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Northern Fulmar

Status Common visitant. It is recorded throughout the year in offshore waters, rarely close to shore. In our area it is most common off southern Nova Scotia and at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy. No fewer than 1,100 birds were counted by Peter Vickery on a crossing of MV Bluenose on 4 July 1978. There was also a large movement between Shelburne County and Baccaro Bank on 20 May 1980 (R.G.B. Brown). By contrast, when Wickerson Lent saw a flock of 25 - 30 birds off Brier Island on 20 July 1959, he thought it unusual to see so many at one time. Observers here and in New England have the impression that Northern Fulmars have become more common since 1970. However, it is difficult to judge whether this is a genuine extension of the bird's range or a result of the greater number of observers and better opportunities for watching birds offshore.

Description Length: 48 - 51 cm. All plumages: Usually white everywhere except on back, rump and upper side of wings and tail, which are grayish brown; upper wings with pale patch at base of primaries; large, dark eye; bill stout, yellow and hooked. Some arctic birds are grayish or dark brown all over, but this form is rare off Nova Scotia.

Range Breeds from Franz Josef Land south to Brittany in the eastern Atlantic and in Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic. There are four small colonies in eastern Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador. Large numbers occur in winter on the Grand Banks and, to a lesser extent, on the Scotian Shelf. A different subspecies breeds in the North Pacific.

Remarks The Northern Fulmar is similar to a medium-sized gull in appearance, but its heavier head and neck, straight wings and gliding flight readily distinguish it in the field. Until recently the fulmar was virtually confined to the Arctic and was rare in temperate waters on either side of the Atlantic. However, a massive expansion in range began in Iceland in the eighteenth century, reaching northern Scotland by the 1880s, and Brittany and Norway by the late 1950s. The founding of small colonies in extreme southern Greenland in 1945, and in Newfoundland and Labrador in the late 1960s, probably represents continued western expansion. Fulmars feed extensively on the offal from fishing boats, and it has been suggested that the expansion of the fulmar's range is a result of food provided by an expanding fishing industry. However, more complex oceanographic factors probably played a part also.

Banding returns show that the fulmars that occur off Atlantic Canada are mainly immature birds from colonies in Greenland, Iceland and Britain. Fulmars breeding in the temperate North Atlantic tend to have longer bills than those from Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. Some taxonomists recognise these two subspecies as Fulmarus glacialis glacialis and Fulmarus glacialis minor, respectively. Birds of both forms have been collected off Nova Scotia; however, the validity of these subspecies is not generally accepted.