Common Murre (also known as the Common Guillemot)

The Common Murre is a large, dark-backed auk with a slender pointed bill, dark brown head and back, and crisp white underparts. They spend most of their lives at sea, coming ashore only to breed on crowded, sheer coastal cliffs.

Strikingly bicolored with a rich, glossy dark brown to blackish tip and distal edge, sharply contrasting against a brilliant snowy white basal and inner web area

Pennaceous upper vane transitioning smoothly into a fine, dense plumulaceous base with a small, rudimentary afterfeather

Slender, flexible, light-colored rachis tapering gracefully toward the tip with tightly aligned, dense barbs

Silky and smooth with a tight, water-repellent pennaceous tip and a soft, downy base

Upper back, mantle, or scapular region, determined by the distinctive dark-to-white color blocking typical of upperparts mantle plumage

Sharp demarcation between deep dark brown-black melanin pigmentation at the tip and clean white basal regions, coupled with a velvety texture

Marine pelagic environments, rocky cliffs, coastal waters, and offshore islands during the breeding season

Circumpolar distribution in cold subarctic and temperate waters of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans

Important marine apex predator and forage fish consumer, serving as a key bioindicator for the health of northern marine ecosystems

Thick-billed Murre (Uria lomvia) and Razorbill (Alca torda), distinguished by subtler bill structures and slight variations in mantle feather tipping

Common Murres lay a single pyriform (pear-shaped) egg directly on bare rock ledges; the unique shape prevents the egg from rolling off the cliffside in the wind

Historically harvested for eggs and meat by coastal indigenous peoples and maritime explorers; feathers hold no major modern commercial or traditional utility

Look near rocky seabird breeding cliffs, coastal drift lines, and island shores frequented by large alcid colonies, especially following late-summer molt

Good condition with intact barbs and minimal fraying along the edges