Tubenoses | Procellariiformes

Stormvogelachtigen | Petreles y pardelas

Tubenoses: the nostrils open in horny tubes on or beside the bill, and the bill itself is built up of separate horny plates ending in a hook. Their sense of smell is unusually good for birds and lets them find food far downwind; a salt gland above each eye drains surplus sea salt out through the bill. In the forestomach they make an oily concentrate that serves both as food for the chick and as a defence against intruders. They come ashore only to breed, lay a single egg that is not replaced if lost, and do not breed for the first time until they are several years old.

Families in this order

Southern storm petrels | Oceanitidae2 speciesThe smallest seabirds in the guide, with strikingly long, slender legs that project beyond the tail in flight and fairly short, rounded wings. They feed right at the surface, wings held up and feet pattering or hopping on the water, picking plankton and oily scraps from the top layer. They nest colonially in burrows and rock crevices on islands and come in only after dark, so nothing of them is to be seen there by day.
Northern storm petrels | Hydrobatidae4 speciesJust as small, but with longer, narrower and more sharply pointed wings and short legs that do not reach past the tail, giving an erratic, bat-like flight in which beats and glides alternate. They take food while hovering or in passing rather than pattering steadily on the surface. At night, from the nest chamber and over the colony, they give churring and chattering series of notes; the birds themselves smell strongly musky, and the scent lingers about the nest.
Petrels and shearwaters | Procellariidae12 speciesMedium-sized to large seabirds with a stout hooked bill and long, narrow wings held stiff and straight in the glide: they shear low over the waves and use the difference in wind speed just above the water to make headway without a wingbeat. Food is snatched from the surface or chased underwater, several species diving tens of metres with half-folded wings. The legs are set far back, so on land they shuffle and push along on the breast; nesting is in self-dug burrows or rock crevices on islands. The chick is stuffed with oil-rich food until it outweighs its parents, and is then left to itself.