Northern fulmar

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Northern fulmar
Fulmarus Glacialis.jpg
Nominate Fulmarus glacialis glacialis in Kongsfjord, Ny Alesund, Svalbard
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Genus: Fulmarus
Species:
F. glacialis
Binomial name
Fulmarus glacialis
(Linnaeus, 1761)
Subspecies

Fulmarus glacialis glacialis
(Linnaeus, 1761)
Fulmarus glacialis auduboni
Fulmarus glacialis rodgersii

Contents

FULMAR.gif
Range of F. glacialis
  Breeding range
  Wintering range
Synonyms

Procellaria glacialisLinnaeus, 1761

Bird Sound

The northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), fulmar, [2] or Arctic fulmar [3] is an abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hemisphere, with a single bird seen south of New Zealand. [4] Fulmars come in one of two colour morphs; a light one in temperate populations, with white head and body and grey wings and tail, and a dark one in arctic populations, which is uniformly grey; intermediate birds are common. [5] Though similar in appearance to gulls, fulmars are in fact members of the family Procellariidae, which includes petrels and shearwaters.

The northern fulmar and its sister species, the southern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides), are the only extant members of the genus Fulmarus . The fulmars are in turn a member of the order Procellariiformes, and they all share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns; however, nostrils on albatrosses are on the sides of the bill, as opposed to the rest of the order, including fulmars, which have nostrils on top of the upper bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. One of these plates makes up the hooked portion of the upper bill, called the maxillary unguis. They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This can be sprayed out of their mouths as a defense against predators from a very early age, and as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. [6] It will mat the plumage of avian predators, and can lead to their death. [7] Finally, they also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage that helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. This gland excretes a high saline solution from their nose. [7]

The northern fulmar was first described as Procellaria glacialis by Carl Linnaeus in 1761, based on a specimen from within the Arctic Circle, on Spitsbergen. [3] The Mallemuk Mountain in Northeastern Greenland is named after the northern fulmar (Danish : Mallemuk).

Taxonomy

The northern fulmar was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1761 in the second edition of his book Fauna Svecica . He placed it with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria glacialis. [8] Linnaeus based his description mainly on the "Mallemucke" that had been described and illustrated in 1675 by the German naturalist Friderich Martens in his account of his voyage to Spitzbergen. [9] [10] The northern fulmar is now placed in the genus Fulmarus that was introduced in 1826 by the English naturalist James Stephens. [11] [12] The genus name comes from the Old Norse Fúlmár meaning "foul-mew" or "foul-gull" because of the birds' habit of ejecting a foul-smelling oil. The specific epithet glacialis is Latin for "icy". [13]

Three subspecies are recognised: [12]

Description

Fulmarus glacialis auduboni at Heligoland, Germany Northern-Fulmar2 cropped.jpg
Fulmarus glacialis auduboni at Heligoland, Germany
Fulmarus glacialis rodgersii off Morro Bay, California Northern Fulmar (fulmarus glacialis) (12081488845).jpg
Fulmarus glacialis rodgersii off Morro Bay, California

The northern fulmar has a wingspan of 102 to 112 cm (40–44 in) [3] and is 46 cm (18 in) in length. [14] [17] [18] Body mass can range from 450 to 1,000 g (16 to 35 oz). [19] This species is grey and white with a pale yellow, thick bill and bluish legs. [20] However, there are both a light morph and dark, or "blue", morph; in the Pacific Ocean there is an intermediate morph as well. Only the dark morph has more than dark edges on the underneath but they all have pale inner primaries on the top of the wings. The Pacific morph has a darker tail than the Atlantic morph. [3] [14] [17] [20] [21] [22] [23]

Like other petrels, their walking ability is limited, but they are strong fliers, with a stiff wing action quite unlike the gulls. They look bull-necked compared to gulls, and have short stubby bills. [20] They are long-lived, with a lifespan of 31 years not uncommon, [24] and exceptionally over 50 years, recorded on Eynhallow in Orkney. [25]

