Shoreline regions of the north Pacific Ocean: Western - Japan to Kamchatka, Russia, Eastern- central California to southern Alaska.

Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); palearctic (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )

occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (200,000-2,500,000 square km (about 80,000-1,000,000 square miles)) Breeding range extends from the western Aleutian Islands through coastal southern and southeastern Alaska, British Columbia (up to 100 kilometers inland), Washington, Oregon, and northern central California (mainly Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties to 15 km inland, southcentral Humboldt County 20-40 km inland, and southern San Mateo and northern Santa Cruz counties up to 20 km inland; Carter and Erickson in Carter and Morrison 1992); few occupied sites are known between Tillamook County in Oregon and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington (USFWS 1994). See USFWS (1994) and Federal Register (10 August 1995) for maps of proposed Critical Habitat in California, Oregon, and Washington. During the nonbreeding season, the range extends from southern Alaska south to central California, mostly adjacent to known or suspected nesting areas. Most of the Alaskan population is concentrated offshore of large tracts of coastal coniferous forests in southeastern Alaska (Alexander Archipelago), Prince William Sound, and the Kodiak Archipelago (Piatt and Ford 1993). See Marshall (1988), Carter and Morrison (1992), and Piatt et al. (2007) for further details for specific states and provinces.

Coded range extent pertains to breeding range.

The Marbled Murrelet is a very small, chubby, sea bird that seems to lack a neck. It has a dark brown to black dorsum and a white venter and throat. The nonbreeding plumage includes a strip of white between the back and the wing, thus the name "marbled". The breeding plumage is dark brown dorsally; ventral feathers are white tipped with brown. Males and females are of approximately the same size, 9.5-10" wingspan. Bill length is 13-18 mm; wing length (relaxed) is 120-140mm. The voice of the Marbled Murrelet is a sharp "keer" or lower "kee."

Length: 25 cm

Weight: 222 grams

Resembles Kittlitz's Murrelet but summer plumage lacks buff speckling on upperparts and lacks white-tipped secondaries and white outer tail feathers; also, has a longer bill and, in winter, upperparts are not as gray, nor is the face extensively white (dark around eye instead of white), nor is there a nearly complete breast band. Juvenile diifers from juvenile Kittlitz's Murrelet in having a longer bill and darker face, and by lacking pale outer tail feathers. (NGS 1983, Ridgway 1919).

• Terrestrial
• Freshwater
• Marine

The general habitat of the Marbled Murrelet is near coastal waters, tide-rips, bays, and mountains. Nesting sites are in higher elevations, exclusively in old growth forests of 175-600 years in age (barring a few ground nests on Alaskan Islands). Nest sites are large, moss covered, horizontal branches with an average height of 45 meters. The sites are often a substantial distance from the coast (Peterson, 1961; Carter and Morrison, 1992; Singer, 1990).

Terrestrial Biomes: forest

Aquatic Biomes: coastal

Comments: Coastal areas, mainly in salt water within 2 km of shore (Marshall 1988), including bays and sounds; not uncommon up to 5 km offshore; occasionally also on rivers and lakes usually within 20 km of ocean (but up to 75 km), especially during breeding season (Carter and Sealy 1986). In Alaska, marine habitats mostly are offshore of large tracts of old-growth coastal coniferous forest, especially Sitka spruce and hemlock (Piatt and Ford 1993).

In central California, visited old-growth forest nesting areas (8-9 km from ocean) year-round; fall and winter visitation of nesting areas occurs regularly in other areas of North America as well; perhaps attendance in nonbreeding season is important in maintenance of pair bonds and nest sites (Naslund 1993). Nests often are in mature/old growth coniferous forest near the coast: on large mossy horizontal branch, mistletoe infection, witches broom, or other structure providing a platform high in mature conifer (e.g., Douglas-fir, mountain hemlock). Most nesting occurs in large stands of old growth. Nest sites generally have good overhead protection. See Quinlan and Hughes (1990), Singer et al. (1991), and USFWS (1996) for characteristics of tree nests.

