Synthliboramphus antiquus
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The ancient murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus) is a bird in the auk family. The English term "murrelet" is a diminutive of "murre", a word of uncertain origins, but which may imitate the call of the common guillemot. Ancient murrelets are called "ancient" because they have grey on the back like a shawl, as worn by the elderly.
The ancient 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 auks in the genus Alca and coined the binomial name Alca antiqua. Gmelin based his description on the "ancient auk" that had been described in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Both authors mention a specimen in the Leverian Museum and give the location as the west of North America, the Kuril Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The ancient murrelet is now one of five species placed in the genus Synthliboramphus that was introduced in 1837 by the German-born naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt. The genus name combines Ancient Greek sunthlibō meaning "to compress" with rhamphos meaning "bill"... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Ancient Murrelet sighting in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 173rd most-seen of the 187 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Ancient Murrelet in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March to January, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ancient 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.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Ancient Murrelet sightings, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Kenai Fjords National Park (United States, about 40%), Great Bear Rainforest (Canada, under 5%) and Olympic National Park (United States, under 5%).
Same family: Alcidae
The closest relatives of the Ancient Murrelet that you can see in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (family Alcidae, Auks, Murres, and Puffins) are Marbled Murrelet (about 20%), Pigeon Guillemot (about 10%) and Common Murre (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ancient Murrelet is recorded against all the birds logged in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (17 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.
