Common Murre

Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763)

Common Murre, Uria aalge, breeds on northern coasts in North America and across the Palearctic, from subarctic to temperate areas and locally into the Arctic. Outside the breeding season it ranges south in the North Atlantic to Virginia and Iberia, and in the North Pacific to northern Japan and north-west Baja California. It is an auk that nests on rocky cliff ledges and islands, and it lays a single egg without building a nest. The species is also known as the common guillemot.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Alcidae — Auks

Breeding range

North America, Palearctic: subarctic to temperate (locally Arctic) n coasts

Nonbreeding range

to Virginia in Gulf Stream (w North Atlantic); to Iberian Pen. (e North Atlantic); to n Japan (w North Pacific); to nw Baja California (nw Mexico; e North Pacific)