petrel | bird | Britannica.com Petrel shearwater Petrel, any of a number of seabirds of the order Procellariiformes , particularly certain members of the family Procellariidae, which also includes the fulmars and the shearwaters . Members of the family Hydrobatidae are increasingly called storm petrels; those of the Pelecanoididae are usually called diving petrels (see diving petrel ; storm petrel ). Fork-tailed storm petrel (Oceanodroma furcata). C. Schlawe/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Among the procellariid petrels, some two dozen species of the genera Pterodroma and Bulweria are called gadfly petrels because their flight is more fluttering than that of the related shearwaters (see shearwater ). Certain heavy-bodied petrels are known as fulmars , and one, Macronectes giganteus, is called both giant fulmar and giant petrel (see fulmar ). Gadfly petrels nest in loose colonies on islands in the tropical and subtropical regions of the major oceans. A single egg (rarely two) is laid on the soil surface or in a burrow or crevice.

The chick is tended by both parents and deserted about a week before it is fully fledged; it completes its development on stored fat. During the nonbreeding season, these birds roam the open ocean, feeding on squid and small fish. Most gadfly petrels are dark above and light beneath, with long wings and short, wedge-shaped tails. Because they are quite similar in appearance, the species are difficult to distinguish. Fiji petrel (Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi) off the coast of Gui Island, Fiji. Dr. Jorg Kretzschmar/NatureFiji-MareqetiViti Some of the better known gadfly petrels are the endangered Bermuda petrel, or cahow (Pterodroma cahow, sometimes considered a race of P. hasitata); the dark-rumped petrel, also called the Hawaiian petrel (P. phaeopygia), another endangered species, now concentrated almost entirely on the island of Maui; the phoenix petrel (P. alba), which breeds on several tropical archipelagos; and the black-capped petrel, or diablotin (P.

hasitata), formerly found throughout the West Indies but now known only in Haiti. Several other species, including the Chatham Island (or magenta) petrel, the Galápagos dark-rumped petrel, and the Réunion petrel, are also on the endangered list. Bonin petrel (Pterodroma hypoleuca) buried in the sand after a tsunami generated by … Pete Leary/USFWS Wilson's Storm-Petrel - Whatbird.com Wilson's Storm-Petrel Copyright © 2004 - 2017 Mitch Waite Group PHOTOS Photos we are missing. CONSERVATION STATUS The Wilson's Storm-Petrel has a very large range reaching up to generally between 50,000 to 100,000 square kilometers. This bird can be found throughout an enormous area including all of North America - meaning Canada, the United States and Mexico, a majority of South and Central America and the Caribbean and areas of Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well. This is a marine bird found primarily in rocky and shoreline areas containing sea cliffs and peaks. The global population of this bird is estimated to be around 6 million individual birds.

It is not believed that the population trends for this species will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for the Wilson's Storm-Petrel have a present evaluation level of Least Concern. IBIRD EXPLORER GENERAL posted on June 12, 2016 09:03 PM SUMMARY Overview Wilson's Storm Petrel: This small storm-petrel has a brown-black body, pale brown wing bands and a large, white rump. It has a fine black bill with very pronounced tubes. It feeds mainly on pelagic crustaceans and fish. The wings are short and rounded. The feet extend past the tail in flight. It has a direct flight with steady, shallow wing beats. The sexes are similar in size and coloration. Range and Habitat Wilson's Storm-Petrel: Breeds on rocky islands in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic seas; in non-breeding season, this species ranges northward over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans; in the eastern Pacific it is very rarely found north to Monterey Bay. Highly pelagic, it comes ashore only to breed.

SONGS AND CALLS "Peep-peep-peep-peep" INTERESTING FACTS They are difficult birds for most people to see because they spend all their lives at sea when not breeding, and even during the breeding season they only come to land after dark and leave again before dawn. They have yellow webbing between their toes. Modern field guides do not usually show this characteristic as it is not really a field mark being so rarely observed. Wilson's Storm-petrels have one of the longest migrations known, and travel in a figure eight each year from breeding grounds in the Antarctic to the subarctic feeding grounds and back again. SIMILAR BIRDS About this North America Map This map shows how this species is distributed across North America. RANGE MAP HAWAII This map shows how this species is distributed across the Hawaiian island. FAMILY DESCRIPTION Storm-Petrels (Hydrobatidae) ORDER A taxonomic order of tube-nosed seabirds, the PROCELLARIIFORMES (pronounced pro-sel-lehr-EYE-ih-FOR-meez) includes large, long-winged families such as the shearwaters and albatrosses, and the much smaller storm-petrels.

