Bird Research News

Vol.7 No.7

Spectacled Guillemot

2010.7.27.

Keimafuri (Jpn) Cepphus carbo

Morphology and classification
Classification: Charadriiformes Alcidae
Total length: 37cm
Bill depth: 39.24-46.05mm
Tail length: 50.39-54.52mm

Wing length: 191.80-197.60mm
Tarsus length: 35.50-39.12mm
Weight:576-760g

Total length after Takano (1982). Other measurements are the average of adult birds(n = 5) (Minami et al. 1991).

Appearance:
Spectacled Guillemots are paler
than black but darker than chocolate in the summer plumage.
They have a white spectacle
which surrounds the eye andextends to the nape. The feetand mouth are bright red. Bothmales and females are the samein plumage. Incidentally, theJapanese name of Spectacled
Guillemots is derived from
"Kema fure (red foot)" of thePhoto 1. Adult Spectacled Guillelanguage of the Ainu, an indigmots in summer plumage callingenous people in Japan. They areon a rock.
also called "Aka-ashi (redfoot)" by the locals in Teurito
Island off the northwestern
coast of Hokkaido, northern
Japan (Photo 1).
In the winter plumage, on theother hand, they are black onthe upperpart and white on theunderpart, still with a white Photo 2. Spectacled Guillemots inspectacle (Photo 2).
winter plumage.
The fledglings are brown on theupperpart and white on theunderpart with brown speckles.
They also have a white spectacle (Photo 3).

Vocalization:
In the breeding period, Spectacled Guillemots very frequently
call in a shrill voice like "Fi-fifee-fee" on the ground, at sea Photo 3. Juvenile Spectacled Guillemot.
and even in the nesting burrow.

Distribution and Habitat
Distribution:
Spectacled Guillemots breed in the seaboards of Far East Russia
from Sakhalin to Kamchatka as well as Japan. In Japan, they breedin Hokkaido (Teurito Island, Matsumae-kojima Island, Kiritappu
Point, Daikokujima Island and Yururijima Island), Aomori Prefecture (Shiriyazaki Point) and the Northern Territories (Habomai,Kunashiri, Shikotan and Etorofu Islands of the Krill Islands). InTeurito Island off the northwestern coast of Hokkaido, for instance, the breeding population sharply declined from 7,000 birds
in late June 1949 (Austin & Kuroda 1953) to 3,000 birds in 1963
(Kuroda 1965) and 294 birds in 1994 (Fukuda et al. 1995).
Historical breeding sites included such areas as Sanganjima Islet ofIwate Pref. (Fumio Sato pers. comm.), Ozumijima Islet of Yamagata Pref. (Takahashi 1972) both in northern Honshu, the NemuroPeninsula (the vicinity of Hanasaki port), eastern Hokkaido (Abe& Matsuki 1968), the Etomo Peninsula of Muroran City (Austin &Kuroda 1953) and Esan Point of the Oshima Peninsula,both in southern Hokkaido (Kuroda 1965).
4Life history
123

45 6 7 8 9 10 11 12breeding season non-breeding season

Breeding habitat:
Spectacled Guillemots nest in the holes and crevices of sheer sea
cliffs, steep rocky slopes and reefs.

Breeding period:
In the Shiretoko Peninsula, northeastern Hokkaido, for instance,
Spectacled Guillemots return to the breeding grounds soon after
the sea ice left the coast from mid- to late March, depending on theyears. Based on the period when the parent birds begin to deliver
food to the nest, it is estimated that they lay eggs from mid- to lateMay. The eggs hatch from mid- to late June and the nestlings
fledge from late July to early August. They usually leave thebreeding grounds in late August.

Egg and incubation period:
The clutch size is two eggs. There is no report on the incubation
period. The egg size is 65.4 ± 2.4mm (SD) by 44.5 ± 0.57mm (n =15) (Sakurazawa 2001).

