page_title: Pigeon guillemot
section_title: Calls and displays
hierarchical_section_title: Pigeon guillemot / Behaviour / Calls and displays
caption_attribution_description: English: Pigeon Guillemot from Kodiak, Alaska
context_page_description: The pigeon guillemot is a species of bird in the auk family, Alcidae. One of three species in the genus Cepphus, it is most closely related to the spectacled guillemot. There are five subspecies of the pigeon guillemot; all subspecies, when in breeding plumage, are dark brown with a black iridescent sheen and a distinctive wing patch broken by a brown-black wedge. Its non-breeding plumage has mottled grey and black upperparts and white underparts. The long bill is black, as are the claws. The legs, feet, and inside of the mouth are red. It closely resembles the black guillemot, which is slightly smaller and lacks the dark wing wedge present in the pigeon guillemot. Combined, the two form a superspecies.
  This seabird is found on North Pacific coastal waters, from Siberia through Alaska to California. The pigeon guillemot breeds and sometimes roosts on rocky shores, cliffs, and islands close to shallow water. In the winter, some birds move slightly south in the northern-most part of their range in response to advancing ice and migrate slightly north in the southern part of their range, generally preferring more sheltered areas.
context_section_description: The pigeon guillemot is a very vocal bird, particularly during the breeding season, and makes several calls, some of which are paired with displays, to communicate with others of its kind. One such display call pairing is the conspicuous hunch-whistle, where the tail is slightly raised, the wings held slightly out and the head thrown back 45-90° while whistling, before snapping back to horizontal. The function of this call is to advertise ownership of a territory. Another call, the trill, denotes ownership over larger distances. Trills can be performed singly or as duets between pairs; if performed as a duet then the call also functions to help reinforce pair bond. Trills are usually given from a resting position, except for the trill-waggle, which has the bird raising its tail, opening its wings and ruffling the feathers of its neck and head, followed by a waggling of its outstretched neck and head. This display is antagonistic in a context where pigeon guillemots are in a group and often is the precursor to an attack. Low whistles are made by unpaired males attempting to attract a mate, and are deeper than hunch-whistles and involve less movement of the head. Other calls made include seeps and cheeps made between mates and screams made in the presence of predators.
caption: Adult calling
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