European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) Profile

The European Storm Petrel, the British Storm Petrel or the Just Storm Petrel, scientific name Hydrobates pelagicus is a marine bird in the Northern Storm Petrel family, Hydrobatidae. It is the only member of the genus Hydrobats, says Wikipedia.

The small, square-legged European Storm Petrel extends to the lower wings, excluding white pumps and a white band, with the majority of the entire black population breeding on the islands off the coast of Europe, with the largest numbers in the Faroe Islands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland.

The Mediterranean population is a separate tribe, but it is inseparable from the Atlantic relative to the sea; Its fortifications are Philfla Island (Malta), Sicily, and the Balearic Islands.

European Storm Petrel binds to the nest and sometimes shares with other marine birds or rabbits and lays white eggs alone, usually on empty ground. Adults share longevity incubation and both feed on chickens, which usually do not burn after the first week.

European Storm Petrel is strongly planted, spends winter in the Northern Hemisphere off the coast of South Africa and Namibia, with some birds stopping in the ocean adjacent to West Africa and some near their Mediterranean breeding island.

This European Storm Petrel breeding season is strictly oceanic. It can feed small fish, squid, and zooplankton while trapping on the bottom of the ocean and can find oily edible items to smell.

The food is converted into an oily orange liquid in the belly of the bird, which is re-arranged after feeding the baby.

Although generally silent at sea, both members of a pair of Stormy Petrels get a chatter call on their court flight, and there is a purring song provided from the male’s breeding room.

European Storm Petrel cannot survive on the islands where ground mammals such as rats and cats were introduced, and it is a natural prey for gulls, squats, owls, and falcons.

Although the population is declining somewhat, this European Storm Petrel is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as it is of less concern due to its lower total numbers.

Its presence in the rough weather of the sea has been guided by various maritime superstitions and analogies, using it as a symbol of revolutionary and anarchist groups.

Description

Storm petrel is a small bird, 14-18 cm (5.5–7.1 in) in length, 36–39 cm (14–15 in) in right. Its average weight is 20-38 grams (0.71–1.34 oz), on average 28 grams (0.99 oz).

It is square-legged and contains an all-black plumage except for an ice-white color pump that extends wide at the base of the tail and with a wide white band at the lower wings.

Fresh plumage also shows a thin white bar on the upper wings.

The plumage becomes dark brown instead of black as it becomes dilapidated.

No clear differences between the sexes are observed, although in the Mediterranean subspecies, at least, most captive birds can be sexually matched using a formula that increases the length of the wings with the length of the white rump band; Females are somewhat larger and have longer white pumps than males.

Mediterranean subspecies have wings of length and a heavier bill than the nominal form, but neither gender nor subspecies can be determined by ocean observation.

The molt extends over all the tunnows, since they must maintain the ability to fly. Northern populations begin to replace their feathers after their southern, reflecting on the next onset of their breeding season.

Birds in the Welsh colony began to bloom in early August, with populations in northern Spain and the Balearic region beginning between July and June, respectively. Breeding birds feed later than non-breeders.

The large nasal olfactory bulbs of Storm Petrel facilitate the intense sense of smell, and the birds have a distinctive fist-scent that helps researchers detect breeding colonies. Individual petrels can detect their own body odor and use it to detect their nests in the dark.

Their aircraft is poor-looking and, with a bat resemblance, is snapped with a short glide. When feeding, the birds hang their legs with wings and patters raised on the surface, but unlike Wilson’s storm petrel, it does not look like they are walking on water.

Birds sometimes settle on the sea. Like other petrels, European storm petrels may not move properly on the ground, but change to Tarsi; When there is enough space, the bird jumps on its toes to support itself.

Voices

On its display flight, Storm Patrell makes a call (a quick change of notes) with eight or more repetitions of fast ter-chic words ending at the end of a trail. This nonsense, the staccato call is extremely variable in pitch, stress, and length.

Both sexes make the call, which, as a companion ad, is used for accreditation and on recent flights. Vocalization descriptions vary geographically, are in the Atlantic and Mediterranean populations, and birds detect calls from their own breeding areas.

The chatter of the sub-species of the Mediterranean is distinct. In it, the first two notes run with each other, and the final element is sometimes doubled. Storm petrels are usually quiet at sea but occasionally give bubbly calls.

Other voices are a quick cane-wick-wick, sometimes given on-the-fly, and an up-chirk alarm that resembles a chatter-call. Whistling pre-PPP calls when feeding a baby, and a faster version of this voice is used by adults and teens as a sign of crisis.

Distribution and Accommodation

Stormy petrels breed only in the western Palearctic on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastal islands of Europe.