Nestling and fledging periods:
The nestling period is 40-45 days in Teurito Island, northwestern
Hokkaido (Thoresen1984). In Bentenjima Islet off Shiriyazaki
Point, Aomori Pref., northern Japan, on the other hand, one nestling of a two-chick brood fledged 43 days after hatching and theother 53 days after hatching (Sakurazawa 2001).
In Teurito Island, the nestlings just before fledging were 460-620g
in weight (67.6-91.2% of adult weight), 124.9-149.8mm in winglength (64.3-77.1% of adult wing length). The feeding frequency
was 9.8 ± 1.4 (SD) times per day (n = 1) (Minami et al. 1991).

Diet and foraging behavior
The diet of the nestlings consists of rockfish (Sebastes minor),
Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) and tidepool gunnel(Pholis nebulosa) in Teurito Island (Minami 1991). The observation conducted in the Shiretoko Peninsula in 2007 showed that thefood parent birds delivered to the nest was comprised of Pacificsand lance (7 sightings), Gymnocanthus herzensteini sculpin (1),sculpin sp. (3), Elkhorn sculpin Alcichthys elongatus (1), flounder(1), and tidepool gunnel (2). The observation of 2008 also showedthat the staple food was Pacific sand lance (23 sightings), followedby tidepool gunnel (6) and Japanese anchovy (2). Spectacled Guillemots were observed to carry sandfish as well in other years. The
stomach contents of Spectacled Guillemots captured in the Pacificseaboard of the Tohoku region (northern Japan) in winter included
flatheads, octopuses, small crabs (Austin & Kuroda 1953), Repomucenus lunatus and Octopus ocellatus (Kuroda 1955).

Photo 4. A flock of sand lance (staple food of Spectacled Guillemots)

Bird Research News

Vol.7 No.7

2010.7.27.

© Japan Bird Research Association
Sumiyoshi 1-29-9, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
In the Shiretoko Peninsula, Spectacled Guillemots mostly foraged
in areas with the sandy floor at a depth of less than 50m. When I
made an underwater survey of the area where they most frequently
foraged, a large number of sand lance occurred and came out of
the sandy floor as well.

Topics of ecology, behavior and conservation● In the Shiretoko Peninsula
Maximum counted number (birds)

In the Shiretoko Penin160
sula, northeastern Hok140
kaido, the breeding120
grounds are limited to100
the northwestern coast of80
the peninsula and the60
seaboard from Puyuni
40
Point east of Utoro
20
Town to the cliff of0
Shiretoko Five Lakes.
2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
This area coincides with Fig. 1. Annual fluctuation in the number ofthe sightseeing spot. TheSpectacled Guillemots in the Shiretoko
SpectacledGuillemot
Peninsula.
population of the peninsula decreased from 140 birds in 2004 to 98 in 2008 and 96 in2009 (Fig. 1). Since it is assumed that birds whose population has
dropped below 100 individuals are at a risk of extinction, the population of the peninsula is faced with the threat of local extinction.
The population decline of Spectacled Guillemots in Shiretoko canbe attributed to small sightseeing boats that have started to increase since the Shiretoko Peninsula was nominated as a World
Natural Heritage Site (Photo.
5). The sightseeing boats sail at
a speed of about 40 kph up to
more than 20 times a day in the
habitat of Spectacled Guillemots and the vicinity of theirbreeding grounds. Spectacled
Guillemots are observed trying
frantically to escape the boats
many times a day, and they
have moved the breeding sites
Photo 5. A pleasure boat sailingto the area that the boats do not
close to spectacled Guillemots.
approach.

● Conservation issues and future tasks
It is a bright side of an unfortunate circumstance that fixed net
fishery, instead of gill net fishery, is operated mainly for salmons
off the western coast (Shari side) of the Shiretoko Peninsula because gill nets which correspond to mist nets pose a serious threat
to diving seabirds but fixed nets do not entail a high risk of bycatching these birds including Spectacled Guillemots.
However, the route of sightseeing boats conflicts with the area that
Spectacled Guillemots use in the breeding period as mentionedabove. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of the Environment has since 2002 taken the initiative in starting a conference forconsidering "the proper use of a coastal area" in terms of Spectacled Guillemot conservation with the cooperation of sightseeing
boat traders, travel agents, a local fishemen's cooperative association, Shari Town officials and seabird research workers. However,some sightseeing boat traders felt repelled by the conference, saying "Although seabird conservation may be important, we make aliving out of operating sightseeing boats".
It is necessary to conserve the habitat of Spectacled Guillemots byindefatigably explaining their value and the importance of Shiretoko as their habitat to the sightseeing boat traders to gain their

