Spectacled Guillemot

Spectacled Guillemot (Cepphus carbo) is a dark North Pacific auk with a bold white patch around the eye, red legs and slender dark bill. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It dives from the surface for fish and bottom invertebrates and nests in rock crevices along coasts of northeastern Asia. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).