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The European storm petrel, British storm petrel, or just storm petrel (''Hydrobates pelagicus'') is a
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 envir ...
in the
northern storm petrel family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and a white band on the under wings, and it has a fluttering, bat-like flight. The large majority of the population breeds on islands off the coasts of Europe, with the greatest numbers in the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland. The Mediterranean population is a separate subspecies, but is inseparable at sea from its Atlantic relatives; its strongholds are
Filfla Island (Malta),
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, and the
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
.
The storm petrel nests in crevices and burrows, sometimes shared with other seabirds or rabbits, and lays a single white egg, usually on bare soil. The adults share the lengthy
incubation and both feed the chick, which is not normally brooded after the first week. This bird is strongly
migratory, spending the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
winter mainly off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia, with some birds stopping in the seas adjoining West Africa, and a few remaining near their Mediterranean breeding islands. This petrel is strictly oceanic outside the breeding season. It feeds on small fish, squid, and
zooplankton
Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...
, while pattering on the sea's surface, and can find oily edible items by smell. The food is converted in the bird's stomach to an oily orange liquid, which is regurgitated when the chick is fed. Although usually silent at sea, the storm petrel has a chattering call given by both members of a pair in their courtship flight, and the male has a purring song given from the breeding chamber.
The storm petrel cannot survive on islands where land mammals such as rats and cats have been introduced, and it suffers natural predation from
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 ...
s,
skua
The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are calle ...
s,
owls, and
falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
s. Although the population may be declining slightly, this petrel is classified by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
as being of
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...
due to its high total numbers. Its presence in rough weather at sea has led to various mariners' superstitions, and by analogy, to its use as a symbol by revolutionary and
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
groups.
Taxonomy
The
northern storm petrels, Hydrobatidae, are one of the four
families of the
Procellariiformes
Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are oft ...
or "tubenoses", an
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...
of
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 envir ...
s that also includes the albatrosses in the family
Diomedeidae, the petrels and shearwater in the family
Procellariidae and the southern storm petrels in the family
Oceanitidae
Austral storm petrels, or southern storm petrels, are seabirds in the family Oceanitidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. These smallest of seabirds feed on planktonic crustaceans and small fish picked from the surface, typically while hove ...
.
[ The northern storm petrels are more closely related to members of the family Procellariidae than they are to the southern storm petrels. The European storm petrel was formerly defined as the only member of the genus ''Hydrobates'', the remainder of the Hydrobatinae being placed in '' Oceanodroma'', although the ]least storm petrel
The least storm petrel (''Hydrobates microsoma'') is a small seabird of the storm petrel family Hydrobatidae. It is 13–15 cm in length, with a wingspan of 32 cm. It is the smallest member of the order Procellariiformes. It was for ...
was sometimes separated as the sole member of ''Halocyptena''.[ Molecular phylogenetic studies found that ''Oceanodroma'' was ]paraphyletic
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
with respect to ''Hydrobates''. As a consequence, in 2021 all members of ''Oceanodroma'' were subsumed into an enlarged ''Hydrobates''.[
The storm petrel was first described by ]Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Procellaria pelagica''.[ It was moved to the genus ''Hydrobates'' by ]Friedrich Boie
Friedrich Boie (4 June 1789 – 3 March 1870) was a German entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and lawyer.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Universit ...
in 1822.[ "Petrel", first recorded in 1602, is a corruption of ''pitteral'', referring to the bird's pitter-pattering across the water. The suggestion that the word refers to ]St Peter
) (Simeon, Simon)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire
, death_date = Between AD 64–68
, death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
, parents = John (or Jonah; Jona)
, occupation ...
's walking on the waves is a later invention. "Storm" arises from seamen's association of this bird with bad weather.[ In English, the name of the species was written as "stormy petrel" by some 19th-century authors.][
The ]scientific name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...
''hydrobates'' derives from Greek " hydro-", from ''hydōr'' "water", and ''batēs'' "walker", and ''pelagicus'' from ''pelagikos'' "pelagic, of the (open) sea", from ''pelagos'' "sea, open sea, high sea".[ There are two recognised ]subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
, the North Atlantic nominate subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all speci ...
