Long-billed Murrelet (Brachyramphus perdix) – new species for the Romanian fauna

On 21 st of December 2006, Jozsef Szabo jr. found and identified a Long-billed Murrelet, on the Avrig reservoir of the Olt river, near Porumbacu de Jos (Sibiu county). This is the first Romanian record for the species and in the same time the third for the whole Western Palearctic, after records in Switzerland (Zollikon, Lake Zurich, on 15 th December 1997) and Great Britain (Dawlish Warren, Devon , on 7 th November 2006). The Long-billed Murrelet is a special auk, which unlike its relatives (which nest on cliffs) is breeding in old grown conifer forest. The 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.