Cepphus carbo
The Spectacled Guillemot (Cepphus carbo) is a striking and robust seabird belonging to the Alcidae family, closely related to other guillemots, murres, and puffins. Measuring approximately 38 cm (15 inches) in length with a weight of around 500-750 grams, it boasts a distinctive all-sooty black plumage set against a prominent, clean white patch on its inner primaries and secondary coverts, creating a stark contrast visible both in flight and at rest. Its most iconic field mark, and the source...
This guillemot primarily inhabits temperate to subarctic coastal waters, favoring rocky shores, cliffs, and islands for breeding and roosting. It prefers areas with strong currents and abundant marine life for foraging.
Their diet consists mainly of small fish, including sand lance, sculpins, and cod, supplemented with various marine invertebrates such such as crustaceans and polychaete worms, caught by underwater pursuit-diving.
Spectacled Guillemots are primarily diurnal, spending their days foraging and their nights roosting communally on cliff ledges or sheltered rocky outcrops. They are expert pursuit-divers, propelling themselves underwater using their powerful wings to chase down prey. During the breeding season, t...
The Spectacled Guillemot is largely restricted to the western North Pacific. Its breeding range extends from the Russian Far East, including the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Island, and the coast of Primorsky Krai, south through Hokkaido, Japan, and along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. Sma...
Least Concern
- The Spectacled Guillemot is named for the distinctive white eye-ring that encircles its dark eyes, making it look as though it's wearing spectacles. - Unlike its close relatives, the Black Guillemot and Pigeon Guillemot, the Spectacled Guillemot's basic (winter) plumage is nearly identical to i...