Non-breeding plumage of Marbled Murrelet Photo credit: Robin Corcoran
Description
Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) are small water birds that are members of the Aclidae Family, which includes puffins and Auklets. When in breeding plumage, these birds appear with a dark brown body with a lighter brown chest and collar. Their non-breading plumage is more striking: white throat and belly with a dark back, wing and head. They have a white collar going around the back of the head and a partial darker collar going down from the base of the neck into the breast. They were given threatened status in 1990 in British Columbia, but this varies over their range. For example they are considered localy
endangered in California
Distribution
Marbled Murrelets are found in coastal waters and range from northern Alaska as far south as California.
Distribution of the Marbled Murrelet Photo credit: All About Birds
Breeding
A pair of Marbled Murrelets in breeding plumage Photo credit Robin Corcoran
Breeding season lasts from May through September, at which time the fledglings leave the nest to begin foraging in the ocean. During this time breeding plumage is displayed. What makes Marbled Murrelets so unique is that they will nest up to 70 Km inland in old growth
forest. Nests are made on limbs of Coniferous trees (Cedar, Hemlock, Spruce, and Douglas-Fir) where there is plenty of moss. They have to make the long trip from their nests to the ocean in order to gather food for their young several times a-day.
Food
Marbled Murrelets feed on small fish, such as sand lance and herring, as well as small crustaceans including mysids (a shrimp like animal). They do most of their foraging in shallow sheltered places such as channels and fjords.
Interesting facts
- They do not start breeding until about 2 years of age
- They can use their wings to swim underwater after fish
- They may mate for life
- Thought at one point to be the same species at the Long-Billed Murrelet
Similar species
Ancient Murrelet
Kittlitz’s Murrelet
Long-Billed Murrelet
Sources
All about Birds http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Marbled_Murrelet accessed Oct 30 2015
Blood, D.A. 1998. Marbled Murrelet [Brochure]. British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks. http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/murrelet.pdf accessed Oct 30 2015
Sibley, D.A. 2003. The Sibley: Field Guide to Birds of Western North America, First Edition. Andrew Stewart Publishing, Inc. P. 211
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/arcata/es/birds/MM/m_murrelet.html accessed Nov 1 2015
Images
© Robin Corcoran / All about Birds accessed Oct 31 2015
Distribution Map / All about Birds accessed Nov 1 2015
I enjoyed reading your blog Krystal! I always found it interesting that these birds nest far inland in old growth forests. I wondered if you might know what the advantage of this is? Maybe forested areas allow them to hide easier from predators? You would think that having to leave often to forage far away would put their chicks at risk!
Oops, I forgot to put my name in the previous comment!
Thank you! 🙂 Their nests are notoriously hard to find, even for researchers! The chicks do have a low survival rate, this is one of the reasons that they have a hard time recovering when their numbers go down.