164-407: H. p. pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) H. p. melitensis (Schembri, 1843) The European storm petrel ( Hydrobates pelagicus ), also known as British storm petrel , or just storm petrel , is a species of seabird in the northern storm petrel family , 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
328-639: A Presbyterian minister in the early Carolinas, an Afghan governor, or an Arkansas politician. A 1901 poem by Russian writer Maxim Gorky 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
492-447: A murre colony. In most seabird colonies, several different species will nest on the same colony, often exhibiting some niche separation . Seabirds can nest in trees (if any are available), on the ground (with or without nests ), on cliffs, in burrows under the ground and in rocky crevices. Competition can be strong both within species and between species, with aggressive species such as sooty terns pushing less dominant species out of
656-401: A wreck . Seabirds have had a long association with both fisheries and sailors , and both have drawn benefits and disadvantages from the relationship. Fishermen have traditionally used seabirds as indicators of both fish shoals , underwater banks that might indicate fish stocks, and of potential landfall. In fact, the known association of seabirds with land was instrumental in allowing
820-545: 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 bulbs 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
984-601: A clade, the Aequornithes either became seabirds in a single transition in the Cretaceous or some lineages such as pelicans and frigatebirds adapted to sea living independently from freshwater-dwelling ancestors. In the Paleogene both pterosaurs and marine reptiles became extinct, allowing seabirds to expand ecologically. These post-extinction seas were dominated by early Procellariidae , giant penguins and two extinct families ,
1148-535: A colony. Eggers from San Francisco took almost half a million eggs a year from the Farallon Islands in the mid-19th century, a period in the islands' history from which the seabird species are still recovering. Both hunting and egging continue today, although not at the levels that occurred in the past, and generally in a more controlled manner. For example, the Māori of Stewart Island / Rakiura continue to harvest
1312-419: A consequence, in 2021 all members of Oceanodroma were subsumed into an enlarged Hydrobates . The storm petrel was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Procellaria pelagica . It was moved to the genus Hydrobates by Friedrich Boie in 1822. "Petrel", first recorded in 1602, is a corruption of pitteral , referring to the bird's pitter-pattering across
1476-486: A fashion similar to grebes and loons (using its feet to move underwater) but had a beak filled with sharp teeth. Flying Cretaceous seabirds do not exceed wingspans of two meters; any sizes were taken by piscivorous pterosaurs . While Hesperornis is not thought to have left descendants, the earliest modern seabirds also occurred in the Cretaceous, with a species called Tytthostonyx glauconiticus , which has features suggestive of Procellariiformes and Fregatidae. As
1640-637: A fluttering, bat-like flight. The large majority of the population breeds on islands off the northern coasts of Europe, with the greatest numbers in the Faroe Islands , United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland. The Mediterranean population is a separate subspecies whose strongholds are Filfla Island (Malta), Sicily , and the Balearic Islands . This subspecies is indiscernible at sea from its Atlantic relatives. The storm petrel nests in crevices and burrows, sometimes shared with other seabirds or rabbits, and lays
1804-936: A large number of non-governmental organizations (including BirdLife International , the American Bird Conservancy and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ). This led to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels , a legally binding treaty designed to protect these threatened species, which has been ratified by thirteen countries as of 2021 (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, United Kingdom). Many seabirds are little studied and poorly known because they live far out at sea and breed in isolated colonies. Some seabirds, particularly
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#17328517833471968-555: A lineage— Eurypygimorphae —that is a sister group to the Aequornithes. Seabirds, by virtue of living in a geologically depositional environment (that is, in the sea where sediments are readily laid down), are well represented in the fossil record. They are first known to occur in the Cretaceous period, the earliest being the Hesperornithiformes , like Hesperornis regalis , a flightless loon-like seabird that could dive in
2132-428: 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 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
2296-576: A million birds have been recorded, both in the tropics (such as Kiritimati in the Pacific ) and in the polar latitudes (as in Antarctica ). Seabird colonies occur exclusively for the purpose of breeding; non-breeding birds will only collect together outside the breeding season in areas where prey species are densely aggregated. Seabird colonies are highly variable. Individual nesting sites can be widely spaced, as in an albatross colony, or densely packed as with
2460-510: A name is called a binomial name (which may be shortened to just "binomial"), a binomen , binominal name , or a scientific name ; more informally it is also historically called a Latin name . In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the system is also called binominal nomenclature , with an "n" before the "al" in "binominal", which is not a typographic error, meaning "two-name naming system". The first part of
2624-401: A nomenclature code, it is possible for homonyms (two or more species sharing the same genus name) to happen, and even the same binomial if they occur in different kingdoms. At least 1,258 instances of genus name duplication occur (mainly between zoology and botany). Nomenclature (including binomial nomenclature) is not the same as classification, although the two are related. Classification is
2788-477: A number of sources, of which Latin is only one. These include: The first part of the name, which identifies the genus, must be a word that can be treated as a Latin singular noun in the nominative case . It must be unique within the purview of each nomenclatural code , but can be repeated between them. Thus Huia recurvata is an extinct species of plant, found as fossils in Yunnan , China, whereas Huia masonii
2952-544: A one-word specific name; but as more species were discovered, the names necessarily became longer and unwieldy, for instance, Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatus pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti ("plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and a terete scape "), which we know today as Plantago media . Such "polynomial names" may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerard's herbal (as amended by Johnson) describes various kinds of spiderwort: "The first
3116-423: A paper describing the phylogeny of small benthic freshwater fish called darters, five undescribed putative species (Ozark, Sheltowee, Wildcat, Ihiyo, and Mamequit darters), notable for brightly colored nuptial males with distinctive color patterns, were referred to as " Etheostoma cf. spectabile " because they had been viewed as related to, but distinct from, Etheostoma spectabile (orangethroat darter). This view
3280-410: A personal name is to be converted to a specific epithet. In particular, names ending in a consonant (but not "er") are treated as first being converted into Latin by adding "-ius" (for a man) or "-ia" (for a woman), and then being made genitive (i.e. meaning "of that person or persons"). This produces specific epithets like lecardii for Lecard (male), wilsoniae for Wilson (female), and brauniarum for