FAMILY TAXONOMY In the Hydrobatidae (pronounced heye-droh-BAH-tih-dee) are included twenty-two species of storm-petrels in seven genera found throughout the oceans of the world. NORTH AMERICA Fifteen species of storm-petrels in five genera have occurred in North American waters (including the extinct Guadalupe Storm-Petrel). The sparrow-sized Least Storm-Petrel, the numerous Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, and the rare White-faced Storm-Petrel are members of this maritime family. KNOWN FOR The Wilson’s Storm-Petrel is known for the peculiar behavior of pattering its feet on the surface of the water while foraging. Storm-petrels in general are known for being birds of the marine environment that only come to shore to breed. PHYSICAL Storm-petrels are small birds with long wings and medium to long tails that can be forked, square, or wedge-like in shape. Their legs are fairly long with webbed feet, and they have rounded pigeon-like heads. The bills of storm-petrels are small with a slightly hooked tip and tube-like nasal structures to expel excess salt.

COLORATION Except for the gray and white Fork-tailed and White-faced Storm-Petrels, North American members of this family have dark, sooty brown or black plumages. Some species also show a bit of gray in the wings, and white at the base of the tail. The webs of the feet of the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel are yellow (a characteristic rarely visible in field conditions). GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT Storm-Petrels are birds that only occur in salt-water habitats and can be found off both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America. Usually, they are only encountered well offshore although the Least and Black Storm-Petrels can sometimes be seen from land. MIGRATION Except for the non-migratory Ashy Storm-Petrel, storm-petrels are very long distance migrants, the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel in particular making incredible voyages from its breeding grounds in the Antarctic to waters of the Northern Hemisphere. HABITS Storm-Petrels nest in colonies and often forage in flocks that fly low over the water to pick small sea creatures and carrion off the surface.

Flight patterns differ by species; some pattering the surface of the water with their feet, others flying in zig-zags and other species with rapid, almost bat-like wing-beats. CONSERVATION The Ashy Storm-Petrel is the only endangered North American storm-petrel species. It only breeds on islands off the California and Baja California coasts, and has strongly declined in numbers because of pollution. INTERESTING FACTS Like other Procellariiformes, storm-petrels are long-lived for being small birds; some individuals have lived for over thirty years. They are also highly nocturnal when coming to land to avoid depredation by large gulls. The name “petrel” is thought to have been derived from the name “Peter,” and is an allusion between the story of that Christian saint walking on water and the birds’ doing the same thing while foraging. TERMINOLOGY The Life of Birds | Champion Birds by Gareth Huw Davies This is a section of superlatives. The birds flying highest, furthest and fastest. The birds diving deepest, enduring the harshest conditions. The birds most splendid and most curious. If we look for the champion of champions, it must be the Arctic tern .

This is the bird that roves over more of the planet than any other creature. It is the longest distance migrant, and so enjoys more daylight than any other creature. Breeding north of the Arctic Circle, it migrates southwards the length of the world to reach the Antarctic pack ice, 11,000 miles away. The tern goes far, but surely no bird lives life faster than the hummingbird. The heartbeat of the North American hummingbird has been timed at 1,000 beats a minute -- that's 16 beats a second. Hummingbirds migrate from the United States to Central and South America to feed on the flowering tropical plants there. Some fly the 500 miles straight across the Gulf of Mexico, an awesome feat of endurance for a bird so tiny. The peregrine falcon may be the fastest bird on earth. Its dive, or "stoop," on an intended victim has been timed at 180 mph. One of the most skilled hunters of all is the great gray owl, which hunts entirely by sound.

It sits on a larch branch surveying a snowfield, straining with its extraordinary super-stereo hearing -- one ear is placed higher then the other -- to detect the ghost of a scrabble from beneath the surface. Suddenly, on silent wing, it lunges into the snow like an osprey into water and plucks out a lemming. The North American humming- bird's heart has been timed at 1000 beats per second The bird with the keenest sense of smell may be the turkey vulture. In the rain forest of Trinidad, Sir David Attenborough conducted a remarkable experiment. He buried some meat in leaf litter. Well within an hour, vultures had detected the smell from above the tree canopy and half a mile away, and located the meat. The Antarctic Penguins are the deep sea champions among birds, diving to depths of over 1,300 feet, and attaining speeds of nine miles per hour in search of fish and squid. Micro-electronic dive and activity recorders provide a continuous record of the number and depth of dives made, swimming speed and how often it catches food. They reveal that emperor penguins can stay an astonishing 11 minutes under water during a dive.

