fulmar

The genus Fulmarus was introduced in 1826 by the English naturalist James Stephens.{{cite book|last=Stephens|first=James Francis|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36850261|title=General Zoology, or Systematic Natural History|publisher=Kearsley et al.|year=1826|editor-last=Shaw|editor-first=George|editor-link=George Shaw (biologist)|volume=13, Part 1|location=London|page=236|author-link=James Francis Stephens}} The name comes from the Old Norse Fúlmár meaning "foul-mew" or "foul-gull" because of the birds' habit of ejecting a foul-smelling oil.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=166 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n166/mode/1up }} The type species was designated by George Gray in 1855 as the northern fulmar.{{ cite book | last=Gray | first=George Robert | author-link=George Robert Gray | year=1855 | title=Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum | location=London | publisher=British Museum | page=129 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/17136768 }}{{cite book|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108700|title=Check-List of Birds of the World|publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology|year=1979|editor1-last=Mayr|editor1-first=Ernst|editor1-link=Ernst Mayr|edition=2nd|volume=1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=60–61|editor2-last=Cottrell|editor2-first=G. William}}

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 seven and nine horny plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This can be sprayed out of their mouths as a defence against predators and as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights.Double, M. C. (2003) 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.Ehrlich, Paul R. (1988)

The genus contains the following two species.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2021 | title=Petrels, albatrosses | work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/petrels/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=28 December 2021 }}

{{Species table |genus= Fulmarus |authority-name=Stephens |authority-year=1826 |species-count=two|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}

{{Species table/row

|name=Northern fulmar |binomial=Fulmarus glacialis

|image=File:Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) at Liefdefjord, Svalbard (crop).jpg|image-size=180px |image-caption=F. g. glacialis, Svalbard

|authority-name=Smith |authority-year=1840 |authority-not-original=yes

|range= Arctic, North Atlantic, and North Pacific oceans.

|range-image=File:FULMAR.gif

|range-image-size=180px

|size=

|habitat=

|hunting=

|iucn-status= LC

|population=

|direction=

|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Three subspecies |bullets=on

| F. g. glacialis (Linnaeus, 1761)

| F. g. auduboni Bonaparte, 1857

| F. g. rodgersii Cassin, 1862

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

|name=Southern fulmar|binomial=Fulmarus glacialoides

|image=File:Fulmar antarctique - Fulmarus glacialoides.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=

|authority-name=Linnaeus |authority-year=1761 |authority-not-original=yes

|range= Seas and islands around Antarctica, including the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, and Peter I Island

|range-image=File:Fulmarus glacialoides map.svg

|range-image-size=180px

|size=

|habitat=

|hunting=

|iucn-status= LC

|population=

|direction=

|subspecies=Monotypic

}}

{{Species table/end}}

Two prehistoric species have been described from fossil bones found on the Pacific coast of California: Fulmarus miocaenus (Temblor Formation) and Fulmarus hammeri from the Miocene.{{cite journal |last=Howard |first=Hildegard |url=http://biostor.org/reference/103979.text |title=Additional Avian Records from the Miocene of Kern County, California with the Description of a New Species of Fulmar |journal=Bull. Southern California Acad. Sci. |year=1984 |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=84–89 |access-date=2014-06-13 |archive-date=2014-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715173941/http://biostor.org/reference/103979.text |url-status=dead }}

The two fulmars 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 not closely related, but are petrels. The northern species is grey or grey-and-white with a greyish bill, {{convert|43|to(-)|52|cm|in|abbr=on}} in length with a {{convert|102|to(-)|112|cm|in|abbr=on}} wingspan.Maynard, B. J. (2003) The southern species is a paler bird with dark wing tips and a pink bill, {{convert|45|to(-)|50|cm|in|abbr=on}} long, with a {{convert|115|to(-)|120|cm|in|abbr=on}} wingspan.

File:Fulmar Yesnaby 2010.jpg

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.

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. 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.Yeatman, L (1976)

File:Bird's Eggs from Sea-Cliffs tail-piece in Bewick British Birds 1804.jpg in Thomas Bewick's A History of British Birds, Volume 2: Water Birds, 1804]]

Fulmars are highly pelagic outside the breeding season, like most tubenoses, feeding on fish, small squid, shrimp, crustaceans, marine worms, and marine carrion.{{cite web | url=http://birds.audubon.org/birds/northern-fulmar | title=Northern Fulmar | publisher=Audubon | access-date=13 June 2014}} The range of these species increased greatly in the 20th 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.Bull, J. & Farrand Jr., J. (1993)

Like other petrels, their walking ability on land is limited, but they are strong fliers, with a stiff wing action quite unlike that of gulls. They look bull-necked compared to gulls, and have short stubby bills. They are long-lived, the longest recorded lifespan for F. glacialis being 45 years, 9 months and 12 days.{{cite web | last=Trust | first=British | title=45-year-old seabird highlights impact of avian influenza | website=BTO - British Trust for Ornithology | date=2022-09-26 | url=https://www.bto.org/about-bto/press-releases/45-year-old-seabird-highlights-impact-avian-influenza | access-date=2025-03-15}}