, ''H. p. pelagicus'' (Linnaeus, 1758), and the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
''H. p. melitensis'' ( Schembri, 1843).[ Although there is some ]gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
tic support for classifying the southern form as a separate species,[ the morphology is not considered sufficiently different from that of the nominate subspecies to justify a split.][
]
Description
The storm petrel is a small bird, in length with a wingspan.[ It weighs , with an average of .][ It is square-tailed and has all-black ]plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
except for a snow-white rump that extends to the sides of the tail base and a broad white band on the under wings. Juveniles in fresh plumage can also show a narrow white bar on the upper wing. The plumage becomes dark brown rather than black as it becomes worn.[ No obvious differences between the sexes are seen, although in the Mediterranean subspecies, at least, most captured birds can be sexed using a formula which involves multiplying the wing length by the length of the white rump band; females are slightly larger and have a longer white rump than males.][ The Mediterranean subspecies has longer wings and a heavier bill on average than the nominate form, but neither sex nor subspecies can be determined by observation at sea.][
]Moult
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...
is prolonged in all tubenoses, since they must maintain an ability to fly. Northern populations start replacing their plumage after those further south, reflecting the later start to their breeding season. Birds in a Welsh colony commenced moulting in early August, while populations in northern Spain and the Balearics started in early July and mid-June, respectively. Breeding birds moult later than non-breeders.[
The storm petrel's large nasal ]olfactory bulb
The olfactory bulb (Latin: ''bulbus olfactorius'') is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the sense of smell. It sends olfactory information to be further processed in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex ...
s facilitate a keen sense of smell (unlike most birds),[ and the birds have a distinctive musty aroma which can help researchers locate breeding colonies.][ Individual petrels recognise their own body scent and can use it to locate their nests in the dark.][
Their flight is weak-looking and resembles that of a bat, with fluttering interspersed with short glides. When feeding, the birds hang with raised wings and patter on the surface with their feet, but unlike Wilson's storm petrel, do not look as if they are walking on the water. Birds sometimes settle on the sea.][ Like other petrels, the European storm petrel cannot walk properly on land, but shuffles on its tarsi;][ once there is enough room, the bird flaps its wings to support itself on its toes.][
The European storm petrel can be distinguished from related Western Palaearctic species by the white bar on its under wing and its distinctive fluttering flight. Compared to ]Leach's storm petrel
Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (''Hydrobates leucorhous'') is a small seabird of the tubenose order. It is named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. ''Hydrobates'' is from ...
, band-rumped storm petrel
The band-rumped storm petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, or Harcourt's storm petrel (''Hydrobates castro'') is of the storm petrel family Hydrobatidae.
Description
The band-rumped storm petrel is 19–21 cm in length with a 43–46 cm wi ...
, and the recently described Monteiro's storm petrel, it is also smaller, darker, and shorter-winged, and has a square tail. Wilson's storm petrel lacks an under wing bar, and has long legs with the feet visible beyond the tail.[
]
Voice
In its display flight, the storm petrel gives a call consisting of eight or more repetitions of a fast ''ter-CHICK'' sounds ending in a trill (rapid alternation of notes). This chattering, staccato call is highly variable in pitch, stress, and length.[ Both sexes make the call, which is used as an advertisement for a mate, for pair recognition, and in the nuptial flight. The details of the vocalisation vary geographically, including between the Atlantic and Mediterranean populations, and birds recognise calls from their own breeding area.][ The chatter-call of the Mediterranean subspecies is distinctive. It has the first two notes running into each other, and the final element is sometimes doubled.][ The storm petrel is usually silent at sea, but sometimes gives the chattering call.][ A purring song ''arrr-r-r-r-r-r-r''... ending with a sharp ''chikka'' is given in the burrow only by the male;][ it was described by Charles Oldham as "like a fairy being sick".][ Other vocalisations include a fast ''wick-wick-wick'', sometimes given in flight, and an ''up-CHERRK'' alarm which resembles the chatter-call.][ Chicks give a whistling ''pee-pee-pee'' call when being fed, and a faster version of this vocalisation is used by adults and young to signal distress.][
]
Distribution and habitat
Storm petrels breed only in the Western Palaearctic on islands off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe.[ The largest colonies are in the ]Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
(150,000–400,000 pairs), United Kingdom (20,000–150,000), Ireland (50,000–100,000), and Iceland (50,000–100,000), with smaller breeding areas off Norway, Malta, Spain, the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
, Italy, France, and Greece. The strongholds of the ''H. p. melitensis'' subspecies are the islands of Filfla (Malta), Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, and the Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
, with smaller sites elsewhere in the Mediterranean. This latter form also breeds in North Africa; definitely in Tunisia, probably in Algeria and possibly in Morocco.[ Because of its nocturnal habits and the problems of accessing some of the small islands on which it breeds, the distribution is poorly known. A colony was discovered as recently as 2009, on ]Lampedusa
Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
The '' comune'' of ...
