Our marine neighbors – Pigeon Guillemots

George Walter

Photo by Jill Severn

Pigeon Guillemots are medium-sized (about 13”) seabirds of the Auk family and are fairly common in our Southern Puget Sound marine waters. They are often seen on the water near the shore and, aside from gulls, they are the only marine bird that you can see from shore year-round in Thurston County. The species is widespread and ranges along the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean from southern California to Siberia.

The name “Guillemot” comes from the French name for the bird; it’s French for William – Guillaume. One wonders what the American Ornithological Union’s renaming birds project will make of that.

In summer these birds are unmistakable. They are dark brown, but appear black with an iridescent sheen, and their legs, feet and mouth are bright scarlet. Adults form long-term pair bonds, and the pair is often seen together. They have a bold white wing patch, broken by a small dark wedge.

Winter plumage on a swimming Pigeon Guillemot

Summer plumage: Pigeon Guillemots pair with breeding plumage in the summer.

In fall they molt into their winter feather pattern. They still have the white wing patches but now have a mostly whitish head, neck, and underparts – quite different than the summer plumage.

From April through September, these birds’ lives are dominated by breeding, and there are a good number of small breeding colonies in our area. They primarily utilize excavated holes in the steep sandy bluffs found throughout southern Puget Sound. Generally, two eggs are laid, with both sexes incubating the eggs and then feeding the hatchlings. The young fledge from the nest in up to 8 weeks.

Adult Pigeon Guillemot at a nesting burrow

These birds feed on small fish and marine invertebrates, mostly near the sea floor. They swim on the surface and then submerge, diving to a depth of 100+ feet to pursue their prey. As with other members of the Auk family, they swim (“fly”) underwater using their wings for propulsion.

Because Pigeon Guillemots are widespread and fairly common, our Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) identified them as an “indicator species.” Their breeding success, we presume, is an indicator of the health of the marine and shoreline ecosystems, and therefore studying their populations long-term is a way of tracking the health of Puget Sound. For more information about the WDFW seabird monitoring program, see website.

An observer monitoring a nesting colony, Lyle Point, Anderson Island of Pigeon Guillemots.

The WDFW monitoring program is heavily oriented toward aerial counting of overall numbers, rather than in-depth monitoring of specific guillemot colonies. This is where citizen science has come to play an important role.

Citizen monitoring began in 2004 on Whidbey Island. Interest spread rapidly, and eventually the various monitoring efforts coalesced into the Salish Sea Guillemot Network. This provided standardized methods, overall organizing and training for volunteers to document the details of specific breeding colonies (see www.pigeonguillemot.org).

In our southern Puget Sound, the monitoring effort is coordinated by the Nisqually Reach Nature Center and has been ongoing since 2013. You can find detailed information about the Pigeon Guillemot nesting colonies in our area at http://nisquallyestuary.org/citizen-science/pigeon-guillemots/. In addition to simple numbers of adults, nesting cavities, and resulting young, monitors also document the type and amount of prey that the adults bring back to feed their young.

All these data, collected using the same methods and tabulated over years, yields strong evidence about trends in the health of southern Puget Sound. Likewise, when combined with similar data from throughout Puget Sound, they tell researchers about the overall health and productivity of the whole of the Sound. Thus far Pigeon Guillemot breeding success is holding steady, suggesting the same for the health of Puget Sound.

Pigeon Guillemots in flight and on the water. A view such as this is what a monitoring citizen scientist might experience.

Using citizen scientists has other benefits as well. It places a trained observer regularly at multiple important habitat locations to document the general shoreline habitat. It offers an opportunity for regular folks to “get out there” and experience nature, and to learn the skills of careful observation. And it builds a constituency for protecting those critical steep bluffs.

Finally, the Pigeon Guillemot monitoring project is a great example of a general conservation principle: you will protect what you love. Any of the above websites will provide abundant photographs and additional details. And, now that you know more about these interesting marine birds, I have high hopes that you will love them and support what actions are needed to provide for them.

My bird bath watering station.

Summer Water—With the hot weather now upon us, please consider placing out water for birds. Any technique will do (a friend reported that bushtits enjoyed the backyard sprinkler). The only restriction is the presence of cats. If there are outdoor cats, please don’t set up a watering station for the birds.

 George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 40+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com

Photos for this column on Pigeon Guillemots have been provided by Shannon Boldt of the Nisqually Reach Nature Center and are used with permission.