The Kittlitz's Murrelet mostly breeds and lives in the coastal areas of Alaska, both on the mainland around Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula, sparsely up the west coast and along the Aleutian Islands.
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The common name of this species commemorates the German zoologist Heinrich von Kittlitz, who first collected this species.
Xantus's Murrelet | Kittlitz | Kittlitz's Plover | Heinrich von Kittlitz |
The Coronado Islands have the largest known colony of the rare Xantus's Murrelet.
The bird is named for Federico Craveri (1815–1890), an Italian chemist and meteorologist who was a professor at the National Museum in Mexico City, then later at University of Turin in the city of his birth.
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It resembles the closely related Xantus's Murrelet, with which it shares the distinction of being the most southerly living of all the auk species.
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Craveri's Murrelet feeds far out at sea on larval fish such as herring, rockfish, and lanternfish.
It was during his time in Egypt whilst waiting for a boat that he collected specimens of the bird which became known as Kittlitz's Plover.
The family of von Hund and Altengrotkau owned their estate from 1607 and from 1704 the estate of Upper Kittlitz in Upper Lusatia.
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After returning to Germany in 1750 Hund settled in Lower Kittlitz.
It is also home to the largest breeding colony for Xantus's Murrelet, a threatened seabird species.
Scripps's Murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi) is a small seabird found in the California Current system in the Pacific Ocean.