Originally considered an Asian subspecies of Marbled Murrelet, this is now thought to be the basal taxon of the three Brachyramphus species.
It is listed as Near-threatened, breeding from Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk to northern Japan, and remains in inshore waters after breeding. Although I was possibly the only person at Dawlish who had seen
one previously, my only photos were taken there, unfortunately I have none of other plumages. Amazing though the sole UK record was, it is subject to vagrancy, over forty records are from the USA, including
the East, and there are also records from Switzerland and Romania, Korea and China.
Taken Dawlish, Dorset November 2006
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