A Look at the Razorbill, a Striking Seabird

Among the most handsome and striking of seabirds is the Razorbill. Caption: Razorbill profiles. Note that the eyes are reflective enough to be picked out from the plumage, that the white stripe on the head leads toward the middle part of the eye and is not above it, and that the upper part of the bill is deep. Images: Marek Szczepanek, CC BY-SA 4.0 (original here); Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 (original here). If you don’t know this bird already, its incredibly sharp, perfect black and white lines can look almost unreal, and it’s for this reason that a number of AI images have recently been widely shared online, sigh. Anyway…The Razorbill Alca torda is a North Atlantic auk, its largest breeding colonies being those around the shores of Britain, Scandinavia, western Greenland, Iceland and north-east Canada. It dislikes ice, avoids brackish water, and prefers rocky islands with broad ledges as nesting areas. It’s a large, stout-bodied auk, and is longer-tailed than other large auks,…