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Birdwatch Magazine reports

Threatened seabird successfully breeds in artificial nests for first time

The declining Japanese Murrelet has bred for the first time in specially made concrete nest boxes, a promising start to its conservation efforts from BirdLife.

The Japanese Murrelet is a small seabird with an equally small range to match, as it is only found in warm waters close to Japan. The birds’ breeding range is smaller still, concentrated mainly on the ground of rock reefs or isolated islands from Kanto region and to the west, where they make their nests in the cracks of rocks. For the chicks, the stay on these uninhabited islands is brief: two days after hatching, the chick abandons the nest for the sea and is fed by its parents off the coast.

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