These impressive looking black seabirds with white wing patches are members of the auk family that are found in NorthPacific coastal waters from California up, around the Aleutians and down to Japan. If you ever get to see them out of the water, they have bright red feet which, believe it or not, are shown off to females as part of their courtship rituals. When they’re calling you also get to see the inside of their mouths, which strikingly match the bright red colour of their feet. Pigeon Guillemots (Cepphus columba) closely resemble their east coast cousins the Black Guillemot, but have smaller white patches on their wings and different vocal calls. From afar, both species could also be misidentified with the White-winged Scoter, but with closer examination, differences can quickly be seen. There are some regional differences for these birds around each Pacific seaboard and pigeon guillemots in Japan have next to no white in the wing.