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Common murre
Uria aalge | Zeekoet | Arao común
The Common Guillemot is the commonest auk of the North Sea and the bird you see passing most often on a winter seawatch. At the colony it stands shoulder to shoulder on open ledges, with no nest, laying a single pear-shaped egg on bare rock.
Voice
At the colony a continuous growling, surging aarrrr-aarrr from hundreds of birds at once, lying over the cliff like low surf and audible far out to sea. From mid-June the thin, plaintive wee-oo wee-oo of flightless chicks sounds from the water, each escorted by its father. Away from the colony the species is otherwise silent.
Recording: British Library — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Identification
Slimmer and longer-bodied than Razorbill, with a straight dagger bill and a fine white line along the gape. Upperparts dark chocolate-brown, in strong light distinctly warmer than the jet black of a Razorbill; flanks brown-streaked. In winter face and throat turn white, with one decisive feature: a dark line running back from the eye across the white cheek. Northern birds may show the bridled form, with a white eye-ring and a white line behind it. In flight the feet project beyond the short tail, the inner wing has a white trailing edge and the underwing is white.
Confusion species
Razorbill is blacker, with a deep blunt bill crossed by a white band, a longer pointed tail, and no cheek stripe in winter. Atlantic Puffin is shorter and more bull-headed with a dark underwing. Little Auk is far smaller and more compact. The rare Brünnich's Guillemot is bulkier, blacker above, has a shorter bill with a pale stripe along the base, and lacks the dark cheek stripe in winter.
Habitat
Breeds in dense colonies on open ledges of steep sea cliffs and rock stacks; in the North Sea, Heligoland, Scotland and Norway are the best-known sites. For the rest of the year it lives at sea over shallow banks, diving tens of metres for sandeels, sprat and young herring. In Dutch waters the Bruine Bank is an important wintering area.
Range and movements
Breeds in Iceland, Norway, Britain and Ireland, the Baltic and on Heligoland. The Netherlands has no colonies, but tens of thousands winter on the North Sea, concentrating on the Bruine Bank, and appear on seawatches and in beached-bird surveys. In Spain it has all but vanished as a breeder from Galicia and remains chiefly a winter visitor along the Cantabrian coast.
- Resident
- Breeding (summer)
- Winter
- Passage
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
Where and when to look
Seawatching along the Holland coast in north-westerly winds between October and March produces the most birds, but for calm study go to the Lummenfelsen of Heligoland in February or March, where birds sit on the ledges a few metres away. At sea, scan floating parties with a telescope and check winter plumage and cheek stripe. In July and August watch behaviour too: an adult escorting a still-flightless chick swims far offshore in close company.
Conservation status
Not threatened and still numerous in Europe, with stable to growing numbers on Heligoland and in the Baltic. The largest risks are oil pollution and bycatch in gillnets, plus food shortage in years of poor sandeel abundance. Avian influenza damaged several North Sea colonies in 2022, and after severe storms hundreds of weakened birds can wash ashore within days.