In California, most inland activity takes place in or to the west of old-growth stands of 250 ha or more (Paton and Ralph 1990).

On the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, most inland activity (May-July) was in old growth forest, especially stands of large Sitka spruce and western hemlock (Rodway et al. 1993). Nesting or probable nesting has been recorded up to 47 km and 61 km inland in Oregon (Levy 1993), up to 84 km inland in Washington, and up to 56 km inland in California (USFWS 1994). On the British Columbia coast, nesting birds flew 12-102 kilometers (mean 39 kilometers) inland from foraging sites on the water (Hull et al. 2001).

In Alaska, a few percent of the population nests on islands on open barren ground or in a rock cavity, generally a short distance below a peak or ridge (Day et al. 1983, Carter and Sealy 1986, Marshall 1988, Kuletz 1990, Carter and Morrison 1992). Ford and Brown (1995) reported a clifftop nest in old-growth forest in southeastern Alaska.

Silent individuals flying below the forest canopy indicate nesting in the immediate area (Levy 1993).

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

An adult murrelet was observed carrying a fish, presumably for a hatchling. Murrelets eat primarily fish, including Pacific sandlance, Pacific herring, and seaperch. They forage for food solitarily or in pairs, sometimes amongst mixed species feeding flocks (Carter and Morrison, 1992).

Comments: Diet includes fishes (sandlance, capelin, herring, etc.), crustaceans (mysids, euphausiids), mollusks. In British Columbia, adult diet during the breeding season is mostly fishes, primarily Pacific Sandlance and Pacific Herring; euphausiids are important in spring at Langara Island; sandlance are the prey most frequently fed to nestlings (Rodway et al., in Carter and Morrison 1992). May feed exclusively on freshwater prey for period of several weeks in some areas; feeds on fingerling Sockeye Salmon and salmon fry in some British Columbia lakes (Carter and Sealy 1986). Foraging occurs mainly in waters up to 80 m deep and up to 2 km from shore. Foraging dives may be up to about 30 m below surface.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

Comments: Total number of occurrences has not been determined using standardized criteria, but likely there are well over one hundred. Specific nesting and foraging areas are still being described (Simons 1980; Day et al. 1983; Marshall 1988; Carter and Sealy 1987; Quinlan and Hughes 1990; Singer et al. 1991; Ralph et al. 1995).

100,000 - 1,000,000 individuals

Comments: Total adult population size is a few hundred thousand, with a few 10,000s in Washington-Oregon-California, 54,000-92,000 in British Columbia, and around 270,000 in Alaska (Carter and Morrison 1992, Speich et al. 1992, Speich and Wahl 1995, Varoujean and Williams 1995, Ralph et al. 1995, McShane et al. 2004, Piatt et al. 2007).

Solitary, or in pairs, small groups, or loose aggregations. In most areas, generally does not flock with other birds, but may participate in mixed-species feeding flocks in the absence of interference from larger diving birds (Mahon et al. 1992).

The only confirmed record of predation on an adult at its nest involved a Sharp-shinned Hawk in Alaskan old-growth forest (Marks and Naslund 1994).

Species has high fidelity to nesting areas and nest trees (see Nelson 1997).

Despite the urgent need for an assessment of the demographic state of populations, the species is so secretive that reliable estimates of the required vital rates are rare. Survival estimates obtained through capture-recapture data from a population in British Columbia were 0.8289 and 0.9289, based on different samples corresponding to two capture techniques. The study area had been and continues to be heavily logged (Cam et al. 2003).

Comments: Young are fed at night or around dusk or dawn. Feeding has been observed at night (Carter and Sealy 1986). At Redwood Experimental Forest, northwestern California, activity levels were greatest 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after sunrise in May, June, and July (Paton et al., in Carter and Morrison 1992). In old growth forest in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, number of detections peaked in late July; detections were most likely to occur on cloudy mornings (Rodway et al. 1993).