3444-414: A place for returning mates to reunite, and reduces the costs of prospecting for a new site. Young adults breeding for the first time usually return to their natal colony, and often nest close to where they hatched. This tendency, known as philopatry , is so strong that a study of Laysan albatrosses found that the average distance between hatching site and the site where a bird established its own territory
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#17328517833473608-598: 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 gulls , skuas , owls , and falcons . Although the population may be declining slightly, this petrel is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern 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
3772-438: A reduced capacity for powered flight and are dependent on a type of gliding called dynamic soaring (where the wind deflected by waves provides lift) as well as slope soaring. Seabirds also almost always have webbed feet , to aid movement on the surface as well as assisting diving in some species. The Procellariiformes are unusual among birds in having a strong sense of smell , which is used to find widely distributed food in
3936-403: 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
4100-543: A single genus. The full binomial name must be unique within each code. From the early 19th century onwards it became ever more apparent that a body of rules was necessary to govern scientific names. In the course of time these became nomenclature codes . The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN ) governs the naming of animals, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants ( ICNafp ) that of plants (including cyanobacteria ), and
4264-484: 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 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
4428-404: A slightly narrower entrance. The nest chamber is typically unlined, although pairs may bring in some grass, bracken , 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 is a single egg, usually pure white, sometimes with some reddish-brown spots that soon disappear. The average size of
4592-461: A smaller layer of air (compared to other diving birds) but otherwise soak up water. This allows them to swim without fighting the buoyancy that retaining air in the feathers causes, yet retain enough air to prevent the bird losing excessive heat through contact with water. The plumage of most seabirds is less colourful than that of land birds, restricted in the main to variations of black, white or grey. A few species sport colourful plumes (such as
4756-575: A source of increasing concern to conservationists. The bycatch of seabirds entangled in nets or hooked on fishing lines has had a big impact on seabird numbers; for example, an estimated 100,000 albatrosses are hooked and drown each year on tuna lines set out by long-line fisheries. Overall, many hundreds of thousands of birds are trapped and killed each year, a source of concern for some of the rarest species (for example, only about 2,000 short-tailed albatrosses are known to still exist). Seabirds are also thought to suffer when overfishing occurs. Changes to
4920-593: A species retains its binomial name if it is moved from one family to another or from one order to another, unless it better fits a different genus in the same or different family, or it is split from its old genus and placed in a newly created genus. The independence is only partial since the names of families and other higher taxa are usually based on genera. Taxonomy includes both nomenclature and classification. Its first stages (sometimes called " alpha taxonomy ") are concerned with finding, describing and naming species of living or fossil organisms. Binomial nomenclature
5084-416: A specific name that was from one to several words long. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature. These names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description; however, these two goals were eventually found to be incompatible. In a simple genus, containing only two species, it was easy to tell them apart with a one-word genus and
European storm petrel - Misplaced Pages Continue
5248-404: A square tail. Wilson's storm petrel lacks an under wing bar, and has long legs with the feet visible beyond the tail. 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
5412-501: A symbol by revolutionary and anarchist groups. The northern storm petrels , Hydrobatidae, are one of the four families of the Procellariiformes or "tubenoses", an order of seabirds 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 . The northern storm petrels are more closely related to members of
5576-444: A time on the egg while its partner feeds at sea. The chicks are altricial 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 50 days, the chicks are fed less regularly, sometimes with gaps of several days, and the parents may stop visiting completely shortly before
5740-403: A vast ocean, and help distinguish familiar nest odours from unfamiliar ones. Salt glands are used by seabirds to deal with the salt they ingest by drinking and feeding (particularly on crustaceans ), and to help them osmoregulate . The excretions from these glands (which are positioned in the head of the birds, emerging from the nasal cavity ) are almost pure sodium chloride . With
5904-400: A very variable prey source); this may be a reason why it arises more frequently in seabirds. There are other possible advantages: colonies may act as information centres, where seabirds returning to the sea to forage can find out where prey is by studying returning individuals of the same species. There are disadvantages to colonial life, particularly the spread of disease. Colonies also attract
6068-583: 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. 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 (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,
6232-454: A year, unless they lose the first (with a few exceptions, like the Cassin's auklet ), and many species (like the tubenoses and sulids ) will only lay one egg a year. Care of young is protracted, extending for as long as six months, among the longest for birds. For example, once common guillemot chicks fledge , they remain with the male parent for several months at sea. The frigatebirds have
6396-403: Is Anthus hodgsoni berezowskii . Informally, in some circumstances, a form may be appended. For example Harmonia axyridis f. spectabilis is the harlequin ladybird in its black or melanic forms having four large orange or red spots. In botany, there are many ranks below species and although the name itself is written in three parts, a "connecting term" (not part of the name) is needed to show
6560-514: Is a species of frog found in Java , Indonesia. The second part of the name, which identifies the species within the genus, is also treated grammatically as a Latin word. It can have one of a number of forms: Whereas the first part of a binomial name must be unique within the purview of each nomenclatural code, the second part is quite commonly used in two or more genera (as is shown by examples of hodgsonii above), but cannot be used more than once within
6724-421: Is called Phalangium ramosum , Branched Spiderwort; the second, Phalangium non ramosum , Unbranched Spiderwort. The other ... is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum , Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia". The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels. The Bauhins , in particular Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624), took some important steps towards the binomial system by pruning
European storm petrel - Misplaced Pages Continue
