Tweets,

This may seem kind of silly but I have always thought fulmars must feed
differently from shearwaters because of their behaviour while flying around.
While flying, shearwaters tend to hold their beak straight in front of them,
in line with their body. Part of the odd 'jizz' of fulmars is imparted by
the fact that their bill tends to point down, and their tendency to move the
head about as they fly. I interpreted this (OK, so I am an adaptationist) to
mean that they were either looking for food visually, that is why they have
the bill pointed toward the water, or because this improves their olfaction
in some way. I have noticed the same general type of behaviour in
albatrosses, Southern Giant Petrels and White-chinned Petrels (Shoemakers).

Regards,

Alvaro Jaramillo "You are better off not knowing
Half Moon Bay, CA how sausages and laws are made"
- From fortune cookie, Vancouver
alvaro at quake.net circa 1994
http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html