page_title: Pigeon guillemot
section_title: Feeding
hierarchical_section_title: Pigeon guillemot / Behaviour / Feeding
caption_attribution_description: English: Pigeon Guillemot on Buldir Island by Katherine Robbins/USFWS.
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 forages by itself or in small groups, diving underwater for food, usually close to shore and during the breeding season within 1 km (0.6 mi) of the colony. It forages at depths from 6 to 45 m (20 to 148 ft), but it prefers depths between 15 and 20 m (50 and 70 ft). The dives can range from 10 to 144 seconds, and usually average 87 seconds, with an intermission between dives lasting around 98 seconds. Dives of two to ten seconds are typical when feeding on shoals of sandlance at the water's surface. Smaller prey are probably consumed underwater, but larger organisms are brought to the surface to eat after capture.
  The pigeon guillemot mostly feeds on benthic prey found at the lowest level in a body of water close to the sea floor, but it also takes some prey from higher in the water column. It mainly eats fish and other aquatic animals. Fish taken include sculpins, sandfish, cod, and capelin; invertebrates include shrimp and crabs like the pygmy rock crab, and even rarely polychaete worms, gastropods, bivalves and squid. The diet varies greatly, based on where the individual bird is, the season, and also from year to year, as ocean conditions change prey availability. For example, invertebrates are more commonly taken in winter. The foraging method used by this species differs from that of auks in other genera. It hangs upside down above the seafloor, probing with its head for prey and using its feet and wings to maintain position. The chick's diet varies slightly, with more fish than invertebrates, particularly rockfish (family Sebastidae). Specialization in the prey taken by a pigeon guillemot when foraging for its chicks generally results in greater reproductive success, with a high-lipid diet allowing for more growth.
  The adult pigeon guillemot requires about 20% of its own weight, or 90 grams (3.2 oz) of food each day. It doubles its rate of fishing when feeding the nestlings. As the nestlings get older, they are fed more, until 11 days after hatching, when the food generally levels out. The food they get, although, starts to decrease about 30 days after hatching.
caption: Feeding on Buldir Island, Alaska
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "90", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "274", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "13218", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1061", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}