6888-572: Is credited to Carl Linnaeus , effectively beginning with his work Species Plantarum in 1753. But as early as 1622, Gaspard Bauhin introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici (English, Illustrated exposition of plants ) containing many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus. Binomial nomenclature was introduced in order to provide succinct, relatively stable and verifiable names that could be used and understood internationally, unlike common names which are usually different in every language. The application of binomial nomenclature
7052-407: Is energetically inefficient in warmer waters. With their poor flying ability, many wing-propelled pursuit divers are more limited in their foraging range than other guilds. Gannets , boobies , tropicbirds , some terns, and brown pelicans all engage in plunge diving, taking fast-moving prey by diving into the water from the flight. Plunge diving allows birds to use the energy from the momentum of
7216-411: 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 , band-rumped storm petrel , and the recently described Monteiro's storm petrel , it is also smaller, darker, and shorter-winged, and has
7380-642: Is inconclusive. Some plunge divers (as well as some surface feeders) are dependent on dolphins and tuna to push shoaling fish up towards the surface. This catch-all category refers to other seabird strategies that involve the next trophic level up. Kleptoparasites are seabirds that make a part of their living stealing food of other seabirds. Most famously, frigatebirds and skuas engage in this behaviour, although gulls, terns and other species will steal food opportunistically. The nocturnal nesting behaviour of some seabirds has been interpreted as arising due to pressure from this aerial piracy. Kleptoparasitism
7544-606: Is not in sight. (There is also a published code for a different system of biotic nomenclature, which does not use ranks above species, but instead names clades . This is called PhyloCode .) As noted above, there are some differences between the codes in how binomials can be formed; for example the ICZN allows both parts to be the same, while the ICNafp does not. Another difference is in how personal names are used in forming specific names or epithets. The ICNafp sets out precise rules by which
7708-545: Is not thought to play a significant part of the diet of any species, and is instead a supplement to food obtained by hunting. A study of great frigatebirds stealing from masked boobies estimated that the frigatebirds could at most obtain 40% of the food they needed, and on average obtained only 5%. Many species of gull will feed on seabird and sea mammal carrion when the opportunity arises, as will giant petrels . Some species of albatross also engage in scavenging: an analysis of regurgitated squid beaks has shown that many of
7872-399: Is now governed by various internationally agreed codes of rules, of which the two most important are the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN ) for animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants ( ICNafp or ICN ). Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are some differences in
8036-537: Is now written as Phlox drummondii . Often, after a species name is introduced in a text, the generic name is abbreviated to the first letter in subsequent mentions (e.g., P. drummondii ). In scientific works, the authority for a binomial name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned, and the year of publication may be specified. The word binomial is composed of two elements: bi- ( Latin prefix meaning 'two') and nomial (the adjective form of nomen , Latin for 'name'). In Medieval Latin,
8200-402: Is often a problem as well—visitors, even well-meaning tourists, can flush brooding adults off a colony, leaving chicks and eggs vulnerable to predators. The build-up of toxins and pollutants in seabirds is also a concern. Seabirds, being apex predators , suffered from the ravages of the insecticide DDT until it was banned; DDT was implicated, for example, in embryo development problems and
8364-534: Is punished for killing an albatross by having to wear its corpse around his neck. Sailors did, however, consider it unlucky to touch a storm petrel, especially one that landed on the ship. Binomial nomenclature In taxonomy , binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature , is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms , although they can be based on words from other languages. Such
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#17328517833478528-484: Is some evidence of this, the effects of seabirds are considered smaller than that of marine mammals and predatory fish (like tuna ). Some seabird species have benefited from fisheries, particularly from discarded fish and offal . These discards compose 30% of the food of seabirds in the North Sea , for example, and compose up to 70% of the total food of some seabird populations. This can have other impacts; for example,
8692-436: Is strictly oceanic outside the breeding season. It feeds on small fish, squid, and zooplankton , 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. The male has
8856-432: 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 's chicken, a name also used for storm petrels in general in
9020-589: Is the skimmer , which has a unique fishing method: flying along the surface with the lower mandible in the water—this shuts automatically when the bill touches something in the water. The skimmer's bill reflects its unusual lifestyle, with the lower mandible uniquely being longer than the upper one. Surface feeders that swim often have unique bills as well, adapted for their specific prey. Prions have special bills with filters called lamellae to filter out plankton from mouthfuls of water, and many albatrosses and petrels have hooked bills to snatch fast-moving prey. On
9184-448: Is the deepest diver of the shearwaters, having been recorded diving below 70 metres (230 ft). Some albatross species are also capable of limited diving, with light-mantled sooty albatrosses holding the record at 12 metres (40 ft). Of all the wing-propelled pursuit divers, the most efficient in the air are the albatrosses, and they are also the poorest divers. This is the dominant guild in polar and subpolar environments, but it
9348-476: Is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern . 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
9512-474: Is thus an important part of taxonomy as it is the system by which species are named. Taxonomists are also concerned with classification, including its principles, procedures and rules. A complete binomial name is always treated grammatically as if it were a phrase in the Latin language (hence the common use of the term "Latin name" for a binomial name). However, the two parts of a binomial name can each be derived from
9676-493: 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
9840-436: Is usually followed by the "authority" – a way of designating the scientist(s) who first published the name. The authority is written in slightly different ways in zoology and botany. For names governed by the ICZN the surname is usually written in full together with the date (normally only the year) of publication. One example of author citation of scientific name is: " Amabela Möschler, 1880 ." The ICZN recommends that
10004-399: 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
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#173285178334710168-441: Is what is now known as a specific epithet ( ICNafp ) or specific name ( ICZN ). The Bauhins' genus names were retained in many of these, but the descriptive part was reduced to a single word. Linnaeus's trivial names introduced the important new idea that the function of a name could simply be to give a species a unique label, meaning that the name no longer needed to be descriptive. Both parts could, for example, be derived from