Population and trends [26]
LocationBreeding populationWinter populationBreeding trend
Faroe Islands 600,000 pairs500,000–3,000,000 individualsstable
Greenland 120,000–200,000 pairs10,000–100,000 individualsstable
France 1,300–1,350 pairs100–500 individualsincreasing
Germany 102 pairsincreasing
Iceland 1,000,000–2,000,000 pairs1,000,000—5,000,000 individualsdecreasing
Ireland 33,000 pairsincreasing
Denmark 2 pairs200–300 individualsincreasing
Norway 7,000–8,000 pairsincreasing
Svalbard 500,000–1,000,000 pairsincreasing
Russia (Europe)1,000–2,500 pairs
United Kingdom 506,000 pairs
Canada, Russia (Asia), & US 2,600,000–4,200,000 pairs
Total (adult individuals)15,000,000–30,000,000increasing

Behaviour

Feeding

Northern fulmars will feed on shrimps, fish, squid, plankton, jellyfish, and carrion, as well as refuse. [3] [7] [21] [22] When eating fish, they will dive up to 4 metres deep to retrieve their prey. [27] [18]

Breeding

Fulmar egg Fulmarus glacialis MHNT ZOO 2010 11 42 Grimsey Island.jpg
Fulmar egg
Nests in County Mayo, Ireland Fulmarus glacialis -Erris Head, County Mayo, Ireland -nests-8.jpg
Nests in County Mayo, Ireland

The northern fulmar starts breeding at between six and twelve years old. [27] It is monogamous, and forms long-term pair bonds. It returns to the same nest site year after year. [7] The breeding season starts in May; [3] however, the female has glands that store sperm to allow weeks to pass between copulation and the laying of the egg. [7] During the breeding season adult Fulmars usually remain within 500 km of their breeding colony instead of traveling up to thousands of kilometres while searching for food. [28] Their nest is a scrape on a grassy ledge or a saucer of vegetation on the ground, lined with softer material. The birds nest in large colonies [3] [7] [18] [21] [22] Recently, they have started nesting on rooftops and buildings. [3] Both sexes are involved in the nest-building process. [7] A single white egg, 74 mm × 51 mm (2.9 in × 2.0 in), [7] is incubated for a period of 50 to 54 days, by both sexes. The altricial chick is brooded for 2 weeks [29] and fully fledges after 70 to 75 days. Again, both sexes are involved. [3] [7] During this period, the parents are nocturnal, and will even be inactive on well-lit nights. [7]

Social behaviour

The mating ritual of this fulmar consists of the female resting on a ledge and the male landing with his bill open and his head back. He commences to wave his head side to side and up and down while calling. [7]

They make grunting and chuckling sounds while eating and guttural calls during the breeding season. [21] [22]

Conservation

The northern fulmar is estimated to have between 15,000,000 and 30,000,000 mature individuals that occupy an occurrence range of 28,400,000 km2 (11,000,000 sq mi) and their North American population is on the rise, hence it is listed with the IUCN as Least Concern. [1] The range of these species increased greatly last century due to the availability of fish offal from commercial fleets, but may contract because of less food from this source and climatic change. [3] The population increase has been especially notable in the British Isles. [21]

Anthropogenic impact

Northern fulmars' stomach contents are a hallmark indicator of marine debris in marine environments because of their high abundance and wide distribution. [30] A study of 143 northern fulmars from 2008 to 2013 found 89.5% of them containing microplastics within their gastrointestinal tracts. A mean score of 19.5 pieces of plastic and 0.461 g per individual was calculated. [31] This is considerably higher than in past studies on northern fulmars, possibly implying increasing plastic debris in marine ecosystems and shorelines. However, more research is needed to substantiate such conclusion. Long-term data from the Netherlands dating back to the 1980s show an increase in consumer plastics and a decrease in industrial plastics in the stomach contents of fulmars. [30] The increased plastic ingestion can occur through biomagnification: their diet consists of such invertebrates like plankton that have shown an increase of consumption of microplastics entering the ocean. By going deeper into the food web of marine life, it is evident that fulmars could be indirectly affected through tropic transfer and biomagnification, and similarly could also affect their predators ingestion of plastic pollution. With the increase in freshwater pollution of plastic debris, there may be a further rise in microplastic content of seabird gastrointestinal tracts.

