Black Guillemot

How to recognise it

• In summer plumage all black with a large white wing patch and red legs
• In winter white head and underparts, barred upperparts, wings keep their colours
• Pointed black bill with a red gape, pear-shaped body and fairly small head
• Male and female look alike, young birds have a mottled white wing patch

Call and song

Displaying males give series of thin, piping "sipp-sipp-sipp", sometimes a sawing "sipp-sy-sipp-sy" and drawn-out "siiiiiyy". In the breeding season the call is a high whistle.

Where and when

It is a partial migrant that breeds in Sweden and is reported all year round. It breeds on the west coast from Bohuslän to northwest Skåne, on Gotland and from Östergötland north to the Finnish border. Baltic birds winter in the southern and central Baltic, west coast birds largely in the Kattegat in Danish waters. Its share of all bird reports is highest in Halland, Gotland and Kalmar.

Food and behaviour

It eats mainly fish and crustaceans, and also molluscs, insects and plant material. The main prey is eelpout in the Baltic and butterfish on the west coast. It dives from the surface and swims underwater for food, often first dipping its head in up to above the eyes. It flies low over the water with fast, whirring wingbeats. It breeds in small colonies or as single pairs.