10332-481: Is when several species from the same genus are being listed or discussed in the same paper or report, or the same species is mentioned repeatedly; in which case the genus is written in full when it is first used, but may then be abbreviated to an initial (and a period/full stop). For example, a list of members of the genus Canis might be written as " Canis lupus , C. aureus , C. simensis ". In rare cases, this abbreviated form has spread to more general use; for example,
10496-477: The International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria ( ICNB ) that of bacteria (including Archaea ). Virus names are governed by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses ( ICTV ), a taxonomic code, which determines taxa as well as names. These codes differ in certain ways, e.g.: Unifying the different codes into a single code, the " BioCode ", has been suggested , although implementation
10660-690: The 1905 revolution , 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. In the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest , the bursar of the Edinburgh Trader (played by Max Baker) makes a reference to Mother Carey's chickens, moments before
10824-672: The Canary Islands , Italy, France, and Greece. The strongholds of the H. p. melitensis subspecies are the islands of Filfla (Malta), Sicily , and the Balearic Islands , 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
10988-418: The Cretaceous period , and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene . Seabirds generally live longer, breed later and have fewer young than other birds, but they invest a great deal of time in their young. Most species nest in colonies , varying in size from a few dozen birds to millions. Many species are famous for undertaking long annual migrations , crossing the equator or circumnavigating
11152-464: The ICZN is more protective of the form used by the original author. By tradition, the binomial names of species are usually typeset in italics; for example, Homo sapiens . Generally, the binomial should be printed in a font style different from that used in the normal text; for example, " Several more Homo sapiens fossils were discovered ." When handwritten, a binomial name should be underlined; for example, Homo sapiens . The first part of
11316-684: The Pelagornithidae and the Plotopteridae (a group of large seabirds that looked like the penguins). Modern genera began their wide radiation in the Miocene , although the genus Puffinus (which includes today's Manx shearwater and sooty shearwater ) might date back to the Oligocene . Within the Charadriiformes, the gulls and allies ( Lari ) became seabirds in the late Eocene, and then waders in
11480-692: The Polynesians to locate tiny landmasses in the Pacific. Seabirds have provided food for fishermen away from home, as well as bait. Famously, tethered cormorants have been used to catch fish directly. Indirectly, fisheries have also benefited from guano from colonies of seabirds acting as fertilizer for the surrounding seas. Negative effects on fisheries are mostly restricted to raiding by birds on aquaculture , although long-lining fisheries also have to deal with bait stealing. There have been claims of prey depletion by seabirds of fishery stocks, and while there
11644-567: The Shetland Islands . The American mink , a non-native species in Europe, is a strong swimmer, and can colonise islands up to 2 km (2,200 yd) from the mainland. Natural predators of petrels and other seabirds include skuas and large gulls. The yellow-legged gull is a particular problem in the Mediterranean, and great skuas were estimated to kill 7,500 petrels a year on St Kilda , an unsustainable number. Some great black-backed gulls on
11808-621: The Sphenisciformes (penguins) and Procellariiformes ( albatrosses and petrels ), all of the Suliformes ( gannets and cormorants ) except the darters , and some of the Charadriiformes (the gulls , skuas , terns , auks and skimmers ) are classified as seabirds. The phalaropes are usually included as well, since although they are waders ("shorebirds" in North America), two of
11972-669: The millinery trade reached industrial levels. Muttonbirding (harvesting shearwater chicks) developed as important industries in both New Zealand and Tasmania, and the name of one species, the providence petrel , is derived from its seemingly miraculous arrival on Norfolk Island where it provided a windfall for starving European settlers. In the Falkland Islands , hundreds of thousands of penguins were harvested for their oil each year. Seabird eggs have also long been an important source of food for sailors undertaking long sea voyages, as well as being taken when settlements grow in areas near
12136-419: The razorbill (an Atlantic auk) requires 64% more energy to fly than a petrel of equivalent size. Many shearwaters are intermediate between the two, having longer wings than typical wing-propelled divers but heavier wing loadings than the other surface-feeding procellariids , leaving them capable of diving to considerable depths while still being efficient long-distance travellers. The short-tailed shearwater
12300-481: The shearwaters and gadfly petrels). Surface feeders in flight include some of the most acrobatic of seabirds, which either snatch morsels from the water (as do frigate-birds and some terns), or "walk", pattering and hovering on the water's surface, as some of the storm-petrels do. Many of these do not ever land in the water, and some, such as the frigatebirds, have difficulty getting airborne again should they do so. Another seabird family that does not land while feeding
12464-461: The "cf." qualifier vary. In paleontology, it is typically used when the identification is not confirmed. For example, " Corvus cf. nasicus " was used to indicate "a fossil bird similar to the Cuban crow but not certainly identified as this species". In molecular systematics papers, "cf." may be used to indicate one or more undescribed species assumed to be related to a described species. For example, in
12628-404: The "original author and date of a name should be cited at least once in each work dealing with the taxon denoted by that name." For names governed by the ICNafp the name is generally reduced to a standard abbreviation and the date omitted. The International Plant Names Index maintains an approved list of botanical author abbreviations. Historically, abbreviations were used in zoology too. When
12792-519: The (open) sea", from pelagos "sea, open sea, high sea". There are two recognised subspecies , the North Atlantic nominate subspecies , H. p. pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758), and the Mediterranean H. p. melitensis ( Schembri , 1843). Although there is some genetic support for classifying the southern form as a separate species, the morphology is not considered sufficiently different from that of
12956-515: The Antarctic mainland, are unlikely to find anything to eat around their breeding sites. The marbled murrelet nests inland in old growth forest , seeking huge conifers with large branches to nest on. Other species, such as the California gull , nest and feed inland on lakes, and then move to the coasts in the winter. Some cormorant, pelican , gull and tern species have individuals that never visit
13120-625: The Arctic tern; birds that nest in New Zealand and Chile and spend the northern summer feeding in the North Pacific off Japan, Alaska and California, an annual round trip of 64,000 kilometres (40,000 mi). Other species also migrate shorter distances away from the breeding sites, their distribution at sea determined by the availability of food. If oceanic conditions are unsuitable, seabirds will emigrate to more productive areas, sometimes permanently if
13284-468: The Atlantic islands specialise in taking seabird chicks at night, and peregrine falcons hunt adults at sea. Localised predators include Eleonora's falcon on the Columbretes Islands and the nocturnal barn owl on the Balearics; a few owls can wipe out a colony. The little owl is also a predator of both adults and young where it occurs. Feather mites of at least two species have been found on
