Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010: Indicator #04, Seabirds - Murres, Guillemots

The two species of murres (known as guillemots in Europe), the thick-billed murre, Uria lomvia, and common murre, Uria aalge, both have circumpolar distributions, breeding in Arctic, sub-Arctic, and temperate seas from California and northern Spain to northern Greenland, high Arctic Canada, Svalbard, and Novaya Zemlya. The thick-billed murre occurs mostly in Arctic waters, while the common murre, although overlapping extensively with the thick-billed murre, is more characteristic of sub-Arctic and temperate waters. They are among the most abundant seabirds in the Northern Hemisphere with both species exceeding 10 million adults