Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) 



Drawing by Allan Brooks, compliment! of Tne Muirekt, A Journal of Northwett Ornithology and Mammalogy. 



The Marbled Murrelet is the only breeding 

 alcid in California that has become adapted to 

 nesting habitats inland from coastal rocks and 

 beaches. The locations of Marbled Murrelet nests 

 are the least known of all the seabirds breeding in 

 California. Only four nests have been found 

 throughout the species' en tire range; one in Siberia 

 (Kuzyakin 1963), one in California (Binford et 

 al. 1975, Singer and Verardo 1975), and two on 

 East Amatuli Island in the Barren Islands, Alaska 

 (Simon 1980). Kiff (in press) has recently 

 reviewed the known eggs and nests of this species. 



Of the four nests, both the Siberian and 

 California nests were found in trees, but the 

 Alaskan nests were found on the tundra of a 

 treeless island. The Siberian nest was found in 

 the upper branch of a Larch (Larix dehurica) 6.8 

 meters above the ground (Kuzyakin 1963). The 

 California nest was found 45 meters above the 

 ground on a moss-covered limb of a Douglas-fir 

 (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in Big Basin Redwoods 

 State Park, Santa Cruz County (Binford et al. 

 1975). This nest contained a Marbled Murrelet 

 chick sitting in a small depression encircled by' 

 droppings. 



Binford et al. (1975) theorize that the pale 

 green egg, the cinnamon brown breeding plumage 

 of the adult, and the light brown nestling are 

 cryptic adaptations for nesting in trees. The 

 entire breeding population of Marbled Murrelets 

 in California is suspected to nest in trees. 



Marbled Murrelets seen at sea during the 

 summer are often in pairs and are usually within 1 

 to 2 kilometers of the coast. Breeding birds return 

 to their nests in the evening and depart at dawn. 

 We have observed individual birds, pairs, and 

 groups of up to 60 birds in the breeding season 

 flying over the tree tops at the margin of old 

 growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) 

 forests. An amazing display of this behavior can 

 be seen at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in 

 Humboldt County (Appendix B). Marbled 

 Murrelets may also use coastal forests in winter as 

 evidenced by calling birds flying over the redwood 

 forests during this season (Strachan pers. comm.). 



Marbled Murrelets like all other alcids, spend 

 a large percentage of their time on the ocean. 

 They feed on fish and less frequently on crusta- 

 ceans (Sealy 1975b). 



CALIFORNIA POPULATION 



We observed Marbled Murrelets during the 

 breeding season on coastal waters from the 

 California-Oregon border south to Point Sal, 

 Santa Barbara County. However, two areas of 

 concentration stand out: coastal waters from 

 Eureka to the California-Oregon border and from 

 Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay. These two regions 

 respectively account for 76 and 14 percent of our 

 185 Marbled Murrelet sightings made during the 

 1979 breeding season. During this season our 



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