Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba
Kuletz KJ. 1998. Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba. EVOS Restoration Notebook Series. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. Anchorage, AK
Pigeon guillemots (Cepphus columba) are medium-sized seabirds in the Family Alcidae, close cousins to auklets, murres, murrelets, and puffins. The pigeon guillemot nests along rocky coastline from California to Alaska in the North Pacific and along eastern shores of Siberia. Other members of the genus Cepphus are: black guillemots (C. grylle), which inhabit the North Atlantic and the Bering Sea coast of Alaska, and spectacled guillemots (C. carbo), in the Sea of Okhotsk and Japan. 1 Pigeon guillemots, like all auks, forage by swimming underwater in pursuit of their prey. They nest mostly in small scattered colonies or in solitary pairs. The estimated world population of pigeon guillemots is about 235,000 and most(50%-80%) breed in Alaska. Surveys conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife since 1989 estimated the population of pigeon guillemots at 3,500 in Prince William Sound (PWS), 9,000 in lower Cook Inlet, and 19,000 in southeastern Alaska.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Kuletz, Katherine
- Date of Issue
- 1998-11
- Publisher
- Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council
- Units
- KATM , KEFJ , LACL
- Keywords
- Birds, Cepphus columba, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, pigeon guillemot, Restoration