Another bird I was privileged to see was the fulmar. I'd heard about these birds when we went to Land's End in Cornwall, but I think we were there in the wrong season, and I didn't get to see any. I was pretty excited to see several of these very cool-looking birds in the tubenose family. I couldn't remember what I'd read about the tubenose structure on their beaks, but I found out some interesting facts from a couple of different websites in researching this information for my post here. From a wildlife tour company:
Fulmars create a kind of stomach oil that they store in a section of their stomachs called the proventriculus. They use this oil for 2 reasons: 1. They spray it out as a defensive measure. It can gum up the wings of predator birds, causing them to plunge to their deaths. 2. They can regurgitate it as an energy-rich resource they use for long flights or to feed their young.
Like some other seabirds, Fulmars have a gland above their nasal passage that excretes a saline solution to help them get rid of all the salt in the water they imbibe while feeding.
The name “Fulmar” comes from two Old Norse words - fúll meaning “foul” and már which means “gull.” This refers to the awful-smelling stomach oil.
And from Washington Coast Magazine:
The tubenose itself, fancifully called a narnicorn, is a hard structure atop the bill (or on the side for albatrosses) that performs two crucial functions for the birds. First, it funnels faint scents to the nostril, helping the bird pinpoint the location of a potential meal that may be a mile away. (Good to have when your food is tucked between identical waves in an unbroken line to the horizon.)
Isn't that neat? Moreover, these are beautiful birds. I was able to see several babies that look like like big balls of down feathers. If they aren't facing you, and you can't see their beak or eyes, you might just think it's a pile of fluff!
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