Fulmar Birds on Copeland Island

For those who have been following my posts this week about my weekend on the Bird Observatory Copeland Island.I have already showed you a few Fulmar nesting however today I am giving more information about this wonderful bird and of course more photographs!

Fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The consists of two extant species and two that are extinct.

As members of Procellaridae and then the order Procellariiformes, they share certain traits. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns. The bills of Procellariiformes are unique in being split into between 7 and 9 horny plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators, and is also an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights.  It will mat the plumage of avian predators, which can lead to their death.

Fulmars have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a strong saline solution from their nose.

Two prehistoric species have been described from fossil bones found on the Pacific coast of California: Fulmarus miocaenus from the Middle and Fulmarus hammeri from the Late Miocene.

I found 2 different sites on the island that the Fulmars were nesting and this is the distance I was seeing them from. At one site there were 8 birds seen and the this site I saw 11 birds and probably the other bird was out fishing.

The genus name Fulmarus is derived from the Old Norse word fúll meaning foul, and már meaning gull, in reference to their stomach oil.

This shot was taken from one of the jetty’s. 

Can you see the birds? (white specks on the high cliff)

There are two Fulmars that are closely related seabirds occupying the same niche in different oceans. The Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) or just Fulmar lives in the north Atlantic and north Pacific, whereas the Southern Fulmar, (Fulmarus glacialoides) is, as its name implies, a bird of the southern oceans. 

These birds look superficially like gulls, but are unrelated, and are in fact petrels. The northern species is grey and white with a yellow bill, (17–20 in) in length with a (40–44 in) wingspan. The southern form is a paler bird with dark wing tips,(18–20 in) long, with a (45–47 in) wingspan.

Both recent species breed on cliffs, laying a single white egg.  Unlike many small to medium birds in the Procellariiformes, they are neither nocturnal breeders, nor do they use burrows; their eggs are laid on the bare rock or in shallow depressions lined with plant material.

Fulmars are highly pelagic outside the breeding season, like most tubenoses, feeding on fish, oil or offal. Recent studies in the North Sea have shown them to be especially susceptible to plastic discards. 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. The population increase has been especially notable in the British Isles.

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. They are long-lived, with a lifespan of 40 years not uncommon.

This is one in flight and as you can see the wings are stiffer and straighter than our other Gulls.

A photograph by George Washington Wilson taken about 1886 shows a "view of the men and women of St Kilda on the beach dividing up the catch of Fulmar".  

A photograph by George Washington Wilson taken about 1886 shows a "view of the men and women of St Kilda on the beach dividing up the catch of Fulmar".  

James Fisher, author of The Fulmar (1952) calculated that every person on St Kilda consumed over 100 Fulmars each year; the meat was their staple food, and they caught around 12,000 birds annually. However, when the human population left St Kilda in 1930, the population did not suddenly grow.

This is the view I had of  the other site for the 8 Fulmars.

In Britain, Northern Fulmars historically bred on St. Kilda (where their harvesting for oil, feathers and meat was central to the islands' economy). They spread into northern Scotland in the 19th century, and to the rest of the United Kingdom by 1930. For example, the Fowlsheugh Reserve in Scotland was one of the first areas to be developed for new permanent Fulmar breeding areas.  

The expansion has continued further South; the Fulmar can now often be seen in the English Channel and in France along the Northern and Western coasts, with breeding pairs or small colonies in Nord, Picardy, Normandy and along the Atlantic coast in Brittany.

I hope you enjoyed hearing bot more about this interesting bird.

I have a short video for you which can be access at

http://youtu.be/KvVGLBumvUs

If there is a black space below, click it and the video will appear.

I am linking this post with Saturdays Critters.

Thanks you for visiting.

Many thanks for all your comments on any of my posts.