Birds · Charadriiformes · Alcidae
Marbled Murrelet
Brachyramphus marmoratus
Endangered
At very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
The marbled murrelet is a small auk of the North Pacific with an extraordinary life history: it feeds at sea but nests inside old-growth conifer forests, on a thick moss-covered branch of a centuries-old fir or redwood, sometimes eighty kilometres from the coast. Its nest was not discovered until 1974, which made it an ornithological mystery for almost two centuries.
Weight
190 g – 270 g
Size
24 cm – 25 cm
Life expectancy
12 years
