Razorbill

Alca torda

Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Alcidae
Presence in the Strait: Seasonal
Abundance: abundant
Protection in Spain: Special protection (List)
In Spanish: Alca común

Photograph: Melissa McMasters, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 37–39 cm
Wingspan: 63–67 cm
Weight: 510 g

Presence in the Strait

Abundant pelagic winter visitor.

Identification

The size of a duck and similar to a penguin, black upperparts and white underparts. Wide and blunt bill with a transverse white line. Legs do not protrude in flight. When swimming, tail often raised. Breeding plumage shows black head, neck and ear-coverts and white foreneck. Juveniles have a thinner bill without the white line.

Movements

Peaks in 2nd hf. November and 2nd hf. March.

Ring recoveries

United Kingdom (20), Ireland (14) and France (1).

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

21 %

Peak in November. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 25 February 1966
Latest record: 3 March 2025

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Spanish Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: DD · Data deficient · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Phenology compared

Monthly distribution in proportion, by decade. It shows whether the passage is getting earlier or later.

2000–2009

2010–2026

Proportions, not totals: observation effort grew faster than any population.

Where they come from

35 birds ringed in other countries and recovered in the area.

United Kingdom20
Ireland14
France1

See the journey on the map

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Alcidae
GBIF taxon key: 8277073

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Melissa McMasters, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Razorbill

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Ring recoveries

Gallery