Petrels, shearwaters and diving petrels | Procellariidae

Pijlstormvogels | Petreles y pardelas | Petrels, shearwaters and diving petrels

Twenty-two species in nine genera occur in this guide, mainly over the cold, productive water of the Humboldt Current and around the Galápagos. Medium-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 small diving petrels whirr low over the sea and row with their wings underwater. 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, for the Galápagos Petrel in the humid highlands of the islands and for the Peruvian Diving Petrel in the guano layer of coastal islands. The chick is stuffed with oil-rich food until it outweighs its parents, and is then left to itself.