Spectacled Guillemot

Cepphus carbo Pallas, 1811

Spectacled Guillemot, Cepphus carbo, is a seabird of the auk family that breeds in the north-western Pacific, from the Sea of Okhotsk and southern Kamchatka through Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, with possible breeding on the north-eastern Korean Peninsula. Outside the breeding season it moves as far south as central Japan and the southern Korean Peninsula. In breeding plumage it is mainly dull sooty-black, marked by clear white facial spectacles. Adults in non-breeding plumage show white underparts with very pale grey-brown tipping. Sexes are alike, and juveniles can be told from adults.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Alcidae — Auks

Breeding range

Palearctic: temperate w North Pacific coast: Sea of Okhotsk, s Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Kuril Is. (e Russia), Hokkaido (n Japan) and ?ne Korean Pen.

Nonbreeding range

to c Japan and s Korean Pen.