13448-700: The Austral summer in Antarctica. Other species also undertake trans-equatorial trips, both from the north to the south, and from south to north. The population of elegant terns , which nest off Baja California , splits after the breeding season with some birds travelling north to the Central Coast of California and some travelling as far south as Peru and Chile to feed in the Humboldt Current . The sooty shearwater undertakes an annual migration cycle that rivals that of
13612-487: The Braun sisters. By contrast, the ICZN does not require the intermediate creation of a Latin form of a personal name, allowing the genitive ending to be added directly to the personal name. This explains the difference between the names of the plant Magnolia hodgsonii and the bird Anthus hodgsoni . Furthermore, the ICNafp requires names not published in the form required by the code to be corrected to conform to it, whereas
13776-572: The Earth in some cases. They feed both at the ocean's surface and below it, and even on each other. Seabirds can be highly pelagic , coastal, or in some cases spend a part of the year away from the sea entirely. Seabirds and humans have a long history together: They have provided food to hunters , guided fishermen to fishing stocks, and led sailors to land. Many species are currently threatened by human activities such as oil spills , nets, climate change and severe weather. Conservation efforts include
13940-459: The Kraken attacks the ship. 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 environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in
14104-574: The Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of strictly binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). It was in Linnaeus's 1753 Species Plantarum that he began consistently using a one-word trivial name ( nomen triviale ) after a generic name (genus name) in a system of binomial nomenclature. Trivial names had already appeared in his Critica Botanica (1737) and Philosophia Botanica (1751). This trivial name
14268-480: 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 seeds and sorrel , has been found in the stomach contents. A study on Leach's storm petrel, which consumes similar items, showed that
14432-423: 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
14596-599: The UK and North America from at least 1767. This is believed to be a corruption of mater cara ( dear mother , the Virgin Mary ), 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
14760-498: The UK was the Scottish Seabird Centre , near the important bird sanctuaries on Bass Rock , Fidra and the surrounding islands. The area is home to huge colonies of gannets, puffins , skuas and other seabirds. The centre allows visitors to watch live video from the islands as well as learn about the threats the birds face and how we can protect them, and has helped to significantly raise the profile of seabird conservation in
14924-480: The UK. Seabird tourism can provide income for coastal communities as well as raise the profile of seabird conservation, although it needs to be managed to ensure it does not harm the colonies and nesting birds. For example, the northern royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head in New Zealand attracts 40,000 visitors a year. The plight of albatross and large seabirds, as well as other marine creatures, being taken as bycatch by long-line fisheries, has been addressed by
15088-460: The albatrosses and gulls, are more well known to humans. The albatross has been described as "the most legendary of birds", and have a variety of myths and legends associated with them. While it is widely considered unlucky to harm them, the notion that sailors believed that is a myth that derives from Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's famous poem, " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ", in which a sailor
15252-448: The attention of predators , principally other birds, and many species attend their colonies nocturnally to avoid predation. Birds from different colonies often forage in different areas to avoid competition. Like many birds, seabirds often migrate after the breeding season . Of these, the trip taken by the Arctic tern is the farthest of any bird, crossing the equator in order to spend
15416-547: The bacterium Escherichia coli is often referred to as just E. coli , and Tyrannosaurus rex is perhaps even better known simply as T. rex , these two both often appearing in this form in popular writing even where the full genus name has not already been given. The abbreviation "sp." is used when the actual specific name cannot or need not be specified. The abbreviation "spp." (plural) indicates "several species". These abbreviations are not italicised (or underlined). For example: " Canis sp." means "an unspecified species of
15580-414: The binomial, the genus name, is always written with an initial capital letter. Older sources, particularly botanical works published before the 1950s, used a different convention: if the second part of the name was derived from a proper noun, e.g., the name of a person or place, a capital letter was used. Thus, the modern form Berberis darwinii was written as Berberis Darwinii . A capital was also used when
15744-454: The bird is young. After fledging, juvenile birds often disperse further than adults, and to different areas, so are commonly sighted far from a species' normal range. Some species, such as the auks, do not have a concerted migration effort, but drift southwards as the winter approaches. Other species, such as some of the storm petrels, diving petrels and cormorants, never disperse at all, staying near their breeding colonies year round. While
15908-510: 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 , crustaceans and jellyfish . 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 and the fish caught include small herring and sprats ; whale carcasses are scavenged where available. During digestion,
16072-477: The chick leaves the nest. The chicks fledge about 56–86 days 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 passerines with similarly sized eggs, resembling swifts in these developmental factors. Tubenoses and swifts have generally secure nest sites, but their food sources are unreliable, whereas passerines are vulnerable in
16236-480: The chicks of the sooty shearwater as they have done for centuries, using traditional stewardship, kaitiakitanga , to manage the harvest, but now also work with the University of Otago in studying the populations. In Greenland , however, uncontrolled hunting is pushing many species into steep decline. Other human factors have led to declines and even extinctions in seabird populations and species. Of these, perhaps
16400-482: 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 38°S and east to KwaZulu-Natal . Some birds stay north of
16564-494: 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
16728-421: The debris with their feet. The birds less commonly nest in walls, under buildings, or down rabbit burrows. Disused or occupied burrows of Atlantic puffins and Manx shearwaters 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
16892-453: The definition of seabirds suggests that the birds in question spend their lives on the ocean, many seabird families have many species that spend some or even most of their lives inland away from the sea. Most strikingly, many species breed tens, hundreds or even thousands of miles inland. Some of these species still return to the ocean to feed; for example, the snow petrel , the nests of which have been found 480 kilometres (300 mi) inland on
17056-451: The disease have scarred digestive tracts from ingesting plastic waste . "When birds ingest small pieces of plastic, they found, it inflames the digestive tract. Over time, the persistent inflammation causes tissues to become scarred and disfigured, affecting digestion, growth and survival." The threats faced by seabirds have not gone unnoticed by scientists or the conservation movement . As early as 1903, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
