Endangered
Marbled Murrelet
Brachyramphus marmoratus
The marbled murrelet is a small seabird from the North Pacific.
Appearance
The marbled murrelet is a small (25 cm), chunky auk with a slender black bill. It has pointed wings and plumage that varies by season. The non-breeding plumage is typically white underneath with a black crown, nape, wings and back.
Published measurements include mass about 59.8.
Range and habitat
Marbled murrelets occur in summer from Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Barren islands, and Aleutian Islands south along the coast of North America to Point Sal, Santa Barbara County, in south-central California. Even so, they have been found up to 59 miles (95 km) inland in Washington, 35 miles (56 km) inland in Oregon, 22 miles (37 km) inland in northern California, and 11 miles (18 km) inland in central California. In Oregon, they are observed most often within 12 miles (20 km) of the ocean.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Subadults feed singly. But in early July, when pairs of adults are still feeding young, mixed flocks begin to form. Marbled murrelets feed during the day and at night.
Fish and Wildlife Marbled Murrelet The nesting behavior of the marbled murrelet is unusual, since unlike most alcids it does not nest in colonies on cliffs or in burrows, but on branches of old-growth and mature conifers such as western hemlock, Sitka spruce, Douglas-fir and coastal redwood, as far as 80 km inland. It lays one egg on a platform of lichen or moss on these branches (less often on the ground).
In crisis
Its population has declined since humans began logging its nest trees in the latter half of the 19th century. The decline of the marbled murrelet and its association with old-growth forests—at least in the southern part of its range—have made it a flagship species in the forest protection movement. Marbled murrelet populations are affected by many environmental processes.
Loss of their nesting habitat in old-growth trees along with the warming ocean temperatures have serious negative impacts on murrelet populations. The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) aims at stabilizing the marbled murrelet population via maintaining and increasing their nesting habitat.
Marbled Murrelet is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Marbled Murrelet, Wikidata item Q1267620. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