How these birds manage to survive at such depths without incurring physiological problems, such as oxygen starvation and the toxic effect of gases at high pressures, is still a mystery. The Emperor penguin is better adapted to the cold than any other animal on earth. It is the only bird that can survive the Antarctic icecap in winter. The highest nesting bird of all is the Himalayan snow cock, which builds its nest at heights of more than 15,000 feet. The Alpine chough is not far behind; it is at home all year round at heights about 10,000 feet in the Himalayan Mountains. Choughs are perfectly adapted to the cold and thin air, hopping around looking for food. A mouse would barely be able to crawl under such low pressure conditions. In Europe, they beg food from skiers at the tops of ski slopes. A bird that winters at perhaps the highest altitude is the giant coot in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Life at high altitudes is especially harsh in winter, when temperatures drop many degrees below zero and all waters freeze. But the giant coot, instead of migrating to lower altitudes, congregates in small flocks around the widely scattered volcanic springs.

There they find pools that are kept clear of ice by the warm water and provide them with enough food to see them through until spring. Another bird that endures the extremes of winter instead of migrating to warmer places is the common poorwill in North America. This bird survives the period of cold weather and food shortage by going to sleep. During hibernation, the poorwill's body temperature drops and it uses up very little energy. This means it can survive for 100 days on the same fat reserves that would sustain it for only 10 days when awake. The native Indians call this bird "the sleeping one, "because when in hibernation the bird goes into a torpor from which it requires several hours to wake up. This inability to respond quickly to danger is one of the main disadvantages of its unusual behavior, but the poorwill is so effectively camouflaged that it usually remains undetected in the sheltered crevices where it chooses to hibernate. The turkey vulture has an unmatched sense of smell The flamingo is another candidate for a bird resident in the most inhospitable place. In the hot, shallow soda lakes and salt lagoons of Africa the water is salty and unpleasant, set in desert-like wastes.

Temperatures can reach 60 C (140 F). The flamingos are so highly specialized and precisely adapted that they fit easily into this particular habitat. They sift the murky waters of the lakes for tiny invertebrate prey that they filter out with their peculiar downward curving bill. The flamingos build their nests from the muddy sediment in the lake. They pick up mud and stones to form circular nest mounds; the huge breeding colonies look like miniature citadels of mud. On top of these mounds they place their single white egg. A sand grouse could be described as the busiest eater in the bird world. It needs to find several seeds every second to get enough food to survive. To sustain these sorts of feeding rates, it exploits areas with superabundant seed banks. The grouse peck up each seed individually, and look like little sewing machines when feeding. Each bird will consume between 5,000 and 80,000 seeds a day. Some seeds are so small that it takes 5,000 to make up just one gram.

The biggest weight gain in a bird -- relative to its size -- may be by the sedge warbler, which can go from 11 grams (two fifths of an ounce) to 22 grams in the few weeks prior to its migration from Europe to South Africa. This gives it enough fuel to fly for 90 hours without rest. The flamingo thrives in harsh conditions Albatrosses are some of the longest-lived birds (up to 60 years), the latest to mature (10-12 years) and the slowest breeders (one chick every 2-3 years). To complete the statistics of loneliness, they wander furthest and longest from land. Wandering albatrosses nesting on small Antarctic islands circle the globe during their migrations. A bird ringed at Kerguelen Island in the southern Indian Ocean and recovered in Chile, traveled in less than 10 months at least 8,100 miles, and perhaps as much as 11,200, miles by drifting with the prevailing winds. Just how tradition-bound birds can be is illustrated by the albatross.

Since the 1930s, only two pairs have nested on Inaccessible Island in the Pacific, whereas a few thousand pairs breed on the neighboring Gough Island. The albatrosses are so site specific that the two pairs on Inaccessible Island will not fly over and mate with the ones on Gough, even though they will fly hundreds of miles for food. Young born on Inaccessible, returning to the island and looking for an albatross to display to, cannot find a bird to show them where to land. As a result, they land amongst the trees and don't even make it to the albatross nesting site. Decoys are to be used to attract the albatrosses to a nesting site. The Albatross can live to be 60 But the bird with least connection of all to land is the ancient murrelet, filmed at Buldir in the Aleutian Islands. This strange bird has dispensed altogether with the need to return to land to feed its chick, unlike most seabirds, which return to land to breed and feed their chicks on land until they are almost fully grown. The murrelet lays its eggs in burrows.