File:Dividing the catch of fulmar, St Kilda - George Washington Wilson.jpg, August 1884]]

Fulmars were hunted for food for centuries before being given protected status in the 20th century. The engraver Thomas Bewick wrote in 1804 that "Pennant, speaking of those [birds] which breed on, or inhabit, the Isle of St Kilda, says—'No bird is of so much use to the islanders as this: the Fulmar supplies them with oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their wounds, and a medicine for their distempers.{{'"}}{{cite book |last=Bewick |first=Thomas |title=A History of British Birds, volume II, Water Birds |author-link=Thomas Bewick |year=1847 |edition=revised |page=226}} 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".{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=George Washington |url= https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/view/UniversalViewer/44ABE_INST/12152482820005941#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=0%2C-596%2C4490%2C4383 |title= Dividing the Catch of Fulmar St Kilda |publisher= Aberdeen Library Special Collections and Museums |work= GB 0231 MS 3792/C7187 6188 |author-link=George Washington Wilson |date=1886 |access-date=9 March 2013 }} 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. Fulmar eggs were collected until the late 1920s in the St Kilda islands by their men scaling the cliffs. The eggs were buried in St Kilda peat ash to be eaten through the cold, northern winters. The eggs were considered to taste like duck eggs in taste and nourishment.{{cite news| title= Fulmar article| work=The Daily Mail| date= April 18, 1930| first= Susan Rachel |last= Ferguson | page= }} However, when the human population left St Kilda in 1930, the fulmar population did not suddenly increase.{{ cite book | last1=Cocker | first1=Mark | last2=Mabey | first2=Richard | year=2005 | title=Birds Britannica | location=London | publisher=Chatto and Windus | pages=12–18 | isbn=978-0-7011-6907-7 }}

Both the northern fulmar and the southern fulmar are listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Fulmarus glacialis |volume=2018 |page=e.T22697866A132609419 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22697866A132609419.en |access-date=19 November 2021}}{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Fulmarus glacialoides |volume=2018 |page=e.T22697870A132609920 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22697870A132609920.en |access-date=12 November 2021}} {{-}}

File:Northern Fulmar, Finstown, Orkney.JPG|Northern fulmar F. g. auduboni on the nest in Orkney, Scotland

File:Southern Fulmar closeup.jpg|Southern fulmar in Drake's Passage

File:Fulmarus glacialis 1 8.jpg|Northern fulmar, breeding on Bear Island (Norway)

File:Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) flying, side-on.jpg|Northern fulmar in flight over Faxaflói (Iceland)

File:Fulmarus glacialis 1 2.jpg|Northern fulmar, breeding on Bear Island

File:Eissturmvogel02.jpg|Northern fulmar, at the Norwegian bird island Runde

File:Northern Fulmar from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland.jpg|Composite image of northern fulmars in different plumages

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bull |first1=John |last2=Farrand Jr. |first2=John |editor1-first=Jane |editor1-last=Opper |title=The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/audubonsocietyfi0000bull/page/314 |edition=First |series=The Audubon Society Field Guide Series |volume=Birds (Eastern Region) |date=June 1993 |orig-year=1977 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York, NY |isbn=0-394-41405-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/audubonsocietyfi0000bull/page/314 314] |chapter=Open Ocean }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Double | first = M. C. |editor1-first = Michael | editor1-last = Hutchins | editor2-first = Jerome A. | editor2-last = Jackson | editor3-first = Walter J. | editor3-last = Bock | editor4-first = Donna | editor4-last = Olendorf | others = Joseph E. Trumpey, Chief Scientific Illustrator | encyclopedia = Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia | title = Procellariiformes (Tubenosed Seabirds) | edition = 2nd | year = 2003 | publisher = Gale Group | volume = 8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins | location = Farmington Hills, MI | isbn = 0-7876-5784-0 | pages = 107–111}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Paul R. |last2=Dobkin |first2=David S. |last3=Wheye |first3=Darryl |title=The Birders Handbook |edition=First |year=1988 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York, NY |isbn=0-671-65989-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/birdershandbookf00ehrl_0/page/14 14] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/birdershandbookf00ehrl_0}}
• {{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=P. |title=Seabirds: an identification guide |year=1983 |publisher=Croom Helm |location=Beckenham, U.K. |isbn=0-7470-1410-8}}
• {{cite book |last1=Yeatman |first1=L. |title=Atlas des oiseaux nicheurs de France |year=1976 |publisher=Société Ornithologique de France |location=Paris |page=8}} See also more recent publication(s) with similar title.

• {{ cite book | last=Fisher | first=James | author-link=James Fisher (naturalist) | year=1952 | title=The Fulmar | location=London | publisher=Collins }}

{{Commons|Fulmarus glacialis}}

{{Commons|Fulmarus glacialoides}}

• {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Fulmar |volume=11 |short=x}}
• [http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob220.htm Northern fulmar profile] as part of BTO BirdFacts
• {{EBirdSpecies|norful|Northern Fulmar}}
• {{EBirdSpecies|souful1|Southern Fulmar}}

{{Austrodyptornithes|P.|state=collapsed}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q311224}}

Category:Fulmarus

Category:Seabirds

Category:Taxa named by James Francis Stephens