This marine species can be found along rocky coastlines of the North Pacific. Its diet includes a wide variety of small benthic fish and invertebrates, widening to include more species in the summer. Chicks are usually fed fish which tend to be obtained within 1 km of the colony. It normally arrives at colonies between March and April, breeding on sea cliffs and slopes close to regions of shallow water usually less than 50 m deep. It is a monogamous species with high mate and site fidelity, usually breeding in small colonies of under 50 birds, sometimes as single pairs, but colonies of over 1000 birds have been seen. Individuals normally remain near colonies outside the breeding season, though birds from Alaska and California move south and north respectively (del Hoyo et al. 1996).

The Pigeon Guillemot can be found in the North Pacific, breeding from the Kuril Islands (Russia), on the Kamchatka Peninsula to the eastern tip of Siberia (Russia), and from the western tip of Alaska (U.S.A.) down through the Atlantic coast of Canada to southern California (U.S.A.) and northern Mexico, including colonies on the Commander and Aleutian Islands (del Hoyo et al. 1996).