Kenney & Kaler: NestingShort habitat Notes of Kittlitz’s Murrelets 73 IDENTIFYING NESTING HABITAT OF KITTLITZ’S MURRELETS BRACHYRAMPHUS BREVIROSTRIS: OLD NESTS LEAD TO A NEW BREEDING RECORD LEAH A. KENNEY1 & ROBB S.A. KALER2 1Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Homer, AK, USA (
[email protected]) 2Migratory Bird Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, AK, USA Received 2 September 2012, accepted 27 December 2012 Kittlitz’s Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is one of the rarest Kittlitz’s Murrelets at Agattu Island (hereafter, Agattu). In 2009, the breeding seabirds in the North Pacific and one of the least known second year of the Agattu murrelet study, we revisited all previously in North America. With a patchy distribution in both Alaska and discovered nests and noted that several nest sites had increased the Russian Far East, the Kittlitz’s Murrelet population in Alaska plant cover compared with the surrounding area. Specifically, nest is estimated at 19 578 individuals (range 8 190–36 193; BirdLife scrapes where a murrelet chick survived for at least 10–15 days International 2012). Owing to its small population size, restricted contained dense mosses (Tetraplodon mnioides; a coprophilous moss distribution, and an apparent rapid population decline, the US Fish usually found growing on fecal materials and animal remains) and and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed Kittlitz’s Murrelet as grasses (Poaceae). Kittlitz’s Murrelet adults provision their young a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act with marine fishes at the nest scrape during the 24–40 day nestling (USFWS 2009). period (Day et al. 1999, Kaler et al.