UKBirds

Long-Billed Murrelet

Brachyramphus perdix

The Long-billed Murrelet is a small seabird from the North Pacific. It is an unusual member of the auk family, often nesting far inland in old growth forests. The Long-billed Murrelet, like its cousins the Marbled and Kittlitz's Murrelets, is thought to have experienced a decline in numbers recently.

It closely resembles the Marbled Murrelet, of which it was considered a subspecies until 1998, when Friesen et al. showed that the mtDNA variation was greater between these two forms than between Marbled and Kittlitz's Murrelets.

This species is found from Kamchatka to the Sea of Okhotsk. Most birds winter in the seas around northern Japan with some reaching South Korea and southern Japan. The Marbled Murrelet, in contrast tends to remain closer to its breeding grounds.

The Long-billed Murrelet is a small (25 cm long), chunky auk with a slender black bill. It has pointed wings and plumage that varies by season. The non-breeding appearance is typically white underneath with a black crown, nape, wings and back. The breeding plumage is mainly brown, with pale feather edges giving a scaly appearance; the central underparts, normally below the surface on a swimming bird, are white.

The Long-billed Murrelet is longer billed, slightly larger, and 20% heavier than the Marbled Murrelet, and has a white eye ring. In breeding plumage it shows a pale throat which is absent in Marbled Murrelet, and weaker scaling because of fewer rusty and buff markings. In winter, the Long-billed Murrelet lacks the white collar of Marbled.

The Long-billed Murrelet feeds at sea principally on small fish, both in pelagic offshore areas (often associating with upwellings), and inshore in protected bays. It tends to migrate more than its closest relative the Marbled Murrelet.

The breeding behaviour of the Long-billed Murrelet is very unusual. Unlike most other seabirds, it does not breed in colonies or even necessarily close to the sea, instead nesting in on branches of old-growth conifers(less frequently on open ground). It lays one egg on a thick lichen- or moss-covered branch or hollow. The egg is incubated for a month, then the chick is fed for around 40 days until it fledges and flies unaccompanied to the sea. Breeding success is low and chick mortality high.