
Darrell received a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology at UC, Davis in 1989. He has conducted seabird research in the North Pacific Ocean since 1991, and since 1994 has concentrated his studies on the conservation of
Synthlibormaphus murrelets. In 1995, he developed the night-lighting at-sea capture technique which has been essential in many demographic, population monitoring, radio telemetry, and genetic studies of
Synthliboramphus and
Brachyramphus murrelets. In 2000, he also developed the spotlight survey technique which he has used to determine the distribution and status of Scripps’s and Guadalupe murrelet colonies throughout their range in California, USA and Baja, California, Mexico. Darrell led or collaborated in radio telemetry studies of Scripps's Murrelets (1995-97) and Cassin’s Auklets (1999-2000) in southern California, and Marbled Murrelets in southeast Alaska (1998, 2005-2008) and Oregon (2016-ongoing). From 2000 to 2014, he conducted an important population monitoring study of Scripps’s Murrelets at Anacapa Island, California documenting the improvement in hatching success and colony growth following the eradication of introduced rats. In 2007, he was the lead author of published a manual sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that described research techniques for use in field studies of bird populations and ecological aspects of avian influenza viruses. Darrell has visited Asia annually since 2011 to assist in numerous studies using the night-lighting and spotlight survey techniques to investigate the distribution and status of Japanese Murrelets and Ancient Murrelets, including studies at Birojima (Miyazaki-ken), Eboshijima and Okinoshima (Fukuoka-ken), Kaminoseki (Yamaguchi-ken), Teuri Island (Hokkaido) and Tobishima (Yamagata-ken) in Japan and Gugul-do/Chibal-do (Shinan County) in South Korea. He is currently revising the Scripps’s Murrelet account for the Birds of North America series and is probably the only person in the world to have captured all 5 species of
Synthliboramphus murrelets.