Legend

A popular story among the central Inuit, for instance, is that of their race-mother Sedna, who was the daughter of a chief, and was wooed by a fulmar who promised her, if she would marry him, a delightful life in his distant home. So she went away with him. But she had been ruefully deceived, and was cruelly mistreated. A year later her father went to pay her a visit; and discovering her misery he killed her husband and took his repentant daughter home. The other fulmars in the village followed them, mourning and crying for their murdered fellow, and fulmars continue to utter doleful cries to this day. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procellariiformes</span> Order of birds

Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are often referred to collectively as the petrels, a term that has been applied to all members of the order, or more commonly all the families except the albatrosses. They are almost exclusively pelagic, and have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans, with the highest diversity being around New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulmar</span> Genus of birds

The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrel</span> Seabird

Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procellariidae</span> Family of seabirds which includes petrels, shearweters and prions

The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes, which also includes the albatrosses and the storm petrels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great shearwater</span> Species of bird

The great shearwater is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It breeds colonially on rocky islands in the south Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely in the Atlantic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern fulmar</span> Species of bird

The southern fulmar is a seabird of the Southern Hemisphere. Along with the northern fulmar, F. glacialis, it belongs to the fulmar genus Fulmarus in the family Procellariidae, the true petrels. It is also known as the Antarctic fulmar or silver-grey fulmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giant petrel</span> Genus of birds

Giant petrels form a genus, Macronectes, from the family Procellariidae, which consists of two living and one extinct species. They are the largest birds in this family. Both extant species in the genus are native to the Southern Hemisphere. Giant petrels are extremely aggressive predators and scavengers, inspiring another common name, the stinker. Seamen and whalers also referred to the giant petrel as the molly-hawk, gong, glutton bird and nelly. They are the only member of their genus that is capable of walking on land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern giant petrel</span> Species of bird

The southern giant petrel, also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant petrel, though it overall is centered slightly further south. Adults of the two species can be distinguished by the colour of their bill-tip: greenish in the southern and reddish in the northern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectacled petrel</span> Species of bird

The spectacled petrel is a rare seabird that nests only on the high western plateau of Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Tristan da Cunha group. It is one of the largest petrels that nests in burrows. This species was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the white-chinned petrel.

<i>Procellaria</i> Genus of birds

Procellaria is a genus of Southern Ocean long-winged seabirds related to prions, and within the order Procellariiformes. The black petrel ranges in the Pacific Ocean, and as far north as Central America. The spectacled petrel is confined to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Westland petrel to the Pacific Ocean. The white-chinned and grey petrel range throughout the higher latitudes of the Southern Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulmarine petrel</span> Group of birds

The fulmarine petrels or fulmar-petrels are a distinct group of petrels within the family Procellariidae. They are the most variable of the four groups within the Procellariidae, differing greatly in size and biology. They do, however, have a unifying feature, their skull, and in particular their nasal tubes. They are predominantly found in the Southern Ocean with one species, the northern fulmar, ranging in the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-chinned petrel</span> Species of bird

The white-chinned petrel also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large shearwater in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and breeds colonially on scattered islands. The white-chinned petrel was formerly considered to be conspecific with the spectacled petrel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad-billed prion</span> Species of bird

The broad-billed prion is a small pelagic seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. It is the largest prion, with grey upperparts plumage, and white underparts. The sexes are alike. It ranges from the southeast Atlantic to New Zealand mainly near the Antarctic Convergence. In the south Atlantic it breeds on Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island; in the south Pacific it breeds on islands off the south coast of South Island, New Zealand and on the Chatham Islands. It has many other names that have been used such as blue-billed dove-petrel, broad-billed dove-petrel, long-billed prion, common prion, icebird, and whalebird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey petrel</span> Species of bird

The grey petrel, also called the brown petrel, pediunker or grey shearwater is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae, or petrel family. It is pelagic and occurs in the open seas of the Southern Hemisphere, mainly between 32°S and 58°S.

References

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  29. Hauber, Mark E. (1 August 2014). The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World's Bird Species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 42. ISBN   978-0-226-05781-1.
  30. 1 2 Franeker, J.A.; van Blaize, C.; Danielsen, J. (2011). "Monitoring plastic ingestion by the northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis in the North Sea". Environmental Pollution. 159 (10): 2609–2615. Bibcode:2011EPoll.159.2609V. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.008. PMID   21737191.
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