What Do Marbled Murrelets

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.

What do marbled murrelets.

These stocky little birds dive for zooplankton and fish using their wings to fly underwater. Courtship foraging loafing molting and preening occur in near shore marine waters. Marbled murrelets are semicolonial in nesting habits. 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.

Rarely seen by humans they. Less commonly they make ground nests in a depression in a rocky talus slope boulder field or similar area sometimes on moss matted. Unlike most other seabirds marbled murrelets are solitary. Even where numerous it is usually seen on the water in pairs or aggregations of pairs not in large flocks.

Mottled in milk chocolate brown during the summer adults change into stark black and white for winter. In the pacific northwest now known to nest high in trees in old growth forest several miles inland from coast. 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. Murrelets require old mature forest habitat for their nests.

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. A strange mysterious little seabird. Marbled murrelets do not breed until they are at least two years old. 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. Peak activity occurs from mid june to late july in california and the second week of july to mid august in oregon. They do not form dense colonies. Marbled murrelets nest from mid april to late september.

Marbled murrelets are long lived seabirds that spend most of their life in the marine environment but use old growth forests for nesting. 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. Due to loss of old growth forests many of the remaining california dwelling murrelets nest in protected state parks areas with an abundance of campgrounds. The close association of the marbled murrelet and old growth coastal forests and the science and conservation work done make the murrelets truly an iconic bird in redwood national and state parks.

Marbled murrelets have a naturally low reproductive rate because they lay only one egg per nest and not all adults nest every year.