17220-456: The dive to combat natural buoyancy (caused by air trapped in plumage), and thus uses less energy than the dedicated pursuit divers, allowing them to utilise more widely distributed food resources, for example, in impoverished tropical seas. In general, this is the most specialised method of hunting employed by seabirds; other non-specialists (such as gulls and skuas) may employ it but do so with less skill and from lower heights. In brown pelicans,
17384-413: The earliest instances known is in southern Chile, where archaeological excavations in middens has shown hunting of albatrosses, cormorants and shearwaters from 5000 BP. This pressure has led to some species becoming extinct in many places; in particular, at least 20 species of an original 29 no longer breed on Easter Island . In the 19th century, the hunting of seabirds for fat deposits and feathers for
17548-440: The egg is 28 mm × 21 mm (1.10 in × 0.83 in), and it weighs 6.8 g (0.24 oz), 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 38–50 days, the longer periods arising when the eggs have become chilled through adult absence. One adult typically spends three days at
17712-407: The endings used differ between zoology and botany. Ranks below species receive three-part names, conventionally written in italics like the names of species. There are significant differences between the ICZN and the ICNafp . In zoology, the only formal rank below species is subspecies and the name is written simply as three parts (a trinomen). Thus, one of the subspecies of the olive-backed pipit
17876-522: The equator in the seas adjoining Mauritania and Rio de Oro , 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
18040-470: The establishment of wildlife refuges and adjustments to fishing techniques. There exists no single definition of which groups, families and species are seabirds, and most definitions are in some way arbitrary. Elizabeth Shreiber and Joanna Burger, two seabird scientists, said, "The one common characteristic that all seabirds share is that they feed in saltwater ; but, as seems to be true with any statement in biology, some do not." However, by convention all of
18204-404: The exception of the cormorants and some terns, and in common with most other birds, all seabirds have waterproof plumage . However, compared to land birds, they have far more feathers protecting their bodies. This dense plumage is better able to protect the bird from getting wet, and cold is kept out by a dense layer of down feathers . The cormorants possess a layer of unique feathers that retain
18368-540: 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 was sometimes separated as the sole member of Halocyptena . Molecular phylogenetic studies found that Oceanodroma was paraphyletic with respect to Hydrobates . As
18532-676: The feathers resist abrasion. Seabirds evolved to exploit different food resources in the world's seas and oceans, and to a great extent, their physiology and behaviour have been shaped by their diet . These evolutionary forces have often caused species in different families and even orders to evolve similar strategies and adaptations to the same problems, leading to remarkable convergent evolution , such as that between auks and penguins. There are four basic feeding strategies, or ecological guilds, for feeding at sea: surface feeding, pursuit diving, plunge-diving, and predation of higher vertebrates ; within these guilds, there are multiple variations on
18696-453: The first part of the name of the species is a genus name. In a classification system based on ranks, there are also ways of naming ranks above the level of genus and below the level of species. Ranks above genus (e.g., family, order, class) receive one-part names, which are conventionally not written in italics. Thus, the house sparrow, Passer domesticus , belongs to the family Passeridae . Family names are normally based on genus names, although
18860-466: The first time in over a hundred years. Seabird mortality caused by long-line fisheries can be greatly reduced by techniques such as setting long-line bait at night, dying the bait blue, setting the bait underwater, increasing the amount of weight on lines and by using bird scarers, and their deployment is increasingly required by many national fishing fleets. One of the Millennium Projects in
19024-478: The frequency of breeding failures due to unfavourable marine conditions, and the relative lack of predation compared to that of land-living birds. Because of the greater investment in raising the young and because foraging for food may occur far from the nest site, in all seabird species except the phalaropes, both parents participate in caring for the young, and pairs are typically at least seasonally monogamous . Many species, such as gulls, auks and penguins, retain
19188-509: The genus Canis ", while " Canis spp." means "two or more species of the genus Canis ". (These abbreviations should not be confused with the abbreviations "ssp." (zoology) or "subsp." (botany), plurals "sspp." or "subspp.", referring to one or more subspecies . See trinomen (zoology) and infraspecific name .) The abbreviation " cf. " (i.e., confer in Latin) is used to compare individuals/taxa with known/described species. Conventions for use of
19352-444: 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 10–300 cm (3.9–118.1 in) long and 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) across, with
19516-468: The longest period of parental care of any bird except a few raptors and the southern ground hornbill , with each chick fledging after four to six months and continued assistance after that for up to fourteen months. Due to the extended period of care, breeding occurs every two years rather than annually for some species. This life-history strategy has probably evolved both in response to the challenges of living at sea (collecting widely scattered prey items),
19680-408: The marine ecosystems caused by dredging, which alters the biodiversity of the seafloor, can also have a negative impact. The hunting of seabirds and the collecting of seabird eggs have contributed to the declines of many species, and the extinction of several, including the great auk and the spectacled cormorant . Seabirds have been hunted for food by coastal peoples throughout history—one of
19844-569: The middle Miocene ( Langhian ). The highest diversity of seabirds apparently existed during the Late Miocene and the Pliocene . At the end of the latter, the oceanic food web had undergone a period of upheaval due to extinction of considerable numbers of marine species; subsequently, the spread of marine mammals seems to have prevented seabirds from reaching their erstwhile diversity. Seabirds have made numerous adaptations to living on and feeding in
20008-490: The most desirable nesting spaces. The tropical Bonin petrel nests during the winter to avoid competition with the more aggressive wedge-tailed shearwater . When the seasons overlap, the wedge-tailed shearwaters will kill young Bonin petrels in order to use their burrows. Many seabirds show remarkable site fidelity , returning to the same burrow, nest or site for many years, and they will defend that site from rivals with great vigour. This increases breeding success, provides
20172-552: The most serious are introduced species . Seabirds, breeding predominantly on small isolated islands, are vulnerable to predators because they have lost many behaviours associated with defence from predators. Feral cats can take seabirds as large as albatrosses, and many introduced rodents, such as the Pacific rat , take eggs hidden in burrows. Introduced goats, cattle, rabbits and other herbivores can create problems, particularly when species need vegetation to protect or shade their young. The disturbance of breeding colonies by humans