The chicks hatch and, for the first day, feed off their egg sac. Then, at dead of night, two days after the chicks hatched, the parents fly out to sea, calling their young to follow with a continuous sparrow-like chirping. The fluffy black and white chicks, still unable to fly or feed on their own, pour in a living flood down the hillsides. They evade killer mice and insomniac ravens, and hurtle for the surf like downy toys on clockwork legs, heeding the call of their parents. They don't stop when they reach the water, but pursue their parents into the breakers and swim five miles out to sea. Once here they will continue to be fed for a few more weeks until they can fly. The most precocious chick in the world could well be the offspring of the torrent duck, which is quite at home amongst the fast-flowing mountain rivers and waterfalls of the Andes. The birds breed amongst the rocky banks of the rivers and their chicks take to the foaming water almost immediately. The birds negotiate waterfalls and white-water rapids with ease.

They clamber on to rocky ledges behind waterfalls to forage among the vegetated rocks, feeding unconcernedly as the water cascades over them. The passenger pigeon, a North American species abundant in the 19th century, may have been the commonest bird that has ever lived on earth. However, its superabundance did not save it from extinction at the hand of man. The beautiful blue Spix's macaw of the Brazilian rainforest is the loneliest and, due to man's actions, probably the rarest bird in the world. Spix's macaw lives exclusively in gallery woodland in Brazil's dry scrubland; the only good example of this habitat is now found along the San Francisco River. By the 1980s, virtually all of the birds had been trapped and sold as pets. Until a few years ago, only one solitary bird existed in the wild. A conservation project has since boosted numbers. The elephant bird was a huge flightless ostrich-like bird, about nine feet tall with thick powerful elephant-like legs. It probably grazed on shrubs and grasses, and lived in Madagascar until it became extinct 300 years ago.

Some of its eggs are still found: they are the largest known. The giant egg, weighing 18 pounds, is the equivalent of 183 chicken eggs, or 12,000 hummingbird eggs. A murrelet chick runs for the water The largest egg of any living bird today is that of the ostrich, another flightless species, whose egg weighs three pounds. The egg of the largest flying bird, the mute swan, in comparison weighs a mere six ounces -- the demands of flight greatly limit the size of a bird's egg. The brown kiwi of New Zealand lays 2-3 huge eggs, each nearly a quarter of it's own body weight, perhaps the largest eggs in proportion to the mother bird's size. It is able to produce such large eggs only because it is flightless and spends all it's time on the ground. The storm petrel is a small seabird that also lays relatively massive eggs -- they weigh about a quarter of its own body weight. Bar-headed geese may be the highest fliers of the bird world. Breeding in Tibet and wintering in India, they fly at over 18,000 feet to get through the Himalayan passes.

Demoiselle cranes, which breed in Siberia, achieve similar heights on their migration route across the Himalayas to winter in India. Godwits and curlew have been seen migrating south from Everest at 20,000 feet. Radar has picked up birds -- possibly dunlin or knot -- flying at 23,000 feet between Scandinavia and Britain. Most bird records are set on the wing; the emu can boast a rather unusual record - as the world's furthest walking bird. It cannot fly, so must walk during its migrations. The pattern of rainy and dry seasons in Australia forces the emu to follow rain clouds in search of water. Emus are believed to respond to the low frequency sound of raindrops hitting the ground. Nevertheless they often have to walk as far as 320 miles following the rain clouds. Few birds can be as fussy about where they live as the small Kirtland's warbler. It breeds only in a small area where jack pine forests grow on a particular type of sandy soil. This soil is important because the warblers embed their nests in the ground among long grasses, and heavy summer rainstorms would flood them if the water did not drain away quickly.

To make things even harder for themselves, the warblers only breed among trees that are between 10 and 20 years old. Such new stands of trees follow after fire has swept through a mature stand of pines, releasing their seeds and allowing them to germinate. The birds start to nest in the area when the pines are young. The Kirtland's warbler is also highly specialized in its feeding requirements. It takes only seeds of the jack pine, which are released during forest fires. Forest fires are therefore a natural and essential phenomenon for the survival of this bird. Such a preference for a particular stage in a habitat's growth is probably unique in birds. But it also played a large role in the decline of the species. Wildfires once provided abundant habitat for the warblers. But today wildfires are controlled and lumbering practices have changed. The warbler now only breeds in a protected area in north-central Michigan, where controlled plantings and fires produce the habitat it requires. One bird thrives in perhaps the oddest habitat of all. Wildlife is often a casualty of war. Not so the Japanese white-naped crane. The tension between North and South Korea has brought unrest to the region for years.

But for the cranes migrating from Japan to Chinese breeding grounds, the three-quarters of a mile wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is a haven. The arable fields in the DMZ are an important stopover site for the cranes; in the fields, the cranes replenish their reserves for the second leg of their migration. Some birds have developed exquisite skills with which to conceal their nest in its setting. The golden headed cisticola, a type of Australian warbler, is the most skilled tailor in the bird world. It uses thread from spiders webs to stitch living leaves together to make an almost perfectly camouflaged dwelling. The Volegkopf bowerbird in the forests of New Guinea spends nine months building its spectacular nest, said to be the most beautiful architectural creation in nature. Then he decorates it with shiny treasures, such as the iridescent wing cases of beetles and flowers. The ostrich lays the largest egg of any living bird One of the safest places on earth for a bird to nest is Lord Howe Island, a remote predator-free dot off Australia. With nothing to fear here, the Providence petrel has become perhaps the world's tamest wild bird.

