Ancient Murrelet

Ancient Murrelet :

Image source: Google: https://www.audubon.org

Scientific name - Synthliboramphus antiquus

 

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Family	Alcidae
Genus	Synthliboramphus
Species	antiquus

 

About-

They are a seabird. It pertains to the auk family. They are 20- 24 cm long. They weigh 153- 250 g. The wingspan is 45- 46 cm.
They can survive up to 5 years.

Diet-

Ancient Murrelet usually feeds on crustacea, small fishes, sand lances, smelt, saury, rockfish, capelin, herring, and perch. 

Habitat- 

Ancient Murrelet is a seabird. They usually live in open Oceans, salt bays, and mostly on cold water. 

Migration -

They migrate from 8000 km far from Canada so that they could expend winters near Japan and China. Another murrelet flies toward the south in winters as far as California. They are the only bird known to cross the whole North Pacific Ocean.

Identification -

Breeding birds have white-looking eyebrows. Nonbreeding birds have a grayish throat, white breast, and have white patches on the neck. Adults have blackhead, throat, and grey-back, and has white underparts. They have a yellow-colored short bill and round black tail.

Mating and Nesting -

They breed in the yellow sea, through the Russian Pacific coast and Aleutian Island to Haida Gwaii. During mating season males come ashore after dark and start singing songs to impress females. They usually build their nest on the ground on such an island which is covered with grasses, shrubs, trees, etc. They make their nest in colonies on the island of the North Pacific Ocean.  The female lays 1-2 pale buff or olive color eggs with brown spots. They have shifted in the incubation period.  Young ones are not feeding on the best for so long, after 1-3 days of hatching, they are taken to the sea. Parents visit their nests at night and then make a call, then all the young ones leave the nest and come down to the sea. 

They are in the category of least concern, but the number of murrelets is declining for many years this is because of predators like foxes, raccoons, and rats. They usually destroy their nests and eggs.