.[ The storm petrel has been recorded as a vagrant in several European countries as far east as the Ukraine, in the ]Guinea region
Guinea is a traditional name for the region of the African coast of West Africa which lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It is a naturally moist tropical forest or savanna that stretches along the coast and borders the Sahel belt in the north.
...
of West Africa, and in Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and the US.[ Although no North American records were reported for more than 30 years after the first in 1970, this bird has been more or less annual in small numbers since 2003.][
The storm petrel breeds on exposed and usually uninhabited islands, which it visits only at night. It otherwise frequents mid-depth waters away from the coastal zone, but not over the ocean deeps. In the breeding season, it is mainly found between the 10–25°C July isotherms.][ In Europe, it is rarely seen from land except in autumn storms.][
The storm petrel is migratory, spending the Northern Hemisphere winter mainly in cool waters off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia, south to ]latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
38°S and east to KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
.[ Some birds stay north of the equator in the seas adjoining Mauritania and ]Rio de Oro
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
, and a few remain near the breeding islands, especially in the Mediterranean. It is strictly oceanic outside the breeding season,[ although it is described as regularly seen from land in West Africa.][ Young birds do not return to the breeding colonies until their second or third year. Birds mostly head south from the breeding islands between September and November, reaching West Africa by mid-November and the south Atlantic by the end of the year. The return passage starts in April, with late records from the tropics and further south probably representing subadult birds that will not breed that year.][
]
Behaviour
Breeding
The storm petrel is sexually mature at age 4–5 years, with the Mediterranean subspecies typically breeding a year earlier than the Atlantic form. Breeding happens in colonies
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
and normally begins in late May or June.[ Pairs have a repeated nocturnal display flight in which the male chases the female, the chase being accompanied by flight calls. Some near-adult birds may pair up and occupy a hole at the same time, prior to breeding in the following year.][
Storm petrels normally nest in crevices between or under rocks, or burrow in the soil.][ When they make their own tunnels, they loosen the earth with their bills and kick out the debris with their feet. The birds less commonly nest in walls, under buildings, or down rabbit burrows. Disused or occupied burrows of ]Atlantic puffin
The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...
s and Manx shearwater
The Manx shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'') is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an ...
s are sometimes used, and the petrel pair may share a common entrance with those seabirds, rabbits, or other pairs of its own species. Where other occupants are present, the petrels dig a side burrow or use an existing low-roofed tunnel which the larger birds or rabbits cannot easily enter. Even so, puffins and shearwaters sometimes access and destroy nests, and adult petrels may be killed by their larger neighbours.[ Human-made plastic nesting tubes are readily used, and may provide protection against predators.][ Birds usually mate for life and use the same hole every year.][
The nest tunnel is long and across, with a slightly narrower entrance. The nest chamber is typically unlined, although pairs may bring in some grass, ]bracken
Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells (eggs ...
