Leach's storm petrel
Leach's storm petrel | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Procellariiformes |
Family: | Hydrobatidae |
Genus: | Hydrobates |
Species: | H. leucorhous
|
Binomial name | |
Hydrobates leucorhous (Vieillot, 1818)
| |
Subspecies | |
See text | |
Synonyms | |
|
Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) is a small
It breeds on inaccessible islands in the colder northern areas of the
Description
Leach's petrel, known in some rural areas (particularly in Newfoundland) as Mother Carey's chicks, Carey chicks, or Careys, is a small bird at 18–21 cm in length with a 43– to 48-cm wingspan. Like many other storm petrels, it has all-dark plumage and usually a white rump.[5] However, dark-rumped individuals exist on the west coast of North America; they are very rare north of southern California, but the percentage increases suddenly on the United States-Mexico border, where 90-100% of breeding birds are dark-rumped.[6] In Europe, it can be readily distinguished from the European storm petrel and Wilson's storm petrel by its larger size, forked tail, different rump pattern, and flight behavior. Identification in the Americas, however, proves more difficult. On the Atlantic Coast, separating this species from band-rumped storm petrels is difficult; identification involves characteristics such as the extent of white on the rump and flight pattern. Discerning this species from others is arguably hardest on the Pacific Coast, where the dark-rumped form can be confused with at least three other all-dark storm petrel species. Here, identification involves close attention to wingbeats and overall color. It has a fluttering flight, and patters on the water as it picks planktonic food items from the ocean surface. Like most petrels, its walking ability is limited to a short shuffle to the burrow.
Subspecies
- H. l. leucorhous — (North Atlantic
- H. l. chapmani — von Berlepsch, 1906 — Coronados and San Benito Island (Mexico)
Distribution and habitat
It is strictly pelagic outside the breeding season, and this, together with its remote breeding sites, makes Leach's petrel a difficult bird to see from land. Only in
Ecology
Lifespan for this bird is unusually long for a bird of such small size, with an average of 25 years and a maximum recorded lifespan of 38+ years (a bird banded between 1979 and 1982 recaptured in 2019 still healthy). In 2003, Haussmann et al. [8] found that the bird's telomeres lengthen with age, the only known example to date of such a phenomenon. However, this phenomenon likely also occurs in other members of the Procellariiformes, which all have a rather long lifespan compared to their size.
They feed primarily on plankton, including
References
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ "Taxonomic Updates – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2021-07-29.
- ^ WILHELM, S., HEDD, A., ROBERTSON, G., MAILHIOT, J., REGULAR, P., RYAN, P., & ELLIOT, R. (2020). The world’s largest breeding colony of Leach’s Storm-petrel Hydrobates leucorhous has declined. Bird Conservation International, 30(1), 40-57. doi:10.1017/S0959270919000248
- ^ "Oceanodroma leucorhoa". Neotropical Birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- ^ Sibley, David Allen. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, inc., 2000, p. 43.
- ^ Moran, Jo (1961). "The Quest for the Leach's Petrel". Scotland's Magazine. May: 44.
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 270:1387–1392
- .
- ^ Bond AL, Lavers JL (2013) Effectiveness of emetics to study plastic ingestion by Leach’s Storm Petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa). Marine Pollution Bulletin 70:171-175
- ^ Pollet et al. (2019) Migration routes and stopover areas of Leach’s Storm Petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa. Marine Ornithology 47: 55–65
External links
- Leach’s Storm Petrel - The Atlas of Southern African Birds
- Leach's storm-petrel [Oceanodroma leucorhoa] - photos, Christopher Taylor Nature Photography
- Leach's storm-petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Stamps[usurped] (for Canada, Faroe Islands and Marshall Islands)
- Leach's Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa - photos, VIREO
- Leach's Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) - Avibase