Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: The secret life of marbled murrelets: monitoring populations and habitats.

Author: Thompson, Jonathan.

Date: 2007

Source: Science Findings 90. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p

Description: The marbled murrelet is a small diving seabird that occupies coastal waters from Alaska to central California. Murrelets have a unique nesting strategy that requires them to commute tens of miles inland, where they use large mossy branches on older conifers as platforms to balance their solitary egg. Populations have been declining for decades as the amount of nesting habitat has been reduced through logging. The murrelet was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. Two years later, Pacific Northwest federal forests were brought under the management of the Northwest Forest Plan, which identified the conservation of marbled murrelet nesting habitat as a primary objective.

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Citation

Thompson, Jonathan.  2007.  The secret life of marbled murrelets: monitoring populations and habitats..   Science Findings 90. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p