Average lifespan

Status: wild: 120 months.

The Marbled Murrelet breeds on mountains near the coast. Breeding season is from mid-April to the end of August. Females have been collected with shelled eggs in their oviducts from April 23 to July 13. The murrelet has single egg clutches. Murrelets may not fledge young until mid-September, based on a 30-day incubation and a 28-day rearing period. Nesting sites are almost exclusively in old-growth forests, yet some have been found in cavities in subalpine areas, and on the ground on islands. Murrelet eggs are yellowish and spotted. The first known nest was found in a rock slide far above the timber line at 1900 ft. on Chicago Island, Alaska, on June 13, 1931. (Peterson,1961; Carter and Morrison, 1992).

Nesting season: late March to late September; downy young, and fledged juveniles have been observed June-September. Activity in forest nesting areas is highest from mid-April through late July in California and Oregon, early May through early August in Washington, and mid-May through early August in Alaska (see Levy 1993). Clutch size is 1. Incubation lasts about 30 days, by both sexes alternately in 24-hr shifts. Nestling is visited and fed by parent 2-4 times each day, fledges in 27-40 days (Marshall 1988, Levy 1993). Appears to nest semicolonially (see USFWS 1994). In a study on the British Columbia coast, foraging distance from nest (i.e. energy spent commuting) had no influence on nesting success (Hull et al. 2001).

• 2008
  Endangered
• 2005
  Endangered
• 2004
  Endangered
• 2000
  Vulnerable
• 1994
  Not Recognized
• 1988
  Not Recognized

The Alaskan population is estimated at 250,000 birds, centered in south central and south eastern parts of the state, but extending into Bristol Bay and along the Aleutian Islands. This represents the bulk of the North American population. Logging efforts are expanding in the areas of the greatest murrelet population. Continued logging will produce major declines in murrelet numbers. Inland records from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon suggested the presence of nests in old growth forests, although none had been found prior to 1990. Marbled Murrelet numbers in British Columbia are an estimated 45,000-50,000 birds, with the highest density on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Marbled Murrelet population of Washington is estimated at 5,000, centered in the northern Puget Sound area. Oregon's population is estimated at 2,000-4,000 birds, located mostly in the central coastal region. There is also a small population of murrelets, (1400-1700 birds) on the north central coast of California.

Threats include mainly the loss of old-growth forests (all locales), some mortality from gill nets (responsible for the annual death of 7.8% of the British Columbia population), and oil pollution (Alaska and Washington). Very little of the existing old-growth forests are currently protected. One locale of substantial old growth forest in British Columbia was expected to decrease 95% in 50 years due to harvest schedules. Four of the five locations where fledglings were found in Washington state have been logged. Of Oregon's old growth forests, 44% is in stands of less than 32 hectares or within 122 meters of a clearcut. This isolation of small patches of forest may decrease reproductive success and increase predation at nest sites. In California, only 4% of the original acreage of Redwood trees is currently protected. This obliteration of habitat could be responsible for the sparse numbers of murrelet in California.

The Marbled Murrelet is considered endanged in California, and threatened in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Its low reproductive rate prevents fast recovery from population decreases. The Marbled Murrelet is one of the few species of alcids whose known and suspected nesting habitat is not protected by federal refuge designation. Several lawsuits have been filed to defer the logging of old-growth forests where murrelets are known or suspected to live. In order to save the habitat of the marbled murrelet there need to be larger forest reserves and/or substantial changes in the logging practices.

Ground searches produced only 15 nest locations up until 1987

Tree searches since then have produced 19 nest locations in old growth forests. Due to the difficulty of locating the nests of these elusive birds, it is necessary to implement plans for further research before the Marbled Murrelet becomes an indicator species such as the spotted owl (Carter and Morisson, 1992).

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: endangered

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N2 - Imperiled

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: Extensive range along the Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to California; population numbers still high in British Columbia and Alaska, but declining; threats from habitat loss due to logging, oil spills, and gill net fisheries are increasing.

