But, when it opens its bill there is a flash of bright, almost golden yellow on the bird's palate.
This pair are engaging in mating behaviour but the bright yellow can also be useful for chicks being fed and razorbills often quarrel with each other with bills wide open in what is known as bill-gaping.
Each pair will only have one egg and both male and female feed the chick for approximately three weeks.
At around twenty days old the chicks follow the male into the ocean, leaping from the cliff and are fed by him until old enough to become self-sufficient.
Like fulmars, razorbills can live to forty years or more.
It should come as no surprise too that for the workshops and tours that I organise throughout Ireland, I recommend the coast often and get asked about the coast.
Here, a scene from a cloudy evening. After finishing up photographing some more well-known scenes from the Irish coast we set our sights on a tranquil scene of a calm Atlantic Ocean.
This image is one of my favourites from the evening's workshop.