Population status of the Common Murre Uria aalge in British Columbia

The Common Murre Uria aalge is one of the most abundant breeding seabirds in the northern hemisphere (Ainley et al. 2002). The species has a rather disjointed breeding distribution along the Pacific coast of North America: hundreds of thousands of individuals breed on colonies in Oregon and northern and central California, and more than a million breed on colonies from the Gulf of Alaska to the north and west, but fewer than 40 000 individuals breed on colonies from Washington State north to southeast Alaska (Ainley et al. 2002). That latter stretch includes the entire coast of British Columbia, Canada, which supports fewer than 10 000 breeding birds (Campbell et al. 1990).

HIPFNER, J. M., Marine Ornithology 33: 67-69