Two Northern Fulmars: one in light phase and one in dark.

Northern fulmars are roughly the same size as glaucous-winged gulls, but have a distinctively thick-necked appearance. They range in color from dark blue-grey to a ghostly white, and have a yellowish bill. Fulmars fly with stiff wings and glide in bounding swoops above the wave-tops, making them easy to spot from far away.

Northern fulmars are less attached to the mainland than most of the other seabird species we study. They forage far out to sea, and breed in huge colonies on remote islands. The northern fulmar is one of a very few members of the "tube-nosed" seabird family that breeds in Alaska- all other similar species breed in the Southern Hemisphere. Northern fulmars breed in great numbers on the highest cliff-faces, sometimes with other cliff-nesting species. To defend their nest, fulmars launch an evil-smelling stream of stomach oils from their throats- forcing inquisitve fulmar bioloigsts to wear raingear even on sunny days! They lay only one egg, and it takes most of the summer to fledge their chick. Fulmars can live a very long time- up to 50 years or longer. They forage up to hundreds of miles from the colony, eating a variety of surface species including squid, jellyfish, crustaceans, and small fish. Fulmars are common scavengers of discarded fish thrown overboard by commercial fishing boats- sometimes forming vast chattering groups of thousands of birds.