Brachyramphus marmoratus
Silhouette: Matías Muñoz · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a small seabird from the North Pacific. It is a member of the family Alcidae, which includes auklets, guillemots, murres and puffins. It nests in old-growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow. Its population has declined since humans began logging its nest trees in the latter half of the 19th century. The decline of the marbled murrelet and its association with old-growth forests—at least in the southern part of its range—have made it a flagship species in the forest protection movement.
The marbled murrelet was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the grebes and loons in the genus Colymbus and coined the binomial name Colymbus marmoratus. Gmelin based his description on the "marbled murrelet" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Both authors mention the two specimens in the Leverian Museum that had been collected in Prince William Sound during James Cook's third... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Katmai National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Marbled Murrelet sighting in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, based on 2,095 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Marbled Murrelet in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, against about 20% in August to May, the lowest months. That is one of Great Bear Rainforest's driest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 480 mm in November.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Marbled Murrelet sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Marbled Murrelet sightings, Great Bear Rainforest ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Kenai Fjords National Park (United States, about 60%).
Same family: Alcidae
The closest relatives of the Marbled Murrelet that you can see in Great Bear Rainforest (family Alcidae, Auks, Murres, and Puffins) are Pigeon Guillemot (about 30%), Common Murre (about 20%) and Rhinoceros Auklet (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Marbled Murrelet is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Bear Rainforest (2,095 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.
