Southern storm petrels | Oceanitidae

Zuidelijke stormvogeltjes | Paíños del sur | Southern storm petrels

Among the 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. Elliot's Storm Petrel is a common bird of the cold Humboldt Current along the west coast and around the Galápagos. 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.