Sir David Attenborough had another of his memorable encounters here -- to compare with his meeting with a mountain gorilla in Uganda in the series "Life on Earth" -- as a Providence petrel sat on his hand like a Trafalgar Square pigeon then walked up his arm. Guanay cormorants, living on the Peruvian coast, are far and away the world's biggest grossing bird. They have been named the "billion dollar bird" because the huge deposits of their droppings, or guano, which collected under the cliffs where they packed together in nesting colonies at densities of 12,000 nests per acre. Guano once made a highly prized fertilizer, and supported an industry. The providence petrel shows no fear of Sir David In the New Zealand Alps, a bird finds food with a unique beak. In shallow, gravelly streams the wrybill probes for larvae under heavy boulders it couldn't hope to shift. It has the only beak in the entire bird world that's bent to one side (the right). The crossbill is the only bird capable of moving its beak in two directions, allowing it to break open the immensely tough ponderosa pine.

In South America, one humming bird has a beak twice its length. The uniquely shaped bill is designed to precision drill a hole at the base of a flower. But it can't help itself; even when it finds a flower with a short stem it could enter legally, it still breaks in. One of the most far-carrying songs of any bird is the deep boom of the male kakapo, which reverberates through the night air in New Zealand and can be heard as far as four miles away. The longest tail in proportion to the size of the bird is that of the ribbon-tailed astrapia, found in dense tropical rainforests of New Guinea. The long white streamers that trail behind the male in flight, have evolved purely to impress females. The wrybill has an uniquely curved beak The male frigate bird, on a beach in the Galapagos, makes one of the biggest statements of all birds. It requires a full twenty minutes to inflate its bright red throat pouch, which it uses in display to attract females, until it is as taut as a drum. Outstanding in the world of birds with respect to individual plumage variation is the ruff.

These birds are unique in that all males have their own plumage pattern -- no two birds are alike. The birds hardly call at all. The plumage is their signal of identity and individuality. At the opposite end of the scale, the woodcock is one of the best camouflaged of all birds. As soon as it sits down, provided it remains absolutely still, it disappears completely into the background. What benefits a bird to be a champion? Living higher, flying faster, diving deeper certainly gives a bird the edge over competitors. It provides it with a wider range of life options, a bigger area in which to nest and find food. But it doesn't necessarily follow, for example, that speed of flight as it goes in for the kill gives the peregrine falcon total mastery of the skies. We don't look up and see the skies above us thick with peregrines. Other environmental factors -- even without man's destructive intervention -- take over to limit even a winning bird's population. If a bird's numbers grew too fast and far, its habitat might not have enough food to support it.

And then what about the birds they would seem to be cut out to be losers -- nondescript birds that have nothing in their favor, neither an opera star's singing repertoire, nor a supermodel's finery. They have neither speed nor hunting skill. So what are they still doing on the planet? Perhaps they are here because they are the ultimate winners. The frigatebird may take up to 20 minutes to inflate its pouch Starlings and house sparrows may be the two most successful species of birds on earth. Originally found in Europe, they have spread, with the help of man, to many other countries across the globe. While the starling has striking, spotted iridescent plumage, the sparrow must be one of the dowdiest, undistinguished of all birds. Yet it may also be the most successful bird to live close to man. What this otherwise drab and unremarkable bird has in its favor is its audacity, its gregariousness, and its street urchin attitude, which allows it survive in the tawdriest back alley. Both species live confidently and comfortably close to man, in cities, towns and suburbs, nesting on and in buildings; they occur in large numbers throughout their range.

In the evenings, starlings form massive noisy roosts in town centers. Then there are the red-billed queleas, seed-eating finches that occur in gigantic feeding flocks of tens of thousands, sometimes millions of birds. The total world population of these small sparrow-like birds is estimated to be in the order of 100,000 million, putting it well in line for the title of the world's most numerous bird. As they travel across the land in search of food, they resemble a huge swarm of large insects, blackening the sky. Queleas' natural food is the seeds of wild grasses, but their huge numbers mean that from time to time they exhaust their natural food supply. They then turn to cultivated fields, of millet, corn, wheat and rice. The entire flock will descend and work the field like a gigantic lawnmower, stripping it of all its seeds within minutes, doing as much damage as a flock of locusts. Then the massive horde is off again. The queleas' huge numbers and the devastation they cause has brought them into conflict with local farmers. Some tribes have traditionally harvested queleas for food; but now locals pursue them with much greater force.

