Murrelet Videos

 

Marbled Murrelet In Peril

As of April 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not acted on its plans (announced in October 2005) to remove federal Endan-gered Species Act protections for the marbled murrelet in California, Oregon, and Wash-ington. Despite the genetics research done on this species, the USFWS concluded that the dwindling population of marbled murrelets in the tri-state area is not distinct enough from the populations in Alaska to warrant special protec-tion. Apparently there are "enough" Marbled Murrelets in Alaska and Canada where the population of these seabirds (though also dwindling) is still considered robust.

Once the USFWS makes its formal delisting proposal a yearlong evalua-tion process will begin. This process may include a public comment period in which YOU can write, e-mail, or voice your opinion against the de-listing. Opposition to—and support of—the delisting will be considerable. Voicing your opinion at this critical time could help save the Marbled Murrelet.

If you would like to be kept abreast of the delisting process, please contact Maria@MariaRuthBooks.com. Your e-mail address will be kept confidential and will be used only to notify you of marbled murrelet news.

Pair of Marbled Murrelets

About the Marbled Murrelet

A marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a member of the alcid, or auk, family of swimming and surface-diving birds of the North Atlantic and Pacific, which includes the guillemots and puffins. The extinct, flightless great auk, Pinguinus impennis, or garefowl, represents the largest species in this family. Auks legs are set far back on their bodies, making them clumsy on land, where they seldom venture except to nest. Auks return to the same breeding grounds every year, and each individual goes to the very same nesting site. The single egg is typically laid on bare rock on cliff ledges. The marbled murrelet is one of ventures well inland; it is the only auk to nest in trees. Auks are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Charadriiformes, family Alcidae.

The marbled murrelet is an agile underwater swimmer and an energetic and high-speed flier (up to 103 m.p.h.). It spends 95% of its life at sea, After a month, a downy chick hatches and the parents continue their 24-hour shifts, but their visits to the nest are only to deliver whole fish to their chick—up to eight times each day.

The first bird known to science was collected in 1778 during one of Captain James Cook’s voyages to the Pacific Northwest, but it was not until 1974 that the first tree nest—148 feet up a Douglas-fir tree—was discovered and scientifically documented. The strange life of this endearing seabird and the men and women who pursued it at sea and in the forest for 185 years is the subject of my book, Rare Bird.

 
 

The Nest

A marbled murrelet will fly as far as 52 miles inland to lay its egg on a wide branch high in the top of mature and old-growth redwoods, firs, spruces, cedars, and hemlocks. Most nests are impossible to see from the ground and are usually found by persevering biologists and expert tree climbers after lengthy searches.

 
 

The Egg

Though the marbled murrelet is the size of a robin, it lays a single egg the size of a chicken egg. Male and female murrelets both incubate the egg, exchanging incubation duties every 24 hours at dawn for one month. While one bird warms the egg, the other flies back to the ocean to forage.

 
 

The Chick

After it hatches the downy chick is brooded for just a few days, and then is left alone for a month. The chick remains silent and still for 85 percent of the time on the nest.

 
 

The Fledgling

After about a month on the nest, this chick has fully developed black-and-white flight feathers and is ready to fledge. Without its camouflaging plumage, the boldly-patterned juvenile is more visible to forest predators such as jays and ravens. Once this bird leaves its nest for the sea, it leaves sure but subtle clue to its nest site--a white ring of droppings on the green moss.

 
 

At Sea

Marbled Murrelets are wary, skittish, and boat shy. With good binoculars and sturdy sea legs, you can recognize adult murrelets by their distinctive field marks.

In winter…
-- dark cap extending below the eye
-- white throat, nape, and underparts
-- dark patch on side of breast
-- dark back, wings, and tail
white scapulars

In summer…
-- dark rufous brown above
-- heavily barred underparts
-- pale buffy area on side of rump

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World's Oldest Marbled Murrelet

In 1778, these marbled murrelet specimens were collected in Alaska by naturalists on board the H.M.S. Resolution, a ship under the command of Captain James Cook during this third voyage of discovery around the world. They were identified only as “divers” and were brought back to London in 1780. They made their way into the private collection of Sir Joseph Banks, then into a museum of natural “curiosities,” and then the Imperial Collection in Vienna, Austria. Currently, the specimens are in the ornithology collection of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. They are considered the first murrelets known to science.

Theed Pearse published this photograph in 1955 in the journal The Murrelet (now the Northwestern Naturalist) along with evidence documenting the links the Resolution.

 
 

Mystery Bird of 1792

This drawing was drawn in 1792 and published in Noticias de Nutka (News from Nootka) an account of life in Nootka Sound, along the coast of British Columbia's Vancouver Island, written by Spanish botanist-naturalist José Mariano Mozino.

The artist, Atanasio Echeverria, clearly drew from life--not from a preserved specimen--and thus created one of the most accurate early portraits of the species. Noticias de Nutka was not widely distributed upon publication and this image was seen by few.

 
 

Wishful Thinking

Well-known illustrator-naturalists in the 18th and 19th centuries depicted the marbled murrelet on land where it was widely assumed they would come to breed during the summer. In 1794, Thomas Pennant’s Arctic Zoology featured a marbled murrelet (then known as a marbled guillemot) with its webbed feet firmly planted on shore (below). John James Audubon portrayed two murrelets standing on the shore in a penguin-like posture (bottom).  Not until 1974, did scientists learn that during a murrelet’s lifetime, it’s feet never touch the ground; the birds fly directly from the sea to a nesting tree.

 
 

Where to See Real, Live Marbled Murrelets

State, national, and provincial parks along the U.S. and Canadian coast offer some of the best and most accessible opportunities to see murrelets on the water and flying over the old-growth coastal forests. Contact park headquarters for information on local breeding season and the best viewing spots.

Click to enlarge map

Beginning in April in California, marbled murrelets start flying inland to the old-growth coastal forests to breed. The most accessible places to see these spectacular flights from land are the coastal state, national, and provincial parks that protect old-growth coniferous forests.

Park rangers may be able to point you to the best murrelet-watching sites—usually a clearing in the forest where you have a good view of the sky. Your best chance to see the birds is around dawn—45 minutes before official sunrise and 75 minutes after—when the birds are making incubation exchanges or feeding visits. 

Dress warmly, bring a flashlight or headlamp, binoculars, a thermos of hot coffee. If you have a cassette tape recorder, bring that along to capture the distinctive calls of the Murrelet—keers, groans, whistles—and wing beats. If you hear or record the rarely heard “jet airplane” sound these birds make when making a steep dive, please contact biologist Steve Singer at swsingerms@aol.com.