Brachyramphus marmoratus
Silhouette: Matías Muñoz · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Marbled Murrelet sighting in Olympic National Park on a given day, based on 188 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 107th most-seen of the 216 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April, August and November–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Marbled Murrelet in Olympic National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–March, May–July and September–October, the lowest months.
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.
6th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Marbled Murrelet sightings, Olympic National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kenai Fjords National Park (United States, about 60%), Great Bear Rainforest (Canada, about 30%) and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (Canada, about 20%).
Same family: Alcidae
The closest relatives of the Marbled Murrelet that you can see in Olympic National Park (family Alcidae, Auks, Murres, and Puffins) are Pigeon Guillemot (about 20%), Common Murre (about 10%) and Rhinoceros Auklet (about 10%), 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 Olympic National Park (188 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.