, or seaweed. Although the storm petrel is generally not territorial when breeding, a pair defends the nest chamber itself after the eggs have been laid.[
The ]clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...
is a single egg, usually pure white, sometimes with some reddish-brown spots that soon disappear.[ The average size of the egg is , and it weighs , of which 6% is shell.][ If an egg is lost early enough, a replacement may be laid on rare occasions. This is very unusual for tubenoses.][ The eggs are incubated by both parents for 38–50days, the longer periods arising when the eggs have become chilled through adult absence.][ One adult typically spends three days at a time on the egg while its partner feeds at sea.][ The chicks are ]altricial
In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...
and covered with silver-grey down, and are fed by both parents with their regurgitated oily stomach contents.[ The adults do not normally stay with the chick after the first week, visiting only to bring food.][ After about 50days, the chicks are fed less regularly, sometimes with gaps of several days, and the parents may stop visiting completely shortly before the chick leaves the nest.][ The 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 ...
about 56–86days after hatching,[ and receive no parental support after leaving the nest hole.][
Tubenoses have smaller egg clutches and much longer and more variable incubation and fledging times than ]passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
s with similarly sized eggs, resembling swift
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, ...
s in these developmental factors. Tubenoses and swifts have generally secure nest sites, but their food sources are unreliable, whereas passerines are vulnerable in the nest but food is usually plentiful.[ In the particular case of the storm petrel, it has a body temperature perhaps 3°C lower than other small birds, and this may also contribute to the lengthy incubation.][
The adult petrel's annual death rate is 12–13%,][ and the typical life span is 11years. Longevity records established from ]bird ringing
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...
recoveries include a bird aged 31years11 months9 days,[ and another aged more than 33years.][
]
Feeding
The storm petrel normally flies within of the water surface and typically feeds by picking items off the sea as it patters over the surface.[ Birds have been observed diving for food to a depth of not more than .][ and it is claimed, using indirect measurements, that the Mediterranean subspecies reaches depths of up to ).][ A bird may range up to over the course of two or three days in search of food.][ Although the bird usually feeds during the day, in the breeding season petrels will often feed at night close to the shore.][
The typical prey consists of surface organisms such as small fish, ]squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
, 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 and jellyfish
Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...
. The storm petrel will also eat offal and oily food, often located by smell, and will follow ships.[ In the Atlantic, more than half the food items are ]zooplankton
Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...
and the fish caught include small herring
Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae.
Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...
and sprats
''Sprattus'' is a genus of small oily fish of the family Clupeidae. They are more usually known by their common name, sprats. There are five species in the genus.
Species
* ''Sprattus antipodum'' (Hector, 1872) (New Zealand blueback sprat)
* ...
; whale carcasses are scavenged where available. During digestion, the plankton is quickly converted to an oily orange liquid that owes its colour to carotenoid
Carotenoids (), also called tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red organic compound, organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and Fungus, fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpki ...
s. Larger prey items take longer to digest.[ The oil, rich in ]vitamin A
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for humans. It is a group of organic compounds that includes retinol, retinal (also known as retinaldehyde), retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids (most notably bet ...
, is produced by a large gland in the stomach.[ The Mediterranean subspecies' diet is mainly fish, particularly Mediterranean sand eels. Petrels also catch opossum shrimps from waters close to the colony.][ ]Bluefin tuna Bluefin tuna is a common name used to refer to several species of tuna of the genus ''Thunnus
''Thunnus'' is a genus of ocean-dwelling, ray-finned bony fish from the mackerel family, Scombridae. More specifically, ''Thunnus'' is one of five ...
farms are exploited on the Maltese island of Filfla; birds from the large local colony feed on the unwashed food fed to the farmed tuna, a mixture of fish, squid and prawns which produces a sizeable oily slick.[ Small numbers of insects are caught near breeding colonies, and some plant material, including ]angiosperm
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
seeds and sorrel
Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...
