A strange mysterious little seabird.
Marbled murrelet nest.
Most animals stick to a life style similar to other closely related species.
But their nesting habits are nothing short of remarkable.
Marbled murrelets nest in oregon from mid april to mid september.
Lo and behold the nesting habitat of marbled murrelets was finally discovered coastal old growth coniferous forests of the pacific northwest.
Both sexes incubate the egg in alternating 24 hour shifts for 30 days.
Though the marbled murrelet was first described in 1789 its nest remained undiscovered until 1974.
Rather than building traditional nests they hunker into the moss covered branches of centuries old trees and lay a single egg relying on the.
Although it is fairly common off the northern pacific coast its nesting behavior was essentially unknown until the 1970s.
Nests are not built but rather the egg is placed in a small depression or cup made in moss or other debris on the limb.
In washington marbled murrelets nest in mature and old growth conifer forests and sometimes in comparatively younger forests with residual old growth trees.
They locate their nest in a depression on a mat of moss lichen or debris accumulations on large branches.
The sexually mature adult murrelet at age 2 or 3 of an average 15 year lifespan generally lays a single egg on a mossy limb of an old growth conifer tree.
M arbled murrelets produce one egg per nest and usually only nest once a year however re nesting is documented.
It nests in old growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow.
The marbled murrelet usually nests in trees 200 years old or older.
They typically lay their single egg high in a tree on a horizontal limb at least 4 inches in.
Marbled murrelets are seabirds that forage in marine waters but nest in forests.
Incubation lasts about 30 days and chicks fledge after about 28 days after hatching.
With the discovery of a murrelet nest in a tree a major evolutionary leap in seabird biology was revealed.
The marbled murrelet brachyramphus marmoratus is a small seabird from the north pacific.
It is a member of the auk family.
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.
In the pacific northwest now known to nest high in trees in old growth forest several miles inland from coast.