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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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