, has been found in the stomach contents.[ A study on Leach's storm petrel, which consumes similar items, showed that the petrels were snipping pieces off plant leaves in flight, but it could not be confirmed that this was in the course of catching insects.][ Nasal glands remove excess salt from seawater consumed by the petrel as a concentrated solution excreted through the nostrils.][
Petrels can be attracted to boats with " chum", a malodorous mixture typically containing fish heads, bones and offal, with added fish oil and ]popcorn
Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion.
A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...
to aid flotation. An apparently empty ocean will soon fill with hundreds of birds attracted by the smell. The attraction of the fishy odour is sometimes enhanced by the addition of dimethylsulphide (DMS) a chemical also naturally produced by some 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 ...
ic organisms, although there are doubts about the safety of this possible carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...
.[
]
Predators and parasites
Adults and young are vulnerable to predation at the breeding colonies, their only defence being to spit oil.[ Petrels cannot breed on islands where rats have been introduced, and feral cats frequently kill these birds on ]Foula
Foula (; sco, also Foola; nrn, Fuglø), located in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, is one of the United Kingdom’s most remote permanently inhabited islands. Owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family, the island wa ...
in the Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
.[ The ]American mink
The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink i ...
, a non-native species in Europe, is a strong swimmer, and can colonise islands up to from the mainland.[ Natural predators of petrels and other seabirds include skuas and large gulls. The ]yellow-legged gull
The yellow-legged gull (''Larus michahellis'') is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Casp ...
is a particular problem in the Mediterranean, and great skua
The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fr ...
s were estimated to kill 7,500 petrels a year on St Kilda, an unsustainable number.[ Some ]great black-backed gull
The great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus'') is the largest member of the gull family. Described by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as "the king of the Atlantic waterfront", it is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger. It breeds on t ...
s on the Atlantic islands specialise in taking seabird chicks at night,[ and ]peregrine falcon
The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...
s hunt adults at sea.[ Localised predators include ]Eleonora's falcon
Eleonora's falcon (''Falco eleonorae'') is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus ''Hypotriorchis''. The sooty falcon is sometimes considered its closest re ...
on the Columbretes Islands
The Columbretes Islands ( ca-valencia, Les Columbretes, or ''Els Columbrets'' (), are a group of small uninhabited islets of volcanic origin, in the Mediterranean Sea, off Orpesa. Administratively they belong to Castellón de la Plana in the Va ...
and the nocturnal barn owl
The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...
on the Balearics; a few owls can wipe out a colony.[ The ]little owl
The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at ...
is also a predator of both adults and young where it occurs.[
]Feather mite
Feather mites are the members of diverse mite superfamilies:
* superorder Acariformes
** Psoroptidia
*** Analgoidea
*** Freyanoidea
*** Pterolichoidea
* superorder Parasitiformes
** Dermanyssoidea
They are ectoparasites on bird
Bird ...
s of at least two species have been found on the storm petrel, with '' Halipeurus pelagicus'' occurring at much higher densities than '' Philoceanus robertsi''.[ The ]flea
Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...
'' Xenopsylla gratiosa'' and dermanyssid mite
Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...
s are commonly found, with lower numbers of tick
Ticks (order Ixodida) are parasitic arachnids that are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by ...
s. These blood-sucking parasites slow the growth rate of nestlings and may affect their survival rate.[
Storm petrels seem to be largely free of blood parasites, even when in close proximity to carrier species such as the yellow-legged gull.][ It has been suggested that seabird species with long incubation periods and long lives have well-developed immune systems that prevent serious blood parasitism.][
]
Status
The European population of the storm petrel has been estimated at 430,000–510,000 breeding pairs or 1,290,000–1,530,000 individual birds and makes up 95% of the world total numbers.[ The population estimate includes 11,000 to 16,000 breeding pairs of the Mediterranean subspecies.][ It is very difficult to accurately determine storm petrel populations. The main method used is listening for responses to playback calls at burrow entrances, but infra-red filming may also be an option.]
Although this species' population now appears to be declining, the decrease is not rapid or large enough to trigger conservation vulnerability criteria. Given its high numbers, this petrel is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
as being of least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...
