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 At Westfjords peninsula, Iceland
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| Alca torda Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Razorbill, Alca torda, is a large auk, 38-43 cm in length, with a 60-69 cm wingspan. Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for Røst is a municipality in the county of Nordland, Norway Røst was separated from Værøy July 1 1928 Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional This article is about a family of birds For the American ornithological journal see The Auk. It is the only living member of the genus Alca.
Adult birds are black on their upperparts and white on the breast and belly. The thick black bill has a blunt end. The tail is pointed and longer than that of a Murre. Uria is a genus of Seabirds in the Auk family known commonly as Guillemots or in North America as murres'. In winter, the black face becomes white.
Their breeding habitat is islands, rocky shores and cliffs on northern Atlantic coasts, in eastern North America as far south as Maine, and in western Europe from northwestern Russia to northern France. The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. North American birds migrate offshore and south, ranging from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to New England. Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of Birds Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability Newfoundland — ˈn(jufənˌlænd (Terre-Neuve Talamh an Éisc — is a large island 15 km off the east coast of History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the Eurasian birds also winter at sea, with some moving south as far as the western Mediterranean.
These birds forage for food by swimming underwater. They mainly eat fish, like sandeels, herring and capelin, also some crustaceans and marine worms. Sand eel or sandeel is the common name used for a considerable number of species of Fish. Herring are small Oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow temperate waters of the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea, the North The capelin or caplin, Mallotus villosus, is a small Fish of the Smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans Structure of crustaceans As Arthropods crustaceans have a stiff Exoskeleton, which must be shed to allow the animal to grow ( Ecdysis or molting Razorbills usually nest in large colonies and lay their eggs on bare rock or ground. Each partner will forage, then come home to take over with caring for the egg or young. They may well fly more than 100 km out to sea to feed when during egg incubation, but when provisioning the young, they forage closer to the nesting grounds, some dozen kilometers away, and often in shallower water[1].
Well-known Razorbill colonies include:
- Heligoland, Germany (54°10' N) - near southern limit in Europe, a few pairs only
- Staple Island, Outer Farne Islands, UK (55°38' N) - breeding season May to mid-July. Heligoland (Helgoland Heligolandic: deät Lun) is a small German Archipelago in the North Sea. Staple Island is a small rocky island that is one of the outer Farne Islands in Northumberland, England. The Farne Islands (also referred to less formally as the Farnes) are a group of islands off the coast of Northumberland, England. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
- Runde, Norway (62°24' N) - 3,000 pairs
- Látrabjarg, Iceland (65°30' N) - 230,000 pairs, about 40% of the global population (mid-1990s estimate). Runde is an island in Herøy municipality Møre og Romsdal county in Norway. Látrabjarg, in Iceland, marks the western-most part of Europe. Breeding season June - July. [1]
- Grímsey, Iceland (66°33' N)
Evolution and prehistoric species
While the Razorbill is the only living species, the genus Alca had a much higher diversity in the Pliocene. The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts is the period in the Geologic timescale that extends A number of fossil forms have been found:
- Alca "antiqua" (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA)
- Alca sp. (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA) - possibly A. stewarti
- Alca stewarti (Early Pliocene of Belgium)
- Alca ausonia (Yorktown Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA - Middle Pliocene of Italy)
- Alca sp. (Puerto de Mazarrón Pliocene of El Alamillo, Spain) - may be A. antiqua or A. ausonia
As far as is known, the genus Alca seems to have evolved in the western North Atlantic or the present-day Caribbean like most other Alcini. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Its ancestors would have reached these waters through the still-open Isthmus of Panama during the Miocene[2]. The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23
Footnotes
References
- Bédard, J. (1985): Evolution and characteristics of the Atlantic Alcidae. In: Nettleship, David N. & Birkhead, Tim R. (eds. ), The Atlantic Alcidae: 6-19. Academic Press, London. ISBN 0-12-515671-5
- BirdLife International (2004). Alca torda. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List) created in 1963 is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Lilliendahl, K. ; Solmundsson, J. ; Gudmundsson, G. A. & Taylor, L. (2003): Can surveillance radar be used to monitor the foraging distribution of colonially breeding alcids? [English with Spanish abstract] Condor 105(1): 145–150. This article is about the journal The Condor for information about the bird from which it takes it name see Condor. DOI: 10. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. 1650/0010-5422(2003)105[145:CSRBUT]2. 0. CO;2 HTML abstract
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