Uria

For other uses, see Uria (disambiguation).

"Murre" redirects here; not to be confused with Murree.

For ships named Murre, see MV Murre and NOAAS Murre II.

Uria Temporal range: Late Miocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Common murre between two thick-billed murres
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Alcidae
Genus:	Uria Brisson, 1760
Type species
Colymbus aalge Pontoppidan, 1763
Species
Uria aalge Uria lomvia

Uria is a genus of seabirds in the auk family known in Europe as guillemots , and in North America as murres. These are medium-sized birds with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding season. They breed on the coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Taxonomy

The genus Uria was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the common murre (Uria aalge) as the type species. ^{[1] [2]} The genus is related to the razorbill, little auk, and the extinct great auk; these together make up the tribe Alcini. Despite the shared common name guillemot, they are not so closely related to the guillemots in the genus Cepphus , which form the tribe Cepphini.

Etymology

The genus name is from Ancient Greek ouria, a waterbird mentioned by Athenaeus. ^[3] The English name "guillemot" is of French origin, first attested by Pierre Belon in 1555, but derived from Old (11th century) French willelm, and matched by English variants willock (attested 1631), willick, will and wilkie, all from forms of the name William, cf. French : Guillaume, but ultimately onomatopoeic from the loud, high-pitched "will, willem" begging calls of the newly fledged young of the common guillemot. ^{[4] [5] [6]} The American name "murre", also known from England (particularly Cornwall) from the 17th century, is by contrast, onomatopoeic of the growling call of adult common guillemots. ^[4] In Newfoundland and Labrador the local name "turr" is also used. ^[7]

Extant species

The genus contains two species: ^[8]

Genus Uria – Brisson, 1760 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Common murre or common guillemot	Uria aalge (Linnaeus, 1758) Five subspecies U. a. aalge U. a. albionis U. a. hyperborea U. a. inornata U. a. californica'	Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, breeding in the Atlantic from northwestern Spain (and formerly Portugal) north to Svalbard, and Nova Scotia north to Greenland, and in the Pacific, from California north to Alaska, and northernmost Japan north to eastern Siberia; additionally wintering a little further south.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot	Uria lomvia (Linnaeus, 1758) Four subspecies U. l. lomvia – (Linnaeus, 1758) U. l. eleonorae – (Portenko, 1937) U. l. heckeri – (Portenko, 1944) U. l. arra – (Pallas, 1811)	Northern Hemisphere	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

Fossils

Uria brodkorbi , a fossil murre from the Monterey Formation of southern California

Some prehistoric Uria species are also known:

• Uria bordkorbi Howard, 1981 (Monterey or Sisquoc, Late Miocene of Lompoc, USA)
• Uria affinis (Marsh, 1872) (Late Pleistocene of E USA) - possibly a subspecies of U. lomvia
• Uria paleohesperis Howard, 1982 (Late Miocene of W USA)
• Uria onoi Watanabe, Matsuoka & Hasegawa, 2016 (Middle-Late Pleistocene of Japan)

U. brodkorbi is notable insofar as it is the only known occurrence of the Alcini tribe in the temperate to subtropical Pacific, except for the very fringe of the range of U. aalge. It suggests that the Uria species, which are the sister taxon to all the other Alcini, and like them are usually believed to have evolved in the Atlantic, may have evolved in the Caribbean or possibly close to the Isthmus of Panama. The modern Pacific distribution would then be part of a later arctic expansion, whereas most other auk lineages form clades with a continuous range in the Pacific, from arctic to subtropical waters.

Description

These birds breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs, laying single elongated conical eggs directly on cliff ledges. They move south in winter to keep in ice-free waters.

They dive for food from the surface, swimming underwater and being among the deepest divers of all birds, using their stubby wings to routinely dive to more than 180 metres, and feeding on fish and crustaceans, also some molluscs. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Adult birds are black or brown on the head, neck, back and wings with white underparts. The bill is long and pointed. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face becomes white in winter.

The flight is strong and direct, and these species have fast wing beats due to the short wings.

Uria guillemots produce a variety of harsh cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but are mostly silent at sea except when still with dependent young for a month or two after leaving the breeding colonies; they are then still very vocal, with young having a high-pitched whistle (see also #Etymology, above). ^{[12] [13]} The calls are very variable between different individuals, which is important in allowing individual recognition between the young and their parents at sea after leaving the nest, with the adult and the chick recognising each others' individual calls. ^[12]

References

1. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 52, Vol. 6, p. 70.
2. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 352.
3. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 396. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
4. Lockwood, W. B. (1984). Oxford Book of British Bird Names. Oxford University Press.
5. External audio: growling "murre" calls of adult, and "willem" calls of young, common guillemots, at xeno-canto
6. "Guillemot, n., etymology of" The Oxford English Dictionary . 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed Dec 17, 2007
7. Smith, Craig S. (2016-12-04). "Hunting 'Turr' in Newfoundland's Frigid Waters". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
8. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2025). "Noddies, gulls, terns, auks". World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
9. Piatt, John F.; Nettleship, David N. (1985). "Diving Depths of Four Alcids". The Auk. 102: 293–297. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
10. "What can you tell me about diving sea birds?". The Icelandic Web of Science (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2025-11-28.
11. National Geographic Society. "Thick-billed Murres, Thick-billed Murre Pictures, Thick-billed Murre Facts - National Geographic". Archived from the original on January 21, 2010.
12. Cramp, Stanley (1985). Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa Volume IV: Terns to Woodpeckers. Oxford London New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 170–195. ISBN   0-19-857507-6.
13. Svensson, Lars; Mullarney, Killian; Zetterstroem, Dan (2023-03-16). Collins Bird Guide. William Collins. p. 218. ISBN   978-0-00-854746-2.