Uria is a genus of
seabirdSeabirds 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 adaptations...
s in the
aukAuks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits...
family known commonly as
guillemotGuillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the order Charadriiformes, and the auk family, comprising two genera: Uria and Cepphus. This word of French origin apparently derives from a form of the name William, cf...
s, in North America, as
murres, and in
Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
as
turr. These are medium-sized birds with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding season. They breed on the coasts of the northern
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
s
There are two species:
- Common Guillemot
The Common Murre or Common Guillemot is a large auk. It is also known as the Thin-billed Murre in North America. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North-Atlantic and North Pacific...
or Common Murre, Uria aalge
- Brunnich's Guillemot
The Thick-billed Murre or Brünnich's Guillemot is a bird in the auk family . This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich...
or Thick-billed Murre, Uria lomvia
Uria auks are relatives of the
RazorbillThe Razorbill, Alca torda, is a large auk, 38-43 cm in length, with a 60-69 cm wingspan. It is the only living member of the genus Alca....
,
Little AukThe Little Auk, or Dovekie , is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen, and A. a...
and the extinct
Great AukThe Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, is a bird that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only species in the genus Pinguinus - a group of birds that included several flightless giant auks from the Atlantic Ocean region - to survive until modern times...
and together make up the
tribeIn biology, a tribe — or infrafamily — is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.-See also:* Rank * Rank *International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...
Alcini.
Uria is a genus of
seabirdSeabirds 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 adaptations...
s in the
aukAuks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits...
family known commonly as
guillemotGuillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the order Charadriiformes, and the auk family, comprising two genera: Uria and Cepphus. This word of French origin apparently derives from a form of the name William, cf...
s, in North America, as
murres, and in
Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
as
turr. These are medium-sized birds with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding season. They breed on the coasts of the northern
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
s
There are two species:
- Common Guillemot
The Common Murre or Common Guillemot is a large auk. It is also known as the Thin-billed Murre in North America. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North-Atlantic and North Pacific...
or Common Murre, Uria aalge
- Brunnich's Guillemot
The Thick-billed Murre or Brünnich's Guillemot is a bird in the auk family . This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich...
or Thick-billed Murre, Uria lomvia
Uria auks are relatives of the
RazorbillThe Razorbill, Alca torda, is a large auk, 38-43 cm in length, with a 60-69 cm wingspan. It is the only living member of the genus Alca....
,
Little AukThe Little Auk, or Dovekie , is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen, and A. a...
and the extinct
Great AukThe Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, is a bird that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only species in the genus Pinguinus - a group of birds that included several flightless giant auks from the Atlantic Ocean region - to survive until modern times...
and together make up the
tribeIn biology, a tribe — or infrafamily — is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.-See also:* Rank * Rank *International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...
Alcini. Despite the similar common names, they are not so closely related to the
CepphusCepphus is a genus of seabirds in the auk family also referred to as true guillemots or, in North America, simply as guillemots. These are medium-sized birds with mainly black plumage in the breeding season, thin dark bills and red legs and feet. Two species have white wing patches, the third has...
guillemots which form the tribe Cepphini.
These birds breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs, laying single elongated conical
eggIn most birds and reptiles, an egg 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. When the embryo is adequately developed it breaks out of the egg in the...
s directly on cliff ledges. They
moveBird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. These however are usually irregular or in only one direction and are termed variously as nomadism, invasions,...
south in winter to keep in ice-free waters.
They dive for food from the surface, swimming underwater. They mainly eat
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
and crustaceans, also some molluscs,
insectInsects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
s 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
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
or possibly close to the
Isthmus of PanamaThe Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It was formed some 3 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch. It contains the country of Panama and...
. The modern Pacific distribution would then be part of a later
arcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
expansion, whereas most other auk lineages form
cladeA clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.[The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article...]
s with a continuous range in the Pacific, from arctic to subtropical waters.