| Fulmar | |
|---|---|
| |
| Northern fulmar | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Procellariiformes |
| Family: | Procellariidae |
| Genus: | Fulmarus Stephens, 1826 |
| Type species | |
| Procellaria glacialis (northern fulmar) Linnaeus, 1761
| |
| Species | |
| |
The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene.
Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on stiff wings, and their tube noses. They breed on cliffs, laying one or rarely two eggs on a ledge of bare rock or on a grassy cliff. Outside the breeding season, they are pelagic, feeding on fish, squid and shrimp in the open ocean. They are long-lived for birds, living for up to 40 years.
Historically, temperate Atlantic populations of the northern fulmar lived on the islands of St. Kilda, where it was extensively hunted, and Grimsey (Iceland). The species has expanded its breeding range eastwards and southwards to the coasts of the Faroes, Britain and Ireland, northern France, Norway and Heligoland, as well as around the coast of Iceland and to southern Greenland. Arctic populations are found in Baffin Island, Jan Mayen and Svalbard.