The largest colonies are the Faroe Islands (150,000-400,000 pairs), Norway (Malta, 150,000-400,000 pairs), the United Kingdom (20,000-150,000), Ireland (50,000-100,000), and Iceland (50,000-100,000) in the Canary Islands, Italy, France, and Norway Greece H.

The forts of P. Melitensis subspecies with small sites in the Mediterranean region of Philippa (Malta), Sicily, and the Balearic Islands. This modern variant also breeds in North Africa; Certainly in Tunisia, possibly in Algeria, and possibly in Morocco.

Due to its nocturnal habitat and some of the smaller islands, the distribution is little known because of the difficulty it breeds. A colony was discovered in Lampedusa as early as 25.

Stormy petals have been recorded as unclear in eastern Ukraine, the Guinea region of West Africa and Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and several European countries in the United States.

Although no North American record has been made for more than 30 years since the first one in 1970, the bird has been growing more or less annually since 2003.

Storm petrels are exposed and usually bred on deserted islands, they are only seen at night. It otherwise flows from the coastal zone to mid-depth waters, but not to the depths of the sea.

During the breeding season, it is mainly found in the isotherms of July 10-25 ° C. Except in the autumn storms in Europe, very little is seen from the land.

Immigrating the European Storm Petrel, winter in the Northern Hemisphere spends mainly in southern Africa and latitude 38 degrees south of the Namibian coast and east to KwaZulu-Natal.

Some birds live to the north along the equatorial coast of Mauritania and Rio de Oro, and some breeds are closer to the island, especially in the Mediterranean.

It is strictly an ocean outside the breeding season, although it is described as being regularly seen from the land of West Africa. The young birds do not return to breeding colonies until their second or third year.

The birds mostly travel south from breeding islands between September and November, and return passage begins in mid-November, reaching West Africa and the South Atlantic at the end of the year, late records of the tropics, and further south probably not representing the subadult birds that year.

Behavior

Storm Petrel is a sexually mature, Mediterranean subspecies at 4-5 years of age, usually breeding one year earlier than Atlantic form. Breeding occurs in the colonies and usually begins in late May or early June.

The joints have a recurrent nocturnal display flight so that the males chase the female, followed by airplane calls. Some near-mature birds can cover and grab a hole at the same time before breeding the next year.

Storm petrels build nests in cravings on or under rocks or old ones on the ground. When they build their own tunnels, they lose the earth with bills and take out the debris with their feet. Birds nest on low walls, beneath buildings, or under rabbits.

The unused or occupied burrows of the Atlantic Puffins and Manx shearwaters are sometimes used, and petrel joints can share a common entrance with those marine birds, rabbits, or other pairs of their own species.

When other residents are present, the petrels either dig a side yard or use an existing low-roofed tunnel that large birds or rabbits simply cannot enter.

Predators and parasites

While adults and young people are at risk of being hunted in breeding colonies, their only defense is the oil spit.

Petrels cannot breed on the islands where rats were introduced, and cats frequently kill these birds frequently in the swell of the Shortland Islands.

American mink, a native species of Europe, is a strong swimmer and can colonize islands up to 2 kilometers (2,20 times) from the mainland. Natural predators of petrels and other seabirds include skewers and large flowers.

Yellow-footed gulls are a particular problem in the Mediterranean, and great quivers are estimated to have killed an unheard of 7,7 petrels per year in St. Kilda.

In the Atlantic Islands, some black-backed gulls specialize in catching nocturnal babies overnight, and peregrine falcons hunt adults above the sea.

Localized hunters include the Eleonora Falcon of the Columbrets Islands and the nocturnal barren owl in the Balearics; Some owls may wipe out colonies. The small owl is prey to both adults and young people.

At least two species of feathers have been found in storm petals, with Helipurus pelagicus appearing at a much higher concentration than Philosius robertsi.

The fly genus Pupil gratiosa and derminacid mites are commonly seen, with fewer ticks. These blood-sucking parasites slow the growth rate of nests and can affect their survival.

Storm petrels appear to be blood parasitic free in most cases, even if carriers such as yellow-footed gulls are close to the species.

It has been suggested that well-established immune systems have been developed in marine species, including longer zamindar periods and longer life, which prevents severe blood parasites.

Population

The European population of European Storm Petrel has been estimated as 430,000–510,000 breeding pairs or 1,290,000–1,530,000 individual birds, and 95% of the world’s total population makes up about 11,000 to 16,000 breeding pairs of Mediterranean subspecies.

Storm Petrel populations are very difficult to determine precisely. The main method is to hear the response to playback calls at the old entrance, but infra-red filming can also be an option.