Rank of G3G4 was confirmed using NatureServe Rank Calculator Estimator Version 6.11.

Intrinsic Vulnerability: Moderately vulnerable

Comments: Low reproductive rate (1 egg/pair/season); slow recovery rate.

Global Short Term Trend: Decline of 30-70%

Comments: Compiling available abundance information, Piatt et al. (2007) estimated that in the recent past, the marbled murrelet population in Alaska numbered on the order of 1 million birds (it was not possible to generate a similar estimate for historical population size in British Columbia). Information from at-sea surveys spanning a wide geographic range in Alaska indicated that murrelet numbers declined significantly at five of eight trend sites at annual rates of -5.4 to -12.7 percent since the early 1990s. Applying these rates of decline to the historical population estimate, Piatt et al. (2007) estimated the current murrelet population in Alaska to be on the order of 270,000 birds. This represents an overall population decline of about 70 percent during the past 25 years. In British Columbia, available trend data indicate that murrelet populations there have experienced similar declines. Updating a recent (2002) population estimate for British Columbia, Piatt et al. concluded that there are now between 54,000 and 92,000 murrelets in British Columbia. The rates of decline are within, but at the high end of, a range of rates expected by chance (Piatt et al. 2007). Given that declines were estimated for sites over essentially the entire northern range of the species, there is cause for concern about the species' status.

On the southern coast of Washington, north coast of Oregon, and in California south of Humboldt County, murrelets are rare or uncommon where they once were common or abundant in the early 1900s (Ralph et al. 1995).

Degree of Threat: B : Moderately threatened throughout its range, communities provide natural resources that when exploited alter the composition and structure of the community over the long-term, but are apparently recoverable

Comments: Most populations are dependent on large trees in old-growth forests for nest sites. Continued harvest of old-growth and mature coastal coniferous forest that reduces critical nesting habitat is a major concern throughout most of the range (Sealy and Carter 1984, Marshall 1988, Mendenhall 1992, Rodway et al. 1992, Leschner and Cummins 1992, Nelson et al. 1992, Carter and Erickson 1992, Carter and Morrison 1992; see also Rodway 1990 COSEWIC report). Marbled murrelets have lost about 15 percent of their suitable nesting habitat in Southeast Alaska, and 33 to 49 percent in British Columbia, from industrial-scale logging within the past half century (Piatt et al. 2007). Ralph (1994) estimated that 80 percent of the old-growth forests within the range of this species in the Pacific Northwest had been removed over the last 150 years.

Marbled murrelets are vulnerable to incidental mortality associated with salmon gillnet fisheries (Sealy and Carter 1984, Wynne et al. 1991). The gill-net threat is greatest north of Oregon (Levy 1993). Annual bycatch mortality in salmon gillnetting operations in British Columbia and in Alaska (especially in Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska) is likely in the low thousands per year, although bycatch rates are difficult to measure (Piatt et al. 2007).

The species' inshore distribution coincides with high levels of vessel traffic and makes them especially vulnerable to both chronic oil pollution and to catastrophic spills (King and Sanger 1979, King 1984, Sealy and Carter 1984, Mendenhall 1992, Rodway et al. 1992, Leschner and Cummins 1992, Nelson et al. 1992, Carter and Erickson 1992, Piatt et al. 2007). The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in south-central Alaska is estimated to have killed 12,000 to 15,000 murrelets (Piatt et al 2007).

Other threats include direct and indirect mortality associated with the location and operation of mariculture facilities. These threats include: entanglement, displacement of birds from traditional foraging areas, contamination of foods by antibiotics, antifoulants, and alteration of local food supplies due to decomposition of fish food and fish excrement associated with these farms (Vermeer and Morgan 1989, Rodway et al. 1992, Leschner and Cummins 1992). Murrelets in some areas may also be subject to high levels of industrial pollutants (Fimreite et al. 1971, Rodway et al. 1992).

