Bahamas, Belgium (NB), Bermuda, Canada (NB) (P), Cuba, Denmark (NB) (P), Faroe Islands (NB), France (NB), Germany, Greenland (B) (NB), Iceland (B) (NB), Ireland, Netherlands Antilles (NB), Norway, Portugal (NB), Russia (European) (B), Spain, St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (B), Sweden (NB), Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom (NB), USA (B).
Vagrant to Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Gibraltar, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Ukraine.
Population
Estimated population is 16,000,000 - 36,000,000 (2010).
Subspecies
Normally treated as polytypic, but evidence incomplete and requires further examination. Subspecific status of populations breeding Severnaya Zemlya, New Siberian Is and Bering Sea uncertain.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
alle (Linnaeus, 1758) - Eastern Baffin I through Greenland and Iceland to Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen, Bear I and Novaya Zemlya.
polaris Stenhouse, 1930 - Franz Josef Land, and possibly this race in region from Severnaya Zemlya east to Bering Sea (St Lawrence I, Little Diomede).
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7
BirdLife International Species Factsheet