What Do Marbled Murrelets

In the pacific northwest now known to nest high in trees in old growth forest several miles inland from coast.

What do marbled murrelets.

The primary cause of marbled murrelet population decline is the loss and modification of nesting habitat in old growth and mature forests through commercial timber harvests human induced fires. Marbled murrelets are semicolonial in nesting habits. They do not form dense colonies. Unlike most other seabirds marbled murrelets are solitary.

Marbled murrelets do not breed until they are at least two years old. Marbled murrelets have a naturally low reproductive rate because they lay only one egg per nest and not all adults nest every year. The real victim of this phenomenon is the marbled murrelet a federally threatened seabird whose eggs are a food source for steller s jays the marbled murrelet nests in old growth forest in california oregon and washington. Peak activity occurs from mid june to late july in california and the second week of july to mid august in oregon.

A seabird that s also a forest bird the marbled murrelet fishes along the foggy pacific coast then flies inland to nest in mossy old growth trees. Murrelets require old mature forest habitat for their nests. These stocky little birds dive for zooplankton and fish using their wings to fly underwater. Throughout their range marbled murrelets are opportunistic feeders and utilize prey of diverse sizes and species.

A strange mysterious little seabird. Rarely seen by humans they. Marbled murrelets nest from mid april to late september. Because they rely on old growth trees for.

Murrelets feed in the pacific ocean and salish sea sometimes venturing far from shore in search of herring anchovies smelt sandlance eels and other small forage fish. Even where numerous it is usually seen on the water in pairs or aggregations of pairs not in large flocks. Although it is fairly common off the northern pacific coast its nesting behavior was essentially unknown until the 1970s. And about that arcane nickname even though scientists didn t know that marbled murrelets lived up in the old redwood trees before the early 1970s.

Mottled in milk chocolate brown during the summer adults change into stark black and white for winter. Marbled murrelets make tree nests on large moss and lichen covered branches high usually over 40 feet above the ground in mature and old growth coniferous forest normally in the largest tree in the area. Courtship foraging loafing molting and preening occur in near shore marine waters. The marbled murrelet brachyramphus marmoratus is a small pacific seabird listed as threatened under the endangered species act in california oregon and washington.

Less commonly they make ground nests in a depression in a rocky talus slope boulder field or similar area sometimes on moss matted.