Craveri’s Murrelet

Synthliboramphus craveri

These birds are resident year round on both coasts of Baja California, but migrate as far north as Monterey in central California.

Three similar looking murrelets occupy overlapping territories off the southern California and northwestern Mexican coasts: the Craveri’s Murrelet, the Scripps’s Murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi), and the Guadalupe Murrelet (Synthliboramphus hypoleucus). Of the three, the Craveri’s Murrelet has the most southerly range.

Their preferred nesting locations are islands in the Gulf of California, or the central Pacific coast of Baja California (Mexico). High rocky ledges seem to provide the most successful sites.

Taxonomists regard the Craveri’s Murrelet as monotypic (there are no subspecies).

I met this species while southbound on a scientific expedition to the Revillagigedo Islands in 2017. So far, those have been my only encounters.

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