Razorbills are members of the auk family (along with the puffin and the guillemot). Their name is drawn from the resemblance of their bill to an old-fashioned cut throat razor. Sooty black and white in colour with their distinctive striped, broad bill, they are striking birds.
Razorbills nest on cliff ledges or in cracks or crevices in the rock on cliffs to avoid predation of their eggs by other birds and mammals. The nest itself is often only a patch of mud and seaweed for razorbills the nest cavity is more important a single egg is laid and the egg is conical to prevent it rolling off the cliff. They are expert swimmers and divers, with short wings that are specially adapted so that they can fly equally well underwater as above it.
The main foods of the Razorbill are sand eels, molluscs and worms. When fishing the bird floats on the water like a duck with its tail cocked up and then tips up to dive, spending as much as a minute underwater and diving to depths of 20 metres. Razorbills form stable breeding pairs and spend autumn and winter out to sea feeding alone or in small groups, coming in to the coast to form breeding colonies in spring.
Razorbill
