Little auk
Alle alle (Linnaeus, 1758)
The little auk (Alle alle) is a species in the family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 151 g to 180.7 g and live up to 16 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the little auk
- Weight
- 151 g – 180.7 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 32 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 16 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 25 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 29 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3 years – 5.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Migratorysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the little auk?
Photos of the little auk
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.
Where does the little auk live?
Not recorded
What is the little auk?
The little auk (Europe) or dovekie (North America) (Alle alle) is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds in huge numbers on islands in the high Arctic of the North Atlantic Ocean. There are two subspecies; A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard; and A. a. polaris on Franz Josef Land. A small number of individuals also breed on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait, with additional breeding individuals thought to occur on King Island, St. Lawrence Island, St. Matthew Island and the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. It also formerly bred on Grímsey just north of Iceland, but is extinct there now. In winter, they disperse widely across the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, with the largest numbers in the Arctic close to the pack ice edge, and smaller numbers south to northern Great Britain in the eastern Atlantic, and Nova Scotia in the western Atlantic.
From the Wikipedia article “Little auk” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Little_auk&oldid=1359097526), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the little auk endangered?
The little auk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the little auk classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyAlcidae
- genusAlle
- SpeciesAlle alle (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Alca candida, Alle nigricans, Mergulus alce, Mergulus melanoleucos, Mergulus melanoleucus, Plautus alle, Plautus columbarius, Plotus alle, Plotus eller
Other names and names in other languages (63)
- DovekieEnglish
- أوك صغيرArabic
- pollu marínAsturian
- Малка гагаркаBulgarian
- KuilhigBreton
- gavotí atlànticCatalan
- alkoun malýCzech
- carfil bachWelsh
- Carfilod BachWelsh
- søkongeDanish
- KrabbentaucherGerman
- ΝανόκεπφοςGreek
- Μικρή άλκαGreek
- eta aŭkoEsperanto
- Malgranda aŭkoEsperanto
- Mérgulo marinoSpanish
- Mérgulo atlánticoSpanish
- ürrEstonian
- väikealkEstonian
- väikealk e. ürrEstonian
- Pottorro txikiBasque
- Pottorro txikiaBasque
- ماهیگیرک کوچکPersian
- pikkuruokkiFinnish
- FulkubbiFaroese
- Mergule nainFrench
- Letj alkNorthern Frisian
- Falcóg bheagIrish
- Foracha bheagIrish
- colcach bheagScottish Gaelic
- colcaich bheagaScottish Gaelic
- Arao pequenoGalician
- Coltrag vegManx
- אלקה קטנהHebrew
- אלקה גמדיתHebrew
- alkabukóHungarian
- HaftyrðillIcelandic
- Gazza marina minoreItalian
- ヒメウミスズメJapanese
- AppaliarsukKalaallisut
- 작은바다쇠오리Korean
- Auk byghanCornish
- mažoji alkaLithuanian
- mazais alksLatvian
- alkekongeNorwegian Bokmål
- kleine alkDutch
- alczykPolish
- torda-anãPortuguese
- torda-miúdaPortuguese
- Torda-miúda do AtlânticoPortuguese
- torda-miúda-do-atlânticoPortuguese
- малая гагаркаRussian
- CiellášNorthern Sami
- hálkagonagasNorthern Sami
- alkovec drobnýSlovak
- rakovičarSlovenian
- Mala njorkaSerbian
- alkekungSwedish
- Küçük AlkTurkish
- küçük dalıcı martıTurkish
- ЛюрикUkrainian
- 小海烏Chinese
- 黑头海雀Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the little auk
Other species in the same family Alcidae.
Atlantic puffin
Fratercula arctica
Razorbill
Alca torda
Great auk
Pinguinus impennis
Common murre
Uria aalge
Black guillemot
Cepphus grylle
Thick-billed murre
Uria lomvia
CompareLittle auk vs Atlantic puffinLittle auk vs RazorbillLittle auk vs Great aukLittle auk vs Common murre
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the little auk?
An adult little auk weighs 151 g – 180.7 g and has a wingspan of 32 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the little auk endangered?
The little auk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
How long does the little auk live?
The little auk has a recorded lifespan of 16 years.
What kind of animal is the little auk?
The little auk (Alle alle) belongs to the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Little auk (Alle alle). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-auk
“Little auk (Alle alle).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-auk.
@misc{little_auk_2026,
title = {Little auk (Alle alle)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-auk},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}