It may look like a penguin, but the razorbill is something else entirely — and it’s the closest living relative of a bird that went extinct almost 200 years ago.
Razorbills are black and white seabirds with a thick, sharp-looking beak and a slick white line running between their beak and eyes. You can spot them in parts of the North Atlantic, and if you’re lucky, on the remote west coast of Svalbard. But don’t expect crowds — they’re pretty rare that far north.
Unlike some Arctic birds that migrate thousands of kilometers for winter, razorbills usually keep it chill. They head to southern Norway or northern Scotland and stay close to their coastal comfort zone.
What’s wild is that razorbills are the last living link to the great auk — a giant, flightless seabird hunted to extinction in the 1800s. That species vanished because of overfishing and pollution, two threats that razorbills now also face. #Marketpullsback
So even though they’re still around, razorbills are a reminder of how close we’ve come to losing entire species — and how easily it could happen again.
