The black storm petrel (''Hydrobates melania'') is a small

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

of the

storm petrel Storm-petrel may refer to one of two bird families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: *Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some species ...

family

Hydrobatidae Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus ''Hydrobates'' in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been split ...

. It is 23 cm in length, with a wingspan of 46–51 cm. The species breeds colonially on islands off the southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and off the Baja Peninsula and

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Nesting sites are usually in rock crevices, occasionally in small burrows in soft earth. It also uses unused burrows from

auklet An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic language, Ic ...

s. Colonies are attended nocturnally in order to avoid predatory birds such as

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

s and

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s. Like most petrels, its walking ability is limited to a short shuffle to the burrow. The female lays a single white egg per breeding season, if the egg is lost then it is replaced only rarely. Both parents share incubation duties, incubation lasting around 50 days. The chick is brooded for a few days after hatching until it is able to thermoregulate by itself, after which both parents forage to provide food. Chicks

fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...

10 weeks after hatching. The black storm petrel spends the rest of the year at sea, but occurring closer to shore than most other storm-petrels. Because of this, it sometimes can be seen from the mainland. It undertakes a

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

away from the waters surrounding its breeding colonies and, unusually, has two wintering grounds, one in the

California Current The California Current is a cold water Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Sur. It is considered an Eastern boundary ...

off Central California and another further south off the coast of Central America as far south as

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. It is thought to migrate in this fashion in order to avoid

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s in its breeding grounds. It feeds on mainly

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, with a preference of

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of

spiny lobster Spiny lobsters, also known as langustas, langouste, or rock lobsters, are a family (Palinuridae) of about 60 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia. Spiny lobsters are also, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, So ...

. It will also take small

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle. Offal may also refe ...

. It feeds using several techniques, including plunge diving to 1 m below the water's surface from flight, feeding while swimming on the surface, and feeding while flying. At sea it usually forages singly. The black storm petrel is a common species, numbering several million pairs, and is not considered threatened. It has suffered losses on some of the breeding islands, particularly from feral

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s and rats.

Island restoration The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as ...

projects have removed these predators from several of its nesting islands. It was formerly defined in the genus ''

Oceanodroma Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus ''Hydrobates'' in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been split ...

'' before that genus was synonymized with '' Hydrobates''.

References

* "National Geographic" ''Field Guide to the Birds of North'' ''America'' * '' Seabirds, an Identification Guide'' by Peter Harrison, (1983) * ''Handbook of the Birds of the World Vol 1'', Josep del Hoyo editor, * "National Audubon Society" ''The Sibley Guide to Birds'', by David Allen Sibley, * Ainley, D. G., and W. T. Everett. 2001. Black Storm Petrel (''Oceanodroma melania''). In ''The Birds of North America'', No. 577 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

External links

Black Storm Petrel photo gallery
VIREO
Black Storm Petrel photo
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269064 black storm petrel Fauna of California Fauna of the San Francisco Bay Area Birds of Mexico Birds of Central America Birds of the Pacific Ocean Birds of Colombia Birds of Ecuador black storm petrel black storm petrel