Northern storm petrels | Hydrobatidae

Noordelijke stormvogeltjes | Paíños del norte

Food is picked from the surface while the bird flutters just above it and taps the water with its feet, wings held up and body almost still; small crustaceans, tiny fish and droplets of oil are taken this way. The nostrils sit in a tube on top of the bill, and the sense of smell is so well developed that an oil slick at sea is found from far off and the bird locates its own burrow in the dark by scent. Breeding takes place on uninhabited islands, in a self-dug tunnel or a rock crevice, with one white egg; if a parent stays away longer to feed, that egg can lie cold for several days without being lost. The chick is fed an energy-rich stomach oil and at its heaviest weighs more than an adult. The colony is visited only after dark, to avoid gulls; from the burrows comes a steady purring and chattering. A bird handled at the nest will spray that stomach oil at the intruder.