---
title: "Kleine alk"
description: "Alle alle — Vogels. The little auk (Europe) or dovekie (North America) (Alle alle) is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/dovekie
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Kleine alk

> Alle alle — Vogels. The little auk (Europe) or dovekie (North America) (Alle alle) is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle.

- Scientific name: *Alle alle*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `sea` (Zee en kust), `arctic` (Poolgebied)
- iNaturalist observations: 2049
- Wikidata: [Q26470](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26470)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4524](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4524)

## Names

- en: Dovekie
- de: Krabbentaucher
- es: Mérgulo marino
- fr: Mergule nain
- nl: Kleine alk
- pt: Torda-anã
- pl: Alczyk

## Countries with the most observations

US (392), SJ (248), CA (240), GL (77), DK (46), PT (37), NO (34), GB (27), DE (20), FR (17), ES (13), NL (11)

## Summary

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…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_auk

## Photo

![Kleine alk](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/dovekie/medium.jpg)

Photo: Melanie Gaddy · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/70810851

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/dovekie?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).