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Deepseawaters
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Sea BirdsNorthern Fulmars
Northern Fulmars
Common Name: Northern Fulmars
Scientific Name: Fulmarus glacialis
Description
Northern
fulmars
are roughly the same size as glaucous-winged gulls, but have
a distinctively thick-necked appearance. They range in color
from dark blue-grey to a ghostly white, and have a yellowish
bill. Fulmars fly with stiff wings and glide in bounding swoops
above the wave-tops, making them easy to spot from far away.
Northern
fulmars are less attached to the mainland than most
of the other seabird species we study. They forage far out
to sea, and breed in huge colonies on remote islands. The
northern fulmar is one of a very few members
of the "tube-nosed" seabird family that breeds in Alaska-
all other similar species breed in the Southern Hemisphere.
Northern fulmars breed in great numbers on the highest cliff-faces,
sometimes with other cliff-nesting species. To defend their
nest, fulmars launch an evil-smelling stream of stomach oils
from their throats- forcing inquisitve fulmar bioloigsts to
wear raingear even on sunny days! They lay only one egg, and
it takes most of the summer to fledge their chick. Fulmars
can live a very long time- up to 50 years or longer. They
forage up to hundreds of miles from the colony, eating a variety
of surface species including squid, jellyfish, crustaceans,
and small fish. Fulmars are common scavengers of
discarded fish thrown overboard by commercial fishing boats-
sometimes forming vast chattering groups of thousands of birds.
Range
Breeds
from Franz Josef Land south to Brittany in the eastern Atlantic
and in Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic. There are
four small colonies in eastern Newfoundland and southeastern
Labrador. Large numbers occur in winter on the Grand Banks
and, to a lesser extent, on the Scotian Shelf. A different
subspecies breeds in the North Pacific.
Identification Tips
Length:
18 inches Wingspan: 42 inches
Sexes
similar
Stocky
pelagic bird only coming ashore to breed
Large
shearwater
Thick
yellow bill with tube on top
Rapid
wingbeats
Glides
on stiff wings
Light morph
White
head and underparts
Gray
back, upperwings, rump, and tail
White
"flash" in primaries visible from above
Mostly
white underwings
Gray morph
Gray head, body,
wings, and tail
Paler underside
of flight feathers and upper side of primaries
Intermediate
morph also occurs
Similar species
Gulls flap their
wings more slowly and smoothly and lack the tube on top
of the bill. Similarly pelagic shearwaters and petrels are
slimmer with more distinct patterning.
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