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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Razorbill

Razorbill

Alca torda

Gaelic: Coltraiche, Làmhaidh

 

Photography © Kim Park
Shiant Islands - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
24th June, 2006

 

Our Razorbill photographs:

Razorbill June	Razorbill July	Razorbill with puffins	Razorbill Raft

 

• Razorbill
• Alca torda
• Gaelic: Coltraiche, Làmhaidh
• UK: Migrant/Resident Breeder, Winter Visitor. 164,000 birds (Summer) BTO . See from breeding cliffs & sea-watching points
• WI: Abundant migrant breeder (10,000+ breeding pairs)
• Breeding: Large colonies. Laying a single large egg on bare rock or ground. Islands, rocky shores & cliffs on North Atlantic coasts including Scotland. Also East North America. N &W Europe. NW Russia.
• Winters: Eurasian birds winter in N Atlantic nr breeding grounds. Some head south to western Mediterranean.
• Habitat: Coastal cliffs, otherwise at sea (pelagic) nr breeding grounds
• Diet: Forages for food by swimming underwater. Fish, especially sandeels, sprats and herrings, some invertebrates
• Medium-sized seabird (38-43cm length). Black above, white below. (In winter black face becomes white). Thick black, bill with blunt end. Pointed tail. Birds only come to shore to breed
• Typical lifespan 13yrs. Max recorded age 14yrs 11mths
• Listen to a Razorbill (RSPB site)
• Similar birds Guillemot, Puffin

 

Both partners of a razorbill pair take turns about in foraging, and caring for the egg or young. Whilst the egg is incubating the non-sitting parent will forage to feed up to 35 miles to to sea, but when the egg hatches they forage much closer - up to 7 miles away.

Razorbills nest in large colonies. They lay a single large egg, the eggs all have different patterns to each other - it is thought that this is to help the parents identify their own egg.

 

The collective name for razorbills and other auks is a raft, colony, flock of auks.

 

Razorbill records in the Western Isles

Abundant migrant breeder (10,000+ breeding pairs)
Source: Outer Hebrides Bird Report (2001)

On the chart below the darker the shade of blue the more abundant the Razorbill is during a month or the more likely you are to see it.

J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D

(Source: Outer Hebrides Birds Checklist)

 

 

Visit Kim's web site of her photography of the Western Isles
www.bigbigskies.co.uk

Other local bird photographs

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