Guillemot

The common guillemot can live almost 43 years. Scientists have encountered individuals reaching this age, and it is a record for birds of this species.
Common guillemot chicks fall from a height of up to 40 m onto a rocky beach, but do not break due to a layer of fat formed in previous weeks. Fat layers protect them when they are not yet able to fly.
The common guillemot dives to a depth of up to 180 meters. In addition to a colonial lifestyle, it uses its wings for diving.
The common guillemot emits loud cries resembling a roar. The cries sound approximately like "kwa-kwa-kwa," transitioning into something similar to a roar.
The common guillemot’s eggs have a pointed shape. The eggs do not fall out of the nests because the birds build them on steep cliffs.
Common guillemot chicks swim to wintering grounds together with their fathers. The route to these places may exceed 1000 km.

Age

Common guillemots typically live for ten to twenty years, although the maximum recorded lifespan is forty-two years and ten months, with a theoretical lifespan ranging from thirty years and eleven months to forty-four years and two months; the species reaches sexual maturity between three years and nine months and six years and three months of age. The embryo develops inside an egg, which has a pear shape. The young are located on a rocky ledge, where parents feed them fish until they are able to jump into the water, with this stage lasting from two weeks and one day to three weeks and four days. An adult bird is capable of reproduction and spends much of its time in the open ocean, and the duration of the adult stage ranges from two to thirty years.

Phenotype

The slender-billed puffin is a species with a distinctive appearance. A chick's thick down protects it from the cold. An adult male has a slender straight black beak, convenient for catching fish, as well as short legs with membranes between the toes. The plumage of the adult differs: the upper part of the body and head are dark, the lower part is white, and in winter the coloration on the head becomes lighter. Short, strong wings function like flippers underwater.

Physiology

The slender-billed weaver is a species characterized by significant variations in size: body height can reach from 12 cm to 3.6 m, body length – from 38 to 46 cm, and mass – from 0.59 to 0.99 kg. The wingspan of an adult individual is 70.7 cm. At the "Embryo" stage, the chick's body mass fluctuates from 80 to 110 g, and body length – from 7 to 9 cm. In the "Nestling" phase, body mass varies from 60 g to 0.85 kg, with a body length from 15 to 35 cm. Adult individuals have a body mass from 0.85 to 1.45 kg and a body length from 38 to 46 cm.

Habitat

Common guillemots inhabit coastal waters and a marine environment, residing at altitudes up to 200 meters above sea level. The species occupies river estuaries where rivers meet the sea with slightly salty water and abundant fish and birds, shallow coastal areas with rising and falling tides where crabs live, and the open ocean with deep water and large whales and sharks. The climate is characterized by cold seas where ice may form in winter and it is not warm in summer, constant moisture with near-constant rainfall, temperate seas where the water is cool or warm with cold winters and comfortable summers for swimming, and summers that are warm to hot, sometimes with rain.

Shelter

Location—on narrow ledges of coastal cliffs. Type of shelter—no permanent shelter. The species does not have a permanent or long-term shelter.

Geography

Common guillemots are found within the Nearctic realm, the Palearctic realm, and the marine realm; the species occupies ecosystems including the North Sea and the Celtic-Biscay Shelf.

Feeding

The slender-billed kingfisher is an active predator feeding on small fish, as well as rodents and other fish species such as sand rats, vendace, herring, carp-like fish, catfish-like fish, Clupeoidei, Pleuronectoidei, Cyprinoidea, Characiformes, Esociformes, eel, and sculpin-like fish, Serranoperoidea. The bird dives to a depth of up to 50 meters, swimming underwater and catching prey with its beak. The daily food requirement of the slender-billed kingfisher ranges from 300 g to 0.6 kg. Active hunting is used as a feeding strategy. Eagles hunt this species.

Reproduction

The development of the embryo takes one month; a clutch contains one egg which the female lays directly on a stone. Both parents take turns incubating the egg and feeding the chick, and when the young bird grows, it jumps from the cliff into the sea. The species reproduces once per year; birds gather in large colonies on cliffs in spring. Maturity is reached between 4 years and 6 years. The size of the brood is one. The interval between breeding seasons is one year.