Thick-billed Murre

Uria lomvia

Dives over 500 feet to chase fish. One of the deepest-diving flying birds on Earth.

Population: Roughly 15–22+ million individuals globally (BirdLife DataZone cites >22 million; other secondary sources cite ~15–20 million), population trend increasing
Habitat: Marine seabird of cold arctic and subarctic waters (typically below ~5°C); breeds in dense colonies on narrow ledges of steep sea cliffs, and otherwise spends nearly the entire year far offshore, often near pack ice and along the continental shelf edge
Fun fact: Thick-billed Murre chicks leave their sea-cliff nest ledges at only about three weeks old (18–25 days) — well before they can fly — jumping off the cliff edge toward the ocean below at nightfall while a parent glides alongside them.
Range: Circumpolar in the Arctic and high Arctic — breeding colonies from the Kuril Islands and Bering Sea across Alaska, Arctic Canada, Newfoundland/Labrador, Greenland, and Svalbard to Scandinavia and the Russian Arctic; winters at sea south into the North Pacific and North Atlantic (e.g., off central Japan, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the British Isles)
Diet: Pursuit-diving predator of small fish (Arctic cod, capelin, pollock, sand eel, and other gadoids) and marine invertebrates such as squid and amphipods/crustaceans, caught by diving to depths that can exceed 100 m (some records >150 m)
Size: 0.44 m
Wingspan: 0.73 m
Lifespan: 29 years

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