Recoveries by Condition for Northern Fulmar

Game species in Iceland and Faroes, protected throughout most of Europe.

NW Europe holds the bulk of encounters (ca. 78%). The dataset has largely been populated after late 1970s. The encounters mainly come from the breeding season (Jun-Aug) – ca. 72%, the peak being in Jul with ca. 38% (mostly juveniles ringed).

The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years – from 83% pre-1960  (15% shot) to about 27% after 1991 (just 1% shot). Inversely, the share of recoveries based on alive birds largely increased – from ca. 9 to 72% respectively, the latter mostly due to ringing encounters (concentrated on the British Isles).

Fishery gear can locally be a significant cause for mortality – 14% of all cases at the Faroe Is (Hammer et al. 2014). The species comprised ca. 33% of all incidental bycatch of seabirds in Norway (Bærum et al. 2019).

Annual Movements for Northern Fulmar

High-arctic populations’ migratory movements are often in response to sea-ice cover change (Mallory et al. 2020).

In temperate and low-arctic regions post-breeding dispersal is evident from Sep-Oct. The species was found to be most abundant during Oct-Mar in a recently identified major hotspot in the N Atlantic, of big importance for millions of seabirds of 21 species in total (Davies et al. 2021). In high-arctic NE Greenland, the breeding population arrives in late Apr – early May and departs in early Sep (Lyngs et al. 2003).

Depending on the latitude, the birds are back to the breeding grounds from Mar to May.

Sometimes even breeding birds travel great distances (more than 6200km) and wander as far as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge while searching for food (Edwards et al. 2013).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Northern Fulmar

Males generally stay longer at nest sites during the winter, females ranging further when not breeding (Wernham et al. 2002).

Post-breeding dispersal is recorded from early autumn in the high-arctic populations to mid-autumn in lower latitudes.

Some birds ringed in NW & N Europe have been encountered as immatures in the waters off SW and E Greenland during summer and autumn (Lyngs et al. 2003), while the encounters from Newfoundland and Labrador come from all seasons.

The breeding sites are occupied early to late spring.

The huge number of recoveries in the North Sea region (birds in various ages, all seasons) is explained by the high quality of the area for feeding and moulting (Wernham et al. 2002), but the good coverage in terms of human presence certainly helps. Birds marked on the British Isles (mainly Scotland) have largely been encountered there.