#0698 · 🐦 birds
Common Murre
🇳🇱 Zeekoet ·Uria aalge
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The common murre or common guillemot ( Uria aalge ) is a large auk. It is also known as the thin-billed murre in North America. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 161 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 28,341 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Weighs only about 108 g.
- Scientifically named by Erik Pontoppidan in 1763 (263 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Common Murre
- Nederlands
- Zeekoet
- scientific name
- Uria aalge
- class
- Aves
- order
- Charadriiformes
- family
- Alcidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 161
- sightings in Europe
- 7,991
- sightings worldwide
- 28,341
- GBIF records in NL
- 107,968
- weight
- 108 g
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1763 by Erik Pontoppidan
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Alcidae
#0729 📷 9Razorbill
🇳🇱 Alk
Alca torda
LC 👀 89 in NL
#0792 📷 8Black Guillemot
🇳🇱 Zwarte Zeekoet
Cepphus grylle
LC 👀 27 in NL
#0849 📷 10Dovekie
🇳🇱 Kleine Alk
Alle alle
LC 👀 11 in NL
#0897 📷 8Atlantic Puffin
🇳🇱 Papegaaiduiker
Fratercula arctica
VU 👀 5 in NL
#0930 📷 10Thick-billed Murre
🇳🇱 Kortbekzeekoet
Uria lomvia
LC 👀 4 in NL
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 4519, Wikidata Q21062, GBIF 2481342, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.