Overview

Black Storm-Petrel: Small seabird, brown-black overall with long, dark wings showing pale bar on upper side, and forked tail. The hooked bill is dark and has a tube on top. Legs and feet are black. Flight is mothlike with deep, steady wing beats. Comes closer to shore than most other storm-petrels.

Black Storm-Petrel: This species breeds along the Pacific Coast from southern California to South America, and on islands off both coasts of Baja California. Individuals may wander farther north during migration. They are pelagic, nesting on rocky islands and spending the rest of the year on the open ocean.

Voice Text

"tuck-a-roo"

• Colonies are attended nocturnally in order to avoid predatory birds such as gulls, peregrine falcons, and owls.
• It has two wintering grounds, one in the California Current off Central California and another further south off the coast of Central America as far south as Colombia. It is thought to migrate in this fashion in order to avoid hurricanes in its breeding grounds.
• The Black Storm-Petrel is the largest and most commonly seen of the all-dark storm-petrels in California. It is also the species most likely to enter bays and estuaries in search of its food.

• Least Storm-Petrel
• Ashy Storm-Petrel

Northern 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 species of storm-petrels in seven genera found throughout the oceans of the world.

NORTH AMERICA

Thirteen 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.

KNOWN FOR

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

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.

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.

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.

Author

Artist

Yury Lisyak