20336-451: The name is formed by two nouns in apposition, e.g., Panthera Leo or Centaurea Cyanus . In current usage, the second part is never written with an initial capital. When used with a common name, the scientific name often follows in parentheses, although this varies with publication. For example, "The house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) is decreasing in Europe." The binomial name should generally be written in full. The exception to this
20500-435: The name – the generic name – identifies the genus to which the species belongs, whereas the second part – the specific name or specific epithet – distinguishes the species within the genus. For example, modern humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens . Tyrannosaurus rex is likely the most widely known binomial. The formal introduction of this system of naming species
20664-543: The names of people. Thus Gerard's Phalangium ephemerum virginianum became Tradescantia virginiana , where the genus name honoured John Tradescant the Younger , an English botanist and gardener. A bird in the parrot family was named Psittacus alexandri , meaning "Alexander's parrot", after Alexander the Great , whose armies introduced eastern parakeets to Greece. Linnaeus's trivial names were much easier to remember and use than
20828-551: 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 11 years. Longevity records established from bird ringing recoveries include a bird aged 31 years 11 months 9 days, and another aged more than 33 years. The storm petrel normally flies within 10 m (33 ft) of
20992-403: The nominate subspecies to justify a split. The storm petrel is a small bird, 14–18 cm (5.5–7.1 in) in length with a 36–39 cm (14–15 in) wingspan. It weighs 20–38 g (0.71–1.34 oz), with an average of 28 g (0.99 oz). It is square-tailed and has all-black plumage except for a snow-white rump that extends to the sides of the tail base and a broad white band on
21156-428: The ocean lead to decreased availability of food and colonies are more often flooded as a consequence of sea level rise and extreme rainfall events. Heat stress from extreme temperatures is an additional threat. Some seabirds have used changing wind patterns to forage further and more efficiently. In 2023, plasticosis , a new disease caused solely by plastics, was discovered in seabirds. The birds identified as having
21320-495: The ordering of items into groups based on similarities or differences; in biological classification , species are one of the kinds of item to be classified. In principle, the names given to species could be completely independent of their classification. This is not the case for binomial names, since the first part of a binomial is the name of the genus into which the species is placed. Above the rank of genus, binomial nomenclature and classification are partly independent; for example,
21484-422: The original name is changed, e.g., the species is moved to a different genus, both codes use parentheses around the original authority; the ICNafp also requires the person who made the change to be given. In the ICNafp , the original name is then called the basionym . Some examples: Binomial nomenclature, as described here, is a system for naming species. Implicitly, it includes a system for naming genera, since
21648-841: The other hand, most gulls are versatile and opportunistic feeders who will eat a wide variety of prey, both at sea and on land. Pursuit diving exerts greater pressures (both evolutionary and physiological) on seabirds, but the reward is a greater area in which to feed than is available to surface feeders. Underwater propulsion is provided by wings (as used by penguins, auks, diving petrels and some other species of petrel) or feet (as used by cormorants, grebes , loons and several types of fish-eating ducks ). Wing-propelled divers are generally faster than foot-propelled divers. The use of wings or feet for diving has limited their utility in other situations: loons and grebes walk with extreme difficulty (if at all), penguins cannot fly, and auks have sacrificed flight efficiency in favour of diving. For example,
21812-466: The parallel polynomial names, and eventually replaced them. The value of the binomial nomenclature system derives primarily from its economy, its widespread use, and the uniqueness and stability of names that the Codes of Zoological and Botanical , Bacterial and Viral Nomenclature provide: Binomial nomenclature for species has the effect that when a species is moved from one genus to another, sometimes
21976-517: 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 to aid flotation. An apparently empty ocean will soon fill with hundreds of birds attracted by
22140-412: The plankton is quickly converted to an oily orange liquid that owes its colour to carotenoids . Larger prey items take longer to digest. The oil, rich in vitamin A , 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 farms are exploited on
22304-543: 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 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. 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
22468-412: The related word binomium was used to signify one term in a binomial expression in mathematics. In fact, the Latin word binomium may validly refer to either of the epithets in the binomial name, which can equally be referred to as a binomen (pl. binomina ). Prior to the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with
22632-495: The removal of exotic invaders from increasingly large islands. Feral cats have been removed from Ascension Island , Arctic foxes from many islands in the Aleutian Islands , and rats from Campbell Island . The removal of these introduced species has led to increases in numbers of species under pressure and even the return of extirpated ones. After the removal of cats from Ascension Island, seabirds began to nest there again for
22796-465: The same mate for several seasons, and many petrel species mate for life. Albatrosses and procellariids , which mate for life, take many years to form a pair bond before they breed, and the albatrosses have an elaborate breeding dance that is part of pair-bond formation. Ninety-five percent of seabirds are colonial, and seabird colonies are among the largest bird colonies in the world, providing one of Earth's great wildlife spectacles. Colonies of over
22960-653: The sea at all, spending their lives on lakes, rivers, swamps and, in the case of some of the gulls, cities and agricultural land. In these cases, it is thought that these terrestrial or freshwater birds evolved from marine ancestors. Some seabirds, principally those that nest in tundra , as skuas and phalaropes do, will migrate over land as well. The more marine species, such as petrels, auks and gannets , are more restricted in their habits, but are occasionally seen inland as vagrants. This most commonly happens to young inexperienced birds, but can happen in great numbers to exhausted adults after large storms , an event known as
23124-501: The sea's edge (coast), but are also not treated as seabirds. Sea eagles and other fish-eating birds of prey are also typically excluded, however tied to marine environments they may be. German ornithologist Gerald Mayr defined the "core waterbird" clade Aequornithes in 2010. This lineage gives rise to the Gaviiformes , Sphenisciformes , Procellariiformes, Ciconiiformes , Suliformes and Pelecaniformes . The tropicbirds are part of
23288-609: The sea, but in John Masefield 's poem of the same name she is seen as a wrecker of ships. She appears as a fairy in Charles Kingsley 's The Water Babies and is depicted in one of Jessie Willcox Smith '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 "stormy petrel" being applied by various authors to characters as disparate as Roman tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher ,
23452-407: The sea. Wing morphology has been shaped by the niche an individual species or family has evolved , so that looking at a wing's shape and loading can tell a scientist about its life feeding behaviour. Longer wings and low wing loading are typical of more pelagic species, while diving species have shorter wings. Species such as the wandering albatross , which forage over huge areas of sea, have
