January/February cover

Submitted by Michi on 31 January 2023.

The common guillemot is the largest of the auk species, breeding in large seabird colonies in temperate and colder parts of the northern hemisphere. The image (click here for a high resolution version) features a group of common guillemots, photographed by Andrew Carter on the Treshnish Isles, Scotland, which is one of the seabird colonies investigated in the study by Lila Buckingham and her co-authors. Buckingham et al. (2023) investigated variation in non-breeding season distribution, diet, behaviour and energetics in common guillemots from four breeding colonies. They observed variation between colonies in post-breeding moult diet, foraging behaviour and activity budgets, but found that guillemots from all colonies had synchronized patterns of energy expenditure. Their findings suggest that guillemots are likely to have similar vulnerability to anthropogenic changes that may impact their energetics.

Comments