Synthliboramphus scrippsi
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
Scripps's murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi) is a small seabird found in the California Current system in the Pacific Ocean. This auk breeds on islands off California and Mexico. It is threatened by predators introduced to its breeding colonies and by oil spills.
This species and the Guadalupe murrelet were considered conspecific and were known collectively as Xantus's murrelet until 2012. The two species are now considered distinct based on a lack of evidence of interbreeding at a shared nesting colony on the San Benito Islands, differences in facial pattern and bill shape, and differences in vocalizations and genetics.
This species is a small black and white auk with a small head and thin sharp bill. It resembles the closely related Craveri's murrelet, with which it shares the distinction of being the most southerly living of all the auk species. It breeds on islands in the Channel Islands of California, the largest colonies being on the Coronado Islands [1] and on Santa Barbara Island, and also several islands off Baja California, including Isla Guadalupe. After the breeding season it disperses north at sea, usually to offshore waters, as far as British... Wikipedia →
Recording0:01
United States · 2023
© itazura · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scripps's Murrelet sighting in Channel Islands National Park on a given day, based on 131 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 182nd most-seen of the 276 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scripps's Murrelet in Channel Islands National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months. That is one of Channel Islands National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 60 mm in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scripps's Murrelet sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Channel Islands National Park, in our data
Channel Islands National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Scripps's Murrelet sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scripps's Murrelet is recorded against all the birds logged in Channel Islands National Park (131 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