Queleas' breeding coincides with the ripening of certain grass crops, and breed in massive colonies of up to 10 million nests. Some people have resorted to blowing up the nests with dynamite. But even such extreme measures seem to have little effect on overall quelea numbers. Sleeker, smarter, stronger species may come and go. The quelea is here to stay. Least Storm-Petrel - Whatbird.com Least Storm-Petrel Copyright © 2004 - 2017 Mitch Waite Group PHOTOS Photos we are missing. CONSERVATION STATUS The Least Storm-Petrel is evaluated as Least Concern at this time. This is a marine bird that is native to Mexico, Colombia and the United States. This bird is also a visitor to Japan. The range of the Least Storm-Petrel is about 100,000 square kilometers. The population of this bird is estimated at around 1 million individual bids. The current rating for the Least Storm-Petrel was downgraded from a prior rating of Lower Risk in 2004. There is no immediate concern regarding the range or the population of the Least Storm-Petrel.

IBIRD EXPLORER GENERAL posted on May 13, 2013 07:47 AM PHOTO SHARING AND DISCUSSION posted on December 01, 2009 12:06 PM BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY posted on June 12, 2016 09:03 PM SUMMARY Overview Least Storm-Petrel: Small, very rare storm-petrel with dark black-brown body and short, wedge-shape tail. The wings have black wing tips and pale brown diagonal bars visible in flight. It is the smallest Pacific storm-petrel. Flight is swift and direct on deep wing beats. Often flies low over water. Range and Habitat Least Storm-Petrel: This species breeds on rocky islands off both coasts of Baja California and occurs as a resident along the Pacific Coast of Mexico and further south. In summer and fall, these birds range as far north as San Diego County, California. They are pelagic, coming ashore only to breed.

SONGS AND CALLS Generally silent INTERESTING FACTS The Least Storm-Petrel was first described in 1864 by Elliott Coues, an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist and author. These birds feed while fluttering just above, rather than sitting on the water. They reportedly only weigh ¾ of an ounce. SIMILAR BIRDS About this North America Map This map shows how this species is distributed across North America. FAMILY DESCRIPTION Storm-Petrels (Hydrobatidae) ORDER A taxonomic order of tube-nosed seabirds, the PROCELLARIIFORMES (pronounced pro-sel-lehr-EYE-ih-FOR-meez) includes large, long-winged families such as the shearwaters and albatrosses, and the much smaller storm-petrels. FAMILY TAXONOMY In the Hydrobatidae (pronounced heye-droh-BAH-tih-dee) are included twenty-two species of storm-petrels in seven genera found throughout the oceans of the world. NORTH AMERICA Fifteen species of storm-petrels in five genera have occurred in North American waters (including the extinct Guadalupe Storm-Petrel).

The sparrow-sized Least Storm-Petrel, the numerous Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, and the rare White-faced Storm-Petrel are members of this maritime family. KNOWN FOR The Wilson’s Storm-Petrel is known for the peculiar behavior of pattering its feet on the surface of the water while foraging. Storm-petrels in general are known for being birds of the marine environment that only come to shore to breed. PHYSICAL Storm-petrels are small birds with long wings and medium to long tails that can be forked, square, or wedge-like in shape. Their legs are fairly long with webbed feet, and they have rounded pigeon-like heads. The bills of storm-petrels are small with a slightly hooked tip and tube-like nasal structures to expel excess salt. COLORATION Except for the gray and white Fork-tailed and White-faced Storm-Petrels, North American members of this family have dark, sooty brown or black plumages. Some species also show a bit of gray in the wings, and white at the base of the tail. The webs of the feet of the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel are yellow (a characteristic rarely visible in field conditions).

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT Storm-Petrels are birds that only occur in salt-water habitats and can be found off both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America. Usually, they are only encountered well offshore although the Least and Black Storm-Petrels can sometimes be seen from land. MIGRATION Except for the non-migratory Ashy Storm-Petrel, storm-petrels are very long distance migrants, the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel in particular making incredible voyages from its breeding grounds in the Antarctic to waters of the Northern Hemisphere. HABITS Storm-Petrels nest in colonies and often forage in flocks that fly low over the water to pick small sea creatures and carrion off the surface. Flight patterns differ by species; some pattering the surface of the water with their feet, others flying in zig-zags and other species with rapid, almost bat-like wing-beats. CONSERVATION The Ashy Storm-Petrel is the only endangered North American storm-petrel species. It only breeds on islands off the California and Baja California coasts, and has strongly declined in numbers because of pollution.