Listed populations are currently experiencing very low recruitment rates, due at least in part to nest predation (by edge species, such as bald eagle, common raven, and Steller's jay, that are now more abundant due to forest fragmentation) and probably high mortality in young prior to reaching the ocean (USFWS 1994, 1996). Populations in the Aleutians may have been higher before foxes were introduced there (Mendenhall in Carter and Morrison 1992).

Finally, nesting habitat losses cannot explain the declines observed in areas where industrial logging has not occurred on a large scale (e.g., Prince William Sound) or at all (Glacier Bay) (Piatt et al. 2007). Those declines probably are related to combined and cumulative effects from climate-related changes in the marine ecosystem (most likely the 1977 regime shift) and human activities (logging, gillnet bycatch, oil pollution) (Piatt et al. 2007).

Management Requirements: See U.S. Forest Service et al. (1993), Thomas et al. (1993), and USFWS (1994) for discussions of management issues.

Biological Research Needs: Further research is needed on methods for measuring population status and change, adult mortality (major sources, density dependence, seasonal concordance), and the movements of wintering populations (Piatt et al. 2007).

Global Protection: Few to several (1-12) occurrences appropriately protected and managed

Comments: Protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty in the United States and Canada and also under the Endangered Species Act in the United States. It is federally listed as a Threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and California and is a former candidate species (Category 2) in Alaska (USFWS 1992a, b). The status of the Alaska population is
currently under review (Robards et al. 2003).

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1996) designated Critical Habitat in Washington, Oregon, and California. Critical Habitat included 32 Critical Habitat Units that were considered essential to the conservation of the species. The National Audubon Society recently purchased habitat in Oregon along Tenmile Creek, an area that supports the largest concentration of Marbled Murrelets in that state (Ehrlich et al. 1992).

Protected under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) in Canada. In British Columbia, the Marbled Murrelet is a "Red" listed species (candidate for official extirpated, endangered or threatened status in BC; Fraser et al. 1999).

Needs: Protect critical old-growth nesting and feeding areas; increase response capability against oil spills; monitor gill net takes and regulate harvests to minimize murrelet mortality; prevent pollution of feeding areas; prevent displacement of murrelets from historic foraging areas by disturbance and development.

If additional research finds that the marbled murrelet lives exclusively in old-growth forests and that their numbers decrease proportionally with the decrease in acres of forest, then it could be deemed an indicator species thus a justifiable deterent for further logging operations. The decrease in logging leads to a loss of income and jobs in the logging industry (Carter, Morrison).

Increasing numbers of people are spending considerable sums of money to reach marine bird viewing areas off the coasts of North American States and Provinces. These "nonconsumptive pursuits" (Barry, 1979) contribute significant amounts of money to regional economies. Also, there are indirect commercial benefits. Marine birds play significant roles in their complex ecosystem. Disruption of that ecosystem by the extinction of sea birds could have an adverse affect on the fishing industry. Marine bird excrement, (.12-.24 million tons annually!!) is especially rich in nitrates and phosphates, which phytoplankton, the basis of ocean food pyramids, requires (Berry, 1979).

Comments: Tree- and ground-nesting populations exhibit no morphological divergence and little genetic divergence (Pitocchelli et al. 1995).

Populations on Asian and North American sides of Beringia exhibit mtDNA differentiation consistent with species-level distinctness (Zink et al. 1995); because sample sizes were small, Zink et al. did not recommend a formal taxonomic change. However, the (Asian) long-billed murrelet (B. perdix) was subsequently split from the American B. marmoratus (Friesen et al. 1996, AOU 1997).

Friesen et al. (1996) examined variation in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and in 39 allozyme loci for North American and Asian (then B. m. perdix) marbled murrelets and Kittlitz's murrelet (B. brevirostris) and found significant genetic variation among marbled murrelet populations from different sites within North America.

Genetic data presented by Piatt et al. (2007) indicate that the marbled murrelet is represented by three populations, comprising birds in (1) the central and western Aleutian Islands, (2) central California, and (3) the center of the range from the eastern Aleutians to northern California.