John F. Piatt Jared D. Figurski Michael A. Litzow 1998 <p>Guillemots (<i>Cepphus</i> spp.) feed their chicks a diet that is almost exclusively fish. We observed Pigeon Guillemots (<i>C. columba</i>) at two colonies in Alaska where hermit crabs (Crustacea: Anomura) were a major part of the diet for some nestlings. Hermit crabs were delivered to three of five observed nests at one colony, comprised between 2% and 22% of the items delivered at those nests, and were the second most common food type at one nest. Hermit crabs may be an attractive prey item when lipid-rich forage fish are scarce, and crabs living in gastropod shells that have been softened by encrustations of <i>Suberites</i> sponges may be vulnerable to guillemot predation.</p> application/pdf 10.2307/1521913 en The Waterbird Society Hermit crabs in the diet of Pigeon Guillemots at Kachemak Bay, Alaska article