. The perceived decline may be due increased predation from gulls, skuas and introduced mammals. Eradication of rats protects seabird colonies and may enable recolonisation of islands cleared of rodents.[ Predation of cave-nesting petrels in the Balearics by yellow-legged gulls is restricted to relatively few individual gulls specialising in this prey item;][ this means the problems can be controlled by selective culling and the provision of plastic nest boxes.][
Because it feeds in flight, the storm petrel is less affected by ]oil pollution
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...
than other seabirds, and may be able to use its good sense of smell to avoid slicks, although a large spill near a breeding colony could have serious consequences.[
]
In culture
Its association with storms makes the storm petrel a bird of bad omen to mariners; they are said to either foretell or cause bad weather.[ A more prosaic explanation of their appearance in rough weather is that, like most oceanic seabirds, they rely on the winds to support them in flight and just sit on the water surface when becalmed.][ The birds were sometimes thought to be the souls of perished sailors,][ and killing a petrel was believed to bring bad luck.][ The petrel's reputation led to the old name of ''witch'',][ although the commonest of the folk names is ]Mother Carey
Mother Carey is a supernatural figure personifying the cruel and threatening sea in the imagination of 18th- and 19th-century English-speaking sailors. The entity was supposed to be a harbinger of storms and a similar character to Davy Jones' Loc ...
's chicken, a name also used for storm petrels in general in the UK and North America from at least 1767. This is believed to be a corruption of ''mater cara'' (''dear mother'', the Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
), a reference to the supernatural Mother Carey, or a superstitious modification of an earlier ''Mother Mary's chicken'' to reduce the potency of the religious name.[ The Mother Carey character appears a number of times in literature. In the Cicely Fox Smith poem "Mother Carey", she calls old sailors to return to the sea,][ but in ]John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ''The Box of Delights'', and the poem ...
's poem of the same name she is seen as a wrecker of ships.[ She appears as a fairy in ]Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...
's '' The Water Babies'' and is depicted in one of Jessie Willcox Smith
Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 – May 3, 1935) was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American illustration. She was considered "one of the greatest pure illustrators". A contributor to books and magazines during the lat ...
's illustrations for the book.[
The association of the storm petrel with turbulent weather has led to its use as a metaphor for revolutionary views,][ the ]epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
"stormy petrel" being applied by various authors to characters as disparate as Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...
Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher (93–52 BC) was a populist Roman politician and street agitator during the time of the First Triumvirate. One of the most colourful personalities of his era, Clodius was descended from the aristocratic Claudia gens, one ...
,[ a ]Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
minister in the early Carolinas,[ an Afghan governor,][ or an ]Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
politician.[
A 1901 poem by Russian writer ]Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
is invariably titled in English as " The Song of the Stormy Petrel", although that may not be a perfectly accurate translation of the Russian title "Песня о Буревестнике", because "Буревестник" (the name of the bird in Russian) translates to the English general term "storm bird". The poem was called "the battle anthem of the revolution", and earned Gorky the nickname "The Storm Petrel of the Revolution".[
Various revolutionary anarchist groups adopted the bird's name, either as a group identifier, as in the ]Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
,[ or for their publications. ''The Stormy Petrel'' (''Burevestnik'') was the title of the magazine of the Anarchist Communist Federation in Russia around the time of the ]1905 revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
,[ and is still an imprint of the London group of the Anarchist Federation.][ To honour Gorky and his work, the name ''Burevestnik'' was bestowed on a variety of institutions, locations, and products in the USSR.][
]
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{{featured article
European storm petrel
The European storm petrel, British storm petrel, or just storm petrel (''Hydrobates pelagicus'') is a seabird in the northern storm petrel family, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and ...
European storm petrel
The European storm petrel, British storm petrel, or just storm petrel (''Hydrobates pelagicus'') is a seabird in the northern storm petrel family, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and ...
Birds of Europe
Birds of Scandinavia
Birds of Iceland
European storm petrel
The European storm petrel, British storm petrel, or just storm petrel (''Hydrobates pelagicus'') is a seabird in the northern storm petrel family, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and ...
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus