Pigeon Guillemots Have Fun

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Pigeon Guillemots Have Fun
Adapted from a script by Frances Wood

This is BirdNote.

Although many seabirds utter groans and croaks, the Pigeon Guillemot produces this lovely series of trills and whistles.

     [Long, trilling calls of Pigeon Guillemots]

Black seabirds with large, white wing-patches and fire-engine-red feet, Pigeon Guillemots are native to the North Pacific Ocean, and frequent coastlines from California to Alaska and Russia. Colonies of four to one hundred birds select a rocky cliff, sandy bluff, or artificial structure for their nesting territory.

Then the fun begins! Pigeon Guillemots perform elaborate courtship rituals to woo their mates. Like exuberant children, they chase each other, dunk under the water, and appear to play a game of leap frog, or “leap duck.” Then a pair will take off from water and fly side by side in large circles and loops, a perfect synchronized flying act.

Courtship continues until the parents become busy tending their burrows high on the cliff. Soon after the young fledge, they join their parents on the water, and the whole colony departs the area.

The beach is quiet again until next spring, when the Pigeon Guillemots return and begin their playful, musical courtship anew.

     [Pigeon Guillemot calls]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Pigeon Guillemot ML109262 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller. Pigeon Guillemot ML454917361 recorded by Mark Oberle.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote June 2025
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# PIGU-04-2025-06-27    PIGU-04