The striking drop in numbers round British coasts of such seabirds as arctic terns, kittiwakes, guillemots and puffins is probably a result of the disappearance of sand eels.
Arctic polynyas support a significant ecosystem as the source of plankton, krill, and cod, and large colonies of arctic birds (including murres, kittiwakes, black guillemots, and Ross's gulls) breed nearby.
The guillemots of the Greenland coast migrate southward by swimming; they begin their journey before the young have grown their flight feathers and before some of the adults at least have regrown their recently molted ones.
The larger alcids (puffins, murres, auks, and guillemots) feed on small fish and invertebrates, the smaller ones (murrelets and auklets) almost entirely on invertebrates, especially on tiny, free-swimming (planktonic) crustaceans, such as euphausids.
In British usage the two species of Uria are called guillemots, along with Cepphus species.
The two spotted eggs of guillemots are laid in a crevice, where the young remain for six weeks until they can fly.
The eggs of some colonial seabirds, such as gulls, terns, and murres, or guillemots, and the young of some muttonbirds are even now harvested in large quantities.
The third and smallest suborder, Alcae, contains 23 species of auks, murres, guillemots, and puffins, all in a single family, Alcidae.
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Currently thousands of young auks - razorbills, puffins and guillemots - are flightless and dispersing widely in the North Sea during late summer.
