The Black Guillemot has a broad breeding distribution in Canada, from the Atlantic provinces to the High Arctic. What little long-term monitoring data are available suggest that this population has increased since the 1970s. However, information from the majority of the species' range is lacking, reducing this assessment's reliability. The species' wintering distribution remains unclear, so threats throughout the year are difficult to assess. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.
Black Guillemots may have a greater exposure to contaminants and tidal stream turbine (TST) developments than more pelagic seabird species, because they prefer to forage for benthic fish in inshore areas (Butler and Buckley 2002, Johnston et al. 2018). Black Guillemot's are also vulnerable to near-shore oils spills (Ihaksi et al. 2011), and to entanglement in fishing nets set near breeding colonies (Butler and Buckley 2002).
Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:
Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.
