Return of Bird of the Week: Thick-billed Murre

There are more auklet species; WC just doesn’t have photos of them, so they won’t appear in RoBotW. Instead, we’ll move on to another genus of Alcids, the Murres.

The largest Alcid that has survived contact with humanity is this week’s Bird of the Week, the Thick-billed Murre.¹

The Thick-billed Murre is about 17 inches (43 cm) tall, and weighs just over 2.2 pounds (1.1 kg). That makes them slightly larger than their cogener, the Common Murre. The Atlantic population tends to be slightly smaller than the Pacific population.

In summer, this species is found in continental shelf waters of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, shifting southward in winter. It nests on precipitous…