Leach's Petrel - Hydrobates leucorhous

Alternative names
Oceanodroma leucorhoa
Description

Medium black-brown Storm petrel with forked or deeply notched tail; most of upperparts are sooty-black, upper-wing with contrasting panel formed by greyer tinged on coverts; white rump patch dived down the middle by a grey strip, which is not easy to see. Bill, legs and feet black. It flight is distinctive, leaping and darting through the air with constant change of speed, direction and action, sometimes hovering, sometimes buoyantly like a tern or gilding and banking recalling a shearwater. Patters feet on surface of the water on occasionally and will settle briefly on the sea.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Cool or cold waters fringing sub-arctic, or linked with oceanic convergences or upwellings in lower latitudes; mainly offshore or over continental shelf, but unlike most of similarly specialized relatives also dispersed in non-breeding season right across tropical and sub-tropical Atlantic.

When to see it

In the UK it is mainly recorded during autumn gales both on the coast and inland.

Life History

It is gregarious at breeding sites but mainly solitary at sea. It is pelagic and nomadic outside breeding season; occasionally in small, loose flocks, apparently when attracted by abundant food, when it also associates freely with other petrels. Monogamous pair-bond; of life-long duration but renewed each breeding season. Normally comes ashore for breeding, and then only at night.

UK Status

It is a summer breeding species that nests on remote islands in the north and northwest of Scotland.

VC55 Status

Rare storm-driven vagrant, mainly in September and October but has been recorded in April, November and December.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

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Species profile

Common names
Leach's Storm-petrel, Leach's Storm Petrel, Leach's Petrel
Species group:
Birds
Kingdom:
Animalia
Order:
Procellariiformes
Family:
Hydrobatidae
Records on NatureSpot:
1
First record:
13/10/2013 (Baker, Rodney)
Last record:
13/10/2013 (Baker, Rodney)

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