23616-416: The skewed sex ratio of western gulls in southern California. Oil spills are also a threat to seabirds: the oil is toxic, and bird feathers become saturated by the oil, causing them to lose their waterproofing. Oil pollution in particular threatens species with restricted ranges or already depressed populations. Climate change mainly affect seabirds via changes to their habitat : various processes in
23780-432: The skills of plunge-diving take several years to fully develop—once mature, they can dive from 20 m (66 ft) above the water's surface, shifting the body before impact to avoid injury. It may be that plunge divers are restricted in their hunting grounds to clear waters that afford a view of their prey from the air. While they are the dominant guild in the tropics, the link between plunge diving and water clarity
23944-775: The small islands on which it breeds, the distribution is poorly known. A colony was discovered as recently as 2009, on Lampedusa . The storm petrel has been recorded as a vagrant in several European countries as far east as Ukraine, in the Guinea region 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
24108-484: The smell. The attraction of the fishy odour is sometimes enhanced by the addition of dimethylsulphide (DMS) a chemical also naturally produced by some planktonic organisms, although there are doubts about the safety of this possible carcinogen . 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 in
24272-478: 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. 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 and normally begins in late May or June. Pairs have
24436-483: The specific name or epithet must be changed as well. This may happen because the specific name is already used in the new genus, or to agree in gender with the new genus if the specific epithet is an adjective modifying the genus name. Some biologists have argued for the combination of the genus name and specific epithet into a single unambiguous name, or for the use of uninomials (as used in nomenclature of ranks above species). Because genus names are unique only within
24600-489: The spread of the northern fulmar through the United Kingdom is attributed in part to the availability of discards. Discards generally benefit surface feeders, such as gannets and petrels, to the detriment of pursuit divers like penguins and guillemots, which can get entangled in the nets. Fisheries also have negative effects on seabirds, and these effects, particularly on the long-lived and slow-breeding albatrosses, are
24764-695: The squid eaten are too large to have been caught alive, and include mid-water species likely to be beyond the reach of albatrosses. Some species will also feed on other seabirds; for example, gulls, skuas and pelicans will often take eggs, chicks and even small adult seabirds from nesting colonies, while the giant petrels can kill prey up to the size of small penguins and seal pups. Seabirds' life histories are dramatically different from those of land birds. In general, they are K-selected , live much longer (anywhere between twenty and sixty years), delay breeding for longer (for up to ten years), and invest more effort into fewer young. Most species will only have one clutch
24928-443: The storm petrel, with Halipeurus pelagicus occurring at much higher densities than Philoceanus robertsi . The flea Xenopsylla gratiosa and dermanyssid mites are commonly found, with lower numbers of ticks . 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
25092-433: The terminology they use and their particular rules. In modern usage, the first letter of the generic name is always capitalized in writing, while that of the specific epithet is not, even when derived from a proper noun such as the name of a person or place. Similarly, both parts are italicized in normal text (or underlined in handwriting). Thus the binomial name of the annual phlox (named after botanist Thomas Drummond )
25256-495: The theme. Many seabirds feed on the ocean's surface, as the action of marine currents often concentrates food such as krill , forage fish , squid , or other prey items within reach of a dipped head. Surface feeding itself can be broken up into two different approaches, surface feeding while flying (for example as practiced by gadfly petrels , frigatebirds , and storm petrels ), and surface feeding while swimming (examples of which are practiced by gulls , fulmars , many of
25420-491: The three species ( Red and Red-necked ) are oceanic for nine months of the year, crossing the equator to feed pelagically. Loons and grebes , which nest on lakes but winter at sea, are usually categorized as water birds, not seabirds. Although there are a number of sea ducks in the family Anatidae that are truly marine in the winter, by convention they are usually excluded from the seabird grouping. Many waders (or shorebirds) and herons are also highly marine, living on
25584-499: The tropicbirds and some penguins), but most of the colour in seabirds appears in the bills and legs. The plumage of seabirds is thought in many cases to be for camouflage , both defensive (the colour of US Navy battleships is the same as that of Antarctic prions , and in both cases it reduces visibility at sea) and aggressive (the white underside possessed by many seabirds helps hide them from prey below). The usually black wing tips help prevent wear, as they contain melanins that help
25748-434: 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
25912-436: 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 0.5 m (20 in). and it is claimed, using indirect measurements, that the Mediterranean subspecies reaches depths of up to 5 m (16 ft)). A bird may range up to 200 km (120 mi) over the course of two or three days in search of food. Although
26076-436: The water. The suggestion that the word refers to St Peter '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 "storm y petrel" by some 19th-century authors. The scientific name hydrobates derives from Greek " hydro- ", from hydōr "water", and batēs "walker", and pelagicus from pelagikos "pelagic, of
26240-436: 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. 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
26404-584: Was 22 metres (72 ft); another study, this time on Cory's shearwaters nesting near Corsica , found that of nine out of 61 male chicks that returned to breed at their natal colony bred in the burrow they were raised in, and two actually bred with their own mother. Colonies are usually situated on islands, cliffs or headlands, which land mammals have difficulty accessing. This is thought to provide protection to seabirds, which are often very clumsy on land. Coloniality often arises in types of bird that do not defend feeding territories (such as swifts , which have
26568-641: 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 , 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
26732-653: Was convinced of the need to declare Pelican Island in Florida a National Wildlife Refuge to protect the bird colonies (including the nesting brown pelicans ), and in 1909 he protected the Farallon Islands. Today many important seabird colonies are given some measure of protection, from Heron Island in Australia to Triangle Island in British Columbia. Island restoration techniques, pioneered by New Zealand, enable
26896-410: Was supported to varying degrees by DNA analysis. The somewhat informal use of taxa names with qualifying abbreviations is referred to as open nomenclature and it is not subject to strict usage codes. In some contexts, the dagger symbol ("†") may be used before or after the binomial name to indicate that the species is extinct. In scholarly texts, at least the first or main use of the binomial name
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