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Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
last update: Mar 25, 2009 11:25 AM
Latin name: Oceanodroma furcata
Population: 3-5 million individuals
Cites classified: Least Concern
Where found: North Pacific Ocean along the North American coast, especially the Aleutian Islands
Age/ life expectancy: 6 years
Wingspan: 42-46 cm
Length: 20-23 cm
Weight: 50-55 g
Mating/Breeding: Colony nesters, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels are often intermixed in Leach's Storm-Petrel colonies. In March and April, the birds return to the breeding colonies. They excavate burrows in soil or use natural rock crevices, or they may use old burrows. Sometimes two or more pairs have nests in side tunnels branching off from a common entrance. The nest chamber is sometimes lined with grass, but often does not have any lining. The female lays one egg, which both parents take turns incubating. Incubation lasts from 37-68 days. (Incubation may be interrupted for days at a time, accounting for the large variance.) Both parents feed the chick by regurgitation. At first the chick is fed oily stomach discharge, and later meals are made up of partially digested fish. Seven to nine weeks after hatching, the chick heads to sea. If the adults do not return regularly with sufficient food, the chick will go into torpor. The ability of the egg to survive with suspended incubation and for the chick to become torpid are important for survival, since the adults spend a lot of time away from the nest looking for food that can be hard to find.
Eggs: 1 white egg, often with a ring of purplish spots at blunt end
Hibernation: winters at sea in the Southern Pacific Ocean particularly along the Japanese coast as well as the North American coast
Hunting Habits: follows fishing boats, picking offal off the surface
Feed on: crustaceans, small fish, and offal
Predators: river otters, western gulls, and barn owls
Colour/Body: The Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is a small, silver-gray seabird. Its body is solid light gray, and the wings have dark and light gray patterns. The bird has a short, dark bill, a tube-nose, and black around its eye.
Interesting Trivia:
- Oil is stored in the stomach and used to feed chicks. Adults regurgitate the oil onto predators, and sometimes onto each other during squabbles over nest sites.
- Storm-petrels use their sense of smell to find food at sea and are often the first birds to arrive at an odour source.
