They breed on inaccessible cliffs on the coasts of various Arctic ocean islands, the Aleutians, Sakhalin Island, Kuril Islands, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Baffin Island.
Fulmars occur in two different color phases.
Dark-phase birds have more uniformly gray plumage. The bill is thick, yellow, and hooked, with tubes encasing the nostrils. There is no sexual dimorphism. These birds are carnivorous, eating small fish, mollusks, crustaceans and marine insects found by skimming the surface of the ocean. They gather in large flocks to take advantage of plentiful food such as carrion and fish offal thrown from fishing boats and, historically, scraps from whaling vessels.