バードリサーチ生態図鑑
understanding and establish rules for the seabird-friendly use of acoastal area.
There is also a need to continue the population and breeding monitoring of Spectacled Guillemots that has been carried out since
2002 along with other wildlife monitoring because it is importantto establish the mechanisms to take prompt action when an unusual change arises in order to maintain the healthy ecosystem allowing for the stability of Spectacled Guillemot population.

● Activities to popularize the knowledge of Spectacled Guillemots
I also sell “Tenugui (Japanese hand towels)” with a motif of Spectacled Guillmots as a souvenir to raise them from obscurity (Photo.
6). The proceeds are intended for the conservation of Spectacled
Guillmots, though they may be actually negligible, but I think it afirst step toward their conservation to draw attention to them. Inaddition, I have made thepamphlet of "Seabirds ofShiretoko" that introduces seabirds of the Shiretoko Peninsula, and have
distributed it in the local
nature facilities, such as
Photo 6. Japanese hand towel ("Tenugui")the Shiretoko Museumwith a motif of Spectacled Guillemots.
and Shiretoko Nature(Available only in Japan)
Center.

Literature
Abe M. & Matsuki M. 1968. The birds in Hanasaki Port in Nemuro City. Tori,
18:227-246. [J]Austin O.L. & Kuroda N. 1953. The birds of Japan:Their status and distribution.
Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard,109:279-613.
Fukuda Y., Watanuki Y., Hayashi E. & Kato A. 1995. Change in seabird populations and the nesting sites (excluding the Common Guillemot & Rhinoceros
Auklet). Report on the study of the marine animal state such as the CommonGuillemots. 1992-1994. Environment Research Center of Hokkaido, Pp.16-22.
[J]
Kuroda N. 1963. Seabird survey in Teurito Island (Attachment land birds). J. Yamashina Inst. Ornithol. 3:365-383. [J]Kuroda N. 1965. Bird survey in Hokkaido. J. Yamashina Inst. Ornithol. 4:224-268.
[J]
Kuroda N. 1955. Bird survey in northern Pacific coast region in winter. Vogel, 12:5
-29. [J]Minami H., Shiomi K. & Ogi H. 1991. Morphological Characteristics and Functions of the Spectacled Guillemot, Cepphus carbo. Bulletin of the Faculty ofFisheries Hokkaido University (http://hdl.handle.net/2115/24087) 42:160-181.
[J+E]
Sakurazawa I. 2001. The breeding ecology of the Spectacled Guillemot Cepphus
carbo in Bentenjima Island of Yazaki Port in Aomori Prefecture. Hokkaido
University Faculty of Fishery. Master's thesis. [J+E]
Takano S. 1982. Field Guide to the Wild Bird in Japan. Wild Bird Society of Japan.
Tokyo. [J]Takahashi T. 1978. The birds of Choukaisan and Tobishima. Report of integrated
science survey on Mt. Chokaisan and Tobishima Island. Yamagata integrated
science survey committee, pp.173-203, 412pp. [J]Thoresen A.C. 1984. Breeding phenology and mid-seasonal social behavior of theSooty-Guillemots on Teuri Island Japan.Western Bird,15:145-158.
Languages of literature cited other than English: [J] in Japanese, [J+E] in Japanesewith English summary.

AuthorYoshihiro FUKUDA Shiretoko Seabird Society
Thirteen years have already passed since I moved
from Teurito Island to Utoro of Shiretoko. I haveappealed for the conservation of Spectacled Guillemots for eight years. The Ministry of the Environment is very positive about their conservation. It isa crucial timing now for the success of their conservation.

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