplemented by crustaceans and other invertebrates.

Nesting and breeding

A single egg is laid directly on bare rock ledges without a nest structure; the egg's pointed, pear-like shape helps prevent it from rolling off the narrow ledge, and chicks leave the colony for the sea before they can fly, accompanied by the male parent, in a dramatic "jumping" fledging event.