Great Auk
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
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Auk - common name for a member of the family Alcidae swimming and diving birds of the N Atlantic and Pacific, which includes the guillemots and puffins.
Great Auks were about 78 cm (30 in.) long. They weighed about 5 kg (11 lb.).
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"Great Auk". [Online]. Natural History Notebooks. Canadian Museum of Nature.
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Great Auk
Pinguinus impennis (Linnaeus)
Status Extinct. The former status in Nova Scotia of this large, flightless relative of the Razorbill is now difficult to determine.
GREAT AUK.
[Great Auk. EXTINCT.]
ALCA IMPENNIS, Linn.
[Pinguinus impennis.] ...
The Great Auk became extinct in 1844.
Description
Distinguishing Features - Length: 71 - 75 cm.
Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis (North Atlantic, early 1850s)
Canarian Black Oystercatcher, Haematopus meadewaldoi (Eastern Canary Islands, E Atlantic, c. 1940?) ...
the name of a flightless sea-bird,' but, so far as is known, first given to one inhabiting the seas of Newfoundland as in Hore's "Voyage to Cape Breton," 1536 (Hakluyt, Researches, iii. 168-170), which subsequently became known as the great auk or ...
The stocky, heavy-billed Razorbill is the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk. One of the rarest of all breeding seabirds in the United States, Razorbills are strong fliers, more agile in flight than many related species.
Penguin Originally this name was given to the now extinct great AUK of the North the Atlantic, and transferred in the 19th century to a totally unrelated Antarctic diving bird. Of all birds Penguins are the most highly specialized for marine life.
Unlike penguins, modern auks can fly (except for the recently extinct Great Auk). They are good swimmers and divers, but their walking appears clumsy. Due to their short wings, auks have to flap their wings very quickly in order to fly.
Unlike the extinct Great Auk, other Alcids have thin, medium-length wings used for rapid, buzzing flight.
Little Auk or Dovekie, Alle alle
Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis (extinct, c.1844)
Razorbill, Alca torda
Tribe Synthliboramphini - synthliboramphine murrelets ...
The name penguin originally belonged to the now extinct bird we call the great auk. If you happen to be Welsh or Welsh-speaking, the name has a definite meaning, as pen-guin sounds like the Welsh pen-gwyn, or white head.
Pipits and the Sweet Smell of Seaweed
What is a Night Heron?
In Praise of the Great Auk
Short, Kind-of Diabolical, Shorebird Quiz
Pictures of Pied-billed Grebes ...
Alcids
Alcids are seabirds who both fly and swim with their wings. Alcids are now confined to the northern hemisphere. The extinct Great Auk was flightless.
There are three species of living puffins: common, horned and tufted. These birds, along with auks, guillemonts, and murres of alcids exist today. Humans hunted the largest member of this family, the great auk, into extinction by 1834.
Pinguinus impennis, Great Auk
Platax pinnatus, Dusky Batfish
Plectorhynchus orientalis, Oriental Sweetlips
Plectropomus leopardus, Leopard Coralgrouper
Plectropomus laevis, Blacksaddle Coral Grouper
Plectropomus pessuliferus, Roving Coralgrouper ...
 See also: Auk, Penguin, Petrel, Puffin, Cormorant
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