Swinhoe's Storm-petrel

Taxobox
name = Swinhoe's Storm-petrel
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Procellariiformes
familia = Hydrobatidae
genus = "Oceanodroma"
species = "O. monorhis"
binomial = "Oceanodroma monorhis"
binomial_authority = (Swinhoe, 1867)
synonyms ="Thalassidroma monorhis" Swinhoe, 1867

Swinhoe's Storm-petrel, "Oceanodroma monorhis" also known as Swinhoe's Petrel is a small seabird of the storm-petrel family Hydrobatidae.

It breeds on islands in the northwest Pacific off China, Japan and Korea. It nests in colonies close to the sea in rock crevices and lays a single white egg. It spends the rest of the year at sea, ranging into the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

Since 1983s, stray birds are apparently recorded every now and then in the North Atlantic. Remarkably, following the trapping of a member of this species in Great Britain, a number of other individuals have been identified in western EuropeFact|date=April 2007. One was photographed off Hatteras, North Carolina, on August 8, 1998, but this record was not accepted by the American Birding Association or the American Ornithologists' Union as at-sea records are not usually entirely reliable however due to identification difficulties(AOU 2000). A second Hatteras record from June 2, 2008, which, accompanied by excellent photos, is far more robust and would, pending acceptance, represent the first North American record of this species.

Swinhoe's Storm-petrel is a small bird, 18-21 cm in length with a 45-48 cm wingspan, but distinctly larger than the European Storm-petrel. It is essentially dark brown in all plumages, and has a fluttering flight, pattering on the water surface as it picks planktonic food items from the ocean surface. Unlike European Storm-petrel, it does not follow ships.

It most resembles in structure Leach's Storm-petrel, with its forked tail, longish wings, and flight behaviour, but does not have a white rump and the call differs. It is difficult to distinguish from other all-dark " Oceanodroma " species, and the first English record had to be DNA-tested to eliminate the possibility that it was a Leach's Storm-petrel, since some north-eastern Pacific Leach's Storm-petrels show all-dark rumps.

This storm-petrel is strictly nocturnal at the breeding sites to avoid predation by gulls and skuas, and will even avoid coming to land on clear moonlit nights. Like most petrels, its walking ability is limited to a short shuffle to the burrow. It is strictly pelagic outside the breeding season, and this, together with its remote breeding sites, makes Swinhoe's Petrel a difficult bird to see from land. Only in storms might this species be pushed into headlands, but even then an out of range bird would probably defy definite identification.

Widespread throughout its large range, the Swinhoe's Storm-petrel is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

References

* American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) (2000): Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. "Auk" 117(3): 847–858. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117 [0847:FSSTTA] 2.0.CO;2

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern.

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3981&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet]
* [http://www.birdingisrael.com/birdNews/GuestOfHonor/storm-petrel/ Birding Israel]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotcool/1304403740/ Flicker Field Guide Birds of the World] Photographs
* [http://nature.ok.ru/htm_foto/birds/2_4.htm Russian Nature] Photographs