AnimalvsAnimal
Guillemot (Uria aalge) in flight🐦

Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesCharadriiformesAlcidae
Birds

🐦Common Murre

Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763)

The common murre or common guillemot is a large auk, one of several species called murre or guillemot. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Photos
2
Measurements
13
vs you
≈ 1/63rd of your weight
Also called
Guillemot, Common Guillemot
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2018.

Population trendIncreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
0.99 kg
Body length
0.43 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
43 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Common Murre

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.99 kgrecord 0.99 kg · SeaLifeBase
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Record: largest individual on record

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 0.99 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
0.43 mmaximum recorded, total length
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Tail length
0.05 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.2 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.06 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.04 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
43 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Gestation
31 days
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Litter size
1
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Marine
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Aquatic
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
1 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Common Murre yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderCharadriiformes
  5. ›familyAlcidae
  6. ›genusUria
  7. ›speciesUria aalge
Full lineage
  1. superclassTetrapoda
  2. orderSauria
  3. classBirds · Aves
  4. genusUria
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. genusUria
More

More about the Common Murre

In other languages
alkoun úzkozobý (cs), sillgrissla (sv), Uria aalge (it), Zeekoet (nl), Somorgollaire (ca), Lomvie (da) … and 24 more languages
More photos
Guillemot (Uria aalge) in flightBird common murre closeup (16695600023)
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