Rhinoceros Auklet
Cerorhinca monocerata
Gray seabird shaped like a football. Breeding plumage shows white belly and thin white eyebrow and mustache. Distinctive stout orange bill with pale vertical protrusion at base. Nonbreeding birds have a plainer face and lack "horn" on bill; juveniles have gray bill. Longer bill than other auklets with a flatter head. Breeds on offshore islands; otherwise found at sea, usually alone. Dives underwater for fish.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Cerorhinca monocerata
- Authority
- (Pallas, 1811)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Alcidae
- Genus
- Cerorhinca
Range and habitat
The rhinoceros auklet is a North Pacific auk that breeds from California (the Channel Islands) to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska in North America; and Hokkaidō and Honshū, Japan, as well as the Korean Peninsula and Sakhalin Island in Asia. It winters both in offshore and inshore waters, exhibiting some migration. Between October and April, migration of a large number occurs on pelagic California waters, most coming from breeding colonies north of California. Auks that reside off the California coast remain in their areas.
- Breeding range
- PAL, NA : temperate North Pacific coasts: off Sakhalin and Kuril Is. (se Russia), Hokkaido and n Honshu (n Japan), Aleutian Is., s, se Alaska to s California
- Non-breeding range
- to s Japan, Korean Pen. (w North Pacific) and n Baja California (e North Pacific)
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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