Long-billed Murrelet

Open encyclopedia reference

The long-billed murrelet (Brachyramphus perdix) is a small seabird from the North Pacific. The genus name Brachyramphus is from Ancient Greek brakhus, "short", and rhamphos, "bill". The species name perdix is Latin for "partridge" Pallas described this auk as Magnitudine Perdicis. "Murrelet" is a diminutive of "murre", a word of uncertain origins, but which may imitate the call of the common guillemot.

This auk 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.

Wikipedia contributors, Long-billed murrelet; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:44:08.978230+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Brachyramphus perdix (Pallas, 1811)

Name authority

(Pallas, 1811)

Common name

Long-billed Murrelet

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Alcidae

Genus

Brachyramphus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderCharadriiformes
10. familyAlcidae
11. genusBrachyramphus J. F. Brandt, 1837
12. speciesBrachyramphus perdix (Pallas, 1811)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 15 records assigned to Alcidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=554143 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:68RK2. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.