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European Storm Petrel

European Storm Petrel

Hydrobates pelagicus

Identify the European Storm Petrel by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Storm Petrel is a tiny, square-tailed seabird, sooty black with a bold white rump and a white band beneath the wings, flying with a fluttering, bat-like action. It breeds in burrows and rock crevices on offshore islands in the north-east Atlantic, with a separate Mediterranean subspecies, and spends the rest of the year far out at sea, wintering off southern Africa.

Did you know?

  • Storm petrels have a musty scent, and they can use their own odour to find their nest in the dark.
  • Adults turn their prey into an oily orange liquid that they regurgitate for the chick.

Voice

Sound

About the species

Identification

A very small seabird (length 14–18 cm, wingspan 38–42 cm, weight 23–29 g), black or dark brown all over with a broad white rump. The tail is square-ended, and a white stripe shows on the underwing. The flight is light and fluttering, and the calls are hiccupping and purring. The sexes look alike.

Family

Hydrobatidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

black, white

About the habitat

Breeds in crevices and burrows on rocky offshore islands in the north-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean, only where there are no introduced rats or cats; otherwise lives over the open ocean.

Diet

Small fish, squid and zooplankton taken from the surface, often while pattering on the water; it can locate oily food by smell.

Behaviour

At sea it flies with quick, fluttering wingbeats and short glides, sometimes hovering with raised wings and pattering its feet on the water. Outside the breeding season it is strictly oceanic and strongly migratory. It visits colonies only at night; both adults share the long incubation and chick-feeding. At the nest the male gives a purring song.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) Sagres.jpg

Sound: Gunther Tschuch, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mousa_Hydrobates_pelagicus.wav

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_storm_petrel

See also