INTERESTING FACTS Like other Procellariiformes, storm-petrels are long-lived for being small birds; some individuals have lived for over thirty years. They are also highly nocturnal when coming to land to avoid depredation by large gulls. The name “petrel” is thought to have been derived from the name “Peter,” and is an allusion between the story of that Christian saint walking on water and the birds’ doing the same thing while foraging. TERMINOLOGY Kent Island Life: The Surreal Experience of Digging for Birds | Bowdoin News Kent Island Life: The Surreal Experience of Digging for Birds June 30, 2015 by Emily Weyrauch '17 Reaching into a hole in the ground and pulling out a fuzzy, chattering bird perhaps 10 years your senior is all part of the decades-long study of storm-petrels at the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy. Read why Liam Taylor ’17 loves it, as told by Emily Weyrauch ’17 in the latest installment of her series on Kent Island life.

Face contorting as he sticks his right arm deeper into the earthy hole, a dirt-covered researcher pushes his body against the mossy ground to gain the extra centimeter or so of length he needs to grasp the creature inside. Within minutes Liam Taylor ’17 gently pulls out a small, dark gray bird and holds it calmly in his hand, ready to take measurements and check its band number. Taylor and Kenyon College students Lauren Michael ’17 and Sarah Adrianowycz ’16 are grubbing for Leach’s storm-petrels, long-lived seabirds that burrow in the ground to nest, a process that involves reaching into burrows to determine occupancy and to temporarily remove a bird for measurements. The students are continuing a 62-year long study of the species at the Bowdoin Scientific Station (BSS) at Kent Island, taking measurements and monitoring egg hatching and chick growth with the help of their advisor, former BSS Director Robert Mauck who currently teaches at Kenyon. Adrianowycz measures a Leach’s storm-petrel egg after carefully removing it from a burrow. Taylor and Adrianowycz both worked on the petrel project at BSS last summer, and Michael is new to the group.

“Team Petrel, as we have taken to calling ourselves, is very efficient when it needs to be,” said Adrianowycz, “which is really good, because it can be an insane amount of work.” Every day, regardless of weather conditions, the three students go out to their study site to collect data for the long-term storm-petrel research started by Bowdoin Professor Chuck Huntington in 1953. The Leach’s storm-petrel study at BSS-Kent Island is one of the longest-running longitudinal studies of any wild population of animals, and has resulted in the publication of over 60 scientific papers. “We’ve found the burrows; we’ve got histories of them, you don’t have to go out searching,” said Mauck. “It’s all there, ready to go, and we’ve got long-term information on them, so there are always new questions we can ask and new things we can do.” Because the research is long-term, the students work on updating the database of information and measurements that can be used to answer current scientific questions and those that may arise in the future. “That scientific effort is going to end up being a really valuable tool,” said Taylor.

“If this goes on for another decade or two decades, you’ll be able to look at the effects of climate change on the nesting habitat of Leach’s storm-petrel.” Liam Taylor ’17 holds a Leach’s storm-petrel. This is his second summer working with the petrels on Kent Island. Michael takes measurements of a Leach’s storm petrel in the area of Kent Island that they dub ‘The Shire.” The storm-petrels weigh less than two ounces and are about the size of a robin but with much longer wings. They can live up to 36 years, a longevity that is unusual for a bird of such small size, which adds to the importance of their long-term monitoring on Kent Island. “That’s the weirdest thing—the cognitive dissonance for me is when I stick my hand in a hole and I pull out a bird and I’m like, ‘you could be older than me,’” said Adrianowycz. “This bird was around having chicks before I was even alive. It’s a very strange thing to think about. I enjoy it.” The students demonstrate a fondness for their selected study species.

“They’re fuzzy, and they’re chattery, and they smell funny, and you kind of feel for them,” said Taylor. “If you’re sticking your hand in a hole, you expect to find like a slug or a worm and the last thing you expect to find is like this fuzzy little creature that just kind of looks at you,” said Adrianowycz. “Putting your hand in a hole and then feeling the little bird nibbling on you and then pulling it out—it’s such a surreal experience,” said Michael. “It’s really fun.” Added Adrianowycz, “I really enjoy the physicality of it.” The students are working on their own independent projects with the storm-petrels in addition to the long-term demography study. Adrianowycz is continuing her project from last year and attaching geolocators — tiny tracking devices that use light levels to determine location — to storm-petrels in order to track their movements during foraging trips, in particular as they correspond to parent sex. She is using this research for her honors thesis at Kenyon. Taylor is using PIT tags — passive integrated transponders — to track adult birds’ arrivals at and departures from their burrows.

He is looking into which parent cares for the egg at what time, and how the parents coordinate Michael is taking additional measurements to try to determine symmetry or asymmetry in the birds. When many organisms are under environmental distress, they become asymmetric rather then symmetrical, and Michael is testing how storm-petrel asymmetry links with differential reproductive success. “It’s really nice because a lot of these things are really hard to do alone, so basically we all work together and then analyze our data differently,” said Michael, “so we all have a part in everyone’s project.” Working at the BSS with a variety of other ecological and avian researchers has its advantages. “It’s cool to be here part of a group, especially with other scientists who are interested in birds, because they can give you a new perspective,” said Adrianowycz. All three students hope to continue scientific research in the future. “I think it’s a wonderful experience,” said Mauck, who himself has spent many summers on Kent Island, “getting to do science in the field, and living in a field station that is different from most of the others.” “It’s a lot of fun. I don’t know quite how to explain why it’s so fun,” said Michael.

“You never know quite what’s going to happen or when it’s going to start pouring rain. It’s just kind of always an adventure being out there.” Feds consider use of mouse poison in CA sanctuary Feds consider use of mouse poison in CA sanctuary JASON DEAREN - Associated Press Pin it Share To help a tiny, rare seabird with a declining population, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is studying a plan to kill off non-native house mice with poison on the Farallon Islands, a marine sanctuary off the coast of Northern California. But even the idea that a poison would be used in the pristine environment has drawn criticism from some conservation groups that argue the aerial drop of thousands of rodenticide pellets would instead harm many creatures throughout the food chain. The possible use of mouse poison on these rugged islands about 28 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge demonstrates the balancing act faced by wildlife managers as they seek to eradicate one species to benefit another. At risk is the small Ashy Storm-petrel, a seabird with a global population estimated at no more than 10,000. Half of the Storm-petrel's global population uses the Farallon Islands, known to researchers as California's Galapagos Islands, to breed.

More than 400 species of birds have been identified on the Farallones, and the refuge is home to a menagerie of whales, great white sharks, seals and sea lions. Yet at certain times of year the islands' ground appears to move, as thousands of mice scurry across it. Some researchers estimate that at times there are as many as 500 mice per acre. "We know this is a massive infestation of mice, and rodenticide is the only thing proven to be the most effective," said Doug Cordell, a spokesman for the service. "But we're not going to do anything that carries more risk than benefit to the ecosystem of the Farallones, that's the bottom line. We haven't settled on an option yet, including the option of doing nothing." The mice, believed to have been passengers on 19th century sailing vessels that stopped at the islands, alone do nothing to the Ashy Storm-petrel. Instead, their numbers draw the attention of hungry migratory burrowing owls. Those owls feast on the mice until the population dwindles, then turn to Storm-petrels, their chicks and eggs.

The Ashy Storm-petrel is not currently listed as an endangered species, but Cordell said it is considered endangered by international conservation groups and in the U.S. is considered a species of concern. Pesticides have been used to protect birds from rodents on islands before, with mixed results. In 2002, the National Parks Service used a rodenticide called brodifacoum, which is being considered for use on the Farallones, on Anacapa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara. The project, the first of its kind at the time, was done to protect the diminutive Xantus's Murrelets from non-native black rats. While there was some collateral damage to other species, a study published in the journal Marine Ornithology found that nesting and breeding efforts by Xantus's Murrelets improved greatly after the black rat was killed off. In October 2008, about 48 metric tons of the rodenticide was dropped over Rat Island in the Aleutians as part of a habitat restoration project led by fish and wildlife.

The poison was believed to be the cause of death of 46 bald eagles and hundreds of gulls, according to a 2010 study of the carcasses by the Ornithological Council. "This is one of those complex issues, and right now there doesn't appear to be any clear easy answers," said Maggie Sergio, director of advocacy for WildCare, an animal rescue organization opposed to the use of the poison. The group said it had gathered more than 2,000 signatures for a petition opposing the proposal. "We need to continue looking for alternatives and do something else other than drop tonnage of rat poison over pristine wilderness. There's got to be a better way," she said. Still, not all conservation groups are opposed in principal to the idea of using rodenticide to save the struggling Storm-petrel. Graham Chisholm, executive director of Audubon California, said the scientific review process is in its early stages, and that he believes rodenticide will only be used after much research and consideration. "Clearly something needs to be done," Chisholm said.

"The threat of house mice on the Ashy Storm-petrel breeding colony has been documented and presents a threat to birds' long-term survival." Reblog

Question: What type of creature is a Storm-petrel?
Answer: Bird