Uria aalge Skull replica or Common Murre measures 4.4 inches. Common Murre Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw).
The Common Murre or Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.
Uria aalge or Common Murres are fast in direct flight but are not very agile. They can maneuver better underwater, where they typically dive to depths of 100–195 ft. Depths of up to 590 ft. have been recorded.
They are a pursuit-diver that forages for food by swimming underwater using its wings for propulsion.
The breeding habitat is islands, rocky shores, cliffs and sea stacks. The population is large, perhaps 7.3 million breeding pairs or 18 million individuals.
It had been stable, but in 2016 a massive die-off of the birds in the northeast Pacific was reported. The birds seem emaciated and starving; no etiology has been found.
In general, potential threats include excessive hunting (legal in Newfoundland), pollution and oil spills.
Cape Meares, Oregon is home to one of the most populous colonies of nesting common murres on the North American continent.
Uria aalge or Common Murres breed in colonies at high densities. Nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbors.
They do not make a nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.
Eggs hatch after about 30 days incubation. The chick is born downy and can regulate its body temperature after 10 days.
Some 20 days after hatching the chick leaves its nesting ledge and heads for the sea, unable to fly, but gliding for some distance with fluttering wings, accompanied by its male parent.
Common Murre or Uria aalge male Guillemots spend more time diving, and dive more deeply than females during this time.
Chicks are capable of diving as soon as they hit the water. The female stays at the nest site for some 14 days after the chick has left.
Both male and female Common Murres moult after breeding and become flightless for 1 to 2 months. Some populations have short migration distances, instead remaining close to the breeding site year-round.
Such populations return to the nest site from autumn onwards. Adult Uria aalge birds balance their energetic budgets during the winter by reducing the time that they spend flying and are able to forage nocturnally.
