Marbled Murrelet Redwood

It nests in old growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow.

Marbled murrelet redwood.

Mountain lions often travel hundreds of miles in a week. The marbled murrelet brachyramphus marmoratus is a small seabird from the north pacific it is a member of the auk family. If you are in the parks in the summertime before the sun comes up you may even hear or see the elusive endangered marbled murrelet brachyramphus marmoratus. Marbled murrelets fly up to 50 miles from the pacific ocean onto land to nest in ancient forests of california oregon and washington.

It spends the majority of its time on the ocean restingoosting and feeding but comes inland up to 80 kilometers 50 miles to nest in forest stands with old growth forest characteristics. Throughout their range marbled murrelets are opportunistic feeders and utilize prey of diverse sizes and species. They need large contiguous areas of diverse habitat to survive especially as the climate changes and they need to adapt quickly. Its habit of nesting in trees was suspected but not documented until a tree climber found a chick in 1974 making it one of the last north american bird species to have its nest.

Old growth and second growth conifer forest dominated by coastal redwoods cover the majority of the parks area. A variety of flycatchers warblers thrushes jays woodpeckers and owls can be found here. The marbled murrelet is a small robin sized diving seabird that feeds primarily on fish and invertebrates in near shore marine waters. Saving the marbled murrelet in 1974 at california s big basin redwood state park the marbled murrelet the enigma of the pacific won the distinction of being the last bird species in the united states to have its nesting site discovered.

A marbled murrelet. Foraging and population ecology of steller s jays in redwood forests. Redwood national and state parks and conservation partners have gone all in to address this problem. Marbled murrelets are long lived seabirds that spend most of their life in the marine environment but use old growth forests for nesting.

Over a million dollars have been spent on marbled murrelet conservation in redwood national and state parks in the last 15 years. An adaptive management process was adopted to deal with an initial dearth of information. Wild endangered creatures like mountain lions coho salmon and marbled murrelet depend on the local redwood forests. Yet even though the state s remaining old growth redwood trees are now protected the murrelets continue to disappear.

Ancient coast redwood forests provide critical nesting habitat for these rare birds at the southern end of their habitat range because old redwood trees have large and broad branches that serve as excellent. Courtship foraging loafing molting and preening occur in near shore marine waters.