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Uria
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Brunnich’s Guillemot

Brunnich’s Guillemot
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Alcidae
Genus:Uria
Brisson, 1760
species


U. aalge
U. lomvia


Uria is a genus of seabirds in the auk family. These are medium-sized guillemots with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding season. They breed on the coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

There are two species: Uria auks are relatives of the Razorbill, Little Auk and the extinct Great Auk and together make up the tribe Alcini. Despite the similar common names, they are not so closely related to the Cepphus guillemots which form the tribe Cepphini.

These birds breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs, their single egg being laid directly on a cliff ledge. They move south in winter to keep in ice-free waters.

They dive for food from the surface, swimming underwater. They mainly eat fish and crustaceans, also some molluscs, insects and plant material.

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 produces a variety of harsh cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but are silent at sea.

Some prehistoric Uria species are also known:
  • Uria bordkorbi (Monterey or Sisquoc Late Miocene of Lompoc, USA)
  • Uria affinis (Late Pleistocene of E USA) - possibly a subspecies of U. lomvia
  • Uria paleohesperis
U. brodkorbi is interesting 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.

References

  • Harrison, Peter (1988): Seabirds (2nd ed.). Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7470-1410-8
  • del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors) (1996): Handbook of Birds of the World Volume 3 (Hoatzin to Auks). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-20-2
conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, nor Near Threatened, nor (prior to 2001) Conservation Dependent.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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AUK is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • Audax UK, a cycling organisation
  • American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology
  • alt.usenet.

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Mathurin Jacques Brisson (April 30, 1723 – June 23, 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.

Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including
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Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar
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AUK is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • Audax UK, a cycling organisation
  • American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology
  • alt.usenet.

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The Guillemots are seabirds in the auk family. They comprise two genera: Uria and Cepphus. The former are relatives of the Razorbill, Dovekie and the extinct Great Auk and together make up the tribe Alcini, while the latter form a tribe of their own, the Cepphini.
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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U. aalge

Binomial name
Uria aalge
(Pontoppidan, 1763)

The Common Guillemot, known as the Common Murre in North America, Uria aalge, is a large alcid.
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U. lomvia

Binomial name
Uria lomvia
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Brünnich's Guillemot, or Thick-billed Murre, Uria lomvia, is a bird in the auk family.
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Alca
Linnaeus, 1758

Species: A. torda

Binomial name
Alca torda
Linnaeus, 1758

The Razorbill, Alca torda
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Alle
Link, 1806

Species: A. alle

Binomial name
Alle alle
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Little Auk, or Dovekie (Alle alle
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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Pinguinus
Bonnaterre, 1791

Species: P. impennis

Binomial name
Pinguinus impennis
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Great Auk (
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In biology, a tribe—or infrafamily—is a rank between subfamily and genus, or between subfamily and subtribe, if that rank is used.


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Cepphus
Pallas, 1769

species

C. grylle
C. columba
C. carbo
Cepphus is a genus of seabirds in the auk family.
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In most birds and reptiles, an egg (Latin ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo.
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Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
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crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species [1], and are usually treated as a subphylum [2].
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Mollusca
Linnaeus, 1758

Classes

Caudofoveata
Aplacophora
Polyplacophora
Monoplacophora
Bivalvia
Scaphopoda
Gastropoda
Cephalopoda
† Rostroconchia
† Helcionelloida
† ?Bellerophontida
The molluscs
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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota
* Archaeognatha (bristletails)
* Thysanura (silverfish)
Subclass Pterygota
* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Cladistics is a philosophy of classification that arranges organisms only by their order of branching in an evolutionary tree and not by their morphological similarity, in the words of Luria et al. (1981).
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