Spectacled guillemot

Spectacled guillemot
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Alcidae
Genus:	Cepphus
Species:	C. carbo
Binomial name
Cepphus carbo Pallas, 1811

The spectacled guillemot or sooty guillemot (Cepphus carbo) is a seabird in the auk family.

Description

This species is about 38 cm (15 in) with red legs, black bill, and a blackish iris.

The breeding adult spectacled guillemot is distinctive, mostly plumaged dull sooty-black except for conspicuous white "spectacles" on the face

In adult non-breeding plumage, the underparts are white, uniformly tipped very pale grey-brown. Transitional birds are like breeding adults, except the underparts are scaled with white.

Sexes are alike, but juveniles are separable from adults. There are no subspecies.

Range

The spectacled guillemot's range is restricted to the northwestern Pacific Ocean: throughout the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands in Russia and on the northern island of Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range overlaps with that of the closely related pigeon guillemot, though it extends further north.^[2]

References

1. BirdLife International (2018). "Cepphus carbo". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22694867A132578646. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22694867A132578646.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. (in Russian) Artyukhin Yu.B. and V.N. Burkanov (1999). Sea birds and Mammals of the Russian Far East: A Field Guide, Moscow: АSТ Publishing – 215 p.

• Harrison, Peter (1991). Seabirds An Identification Guide ISBN 0-395-60291-2