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Markham's Storm Petrel | Hydrobates markhami
Humboldtstormvogeltje | Paíño de Markham
Markham's Storm Petrel is a large, dark brown storm petrel with a long, forked tail that breeds in the deserts of Peru and northern Chile. Its colonies are not on islands but in cavities in salt crusts, up to tens of kilometres inland, and were only discovered in recent decades. In the guide area it is a scarce, non-breeding visitor on the open sea far off the Pacific coast of southern Central America.
Voice
Silent at sea. At the desert breeding sites purring and rattling sounds come from the cavities at night. No vocalisations are known from the guide area.
Recording: Cristian Pinto — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
21–23 cm. A large, slender storm petrel with long, narrow wings and a long, deeply forked tail. The plumage is entirely dark sooty brown, slightly browner and less black than in the Black Storm Petrel, without a pale rump. A distinct pale brown band crosses the upperwing, reaching almost to the leading edge of the wing. Male, female and young birds are alike. The flight is light and buoyant, with fairly slow beats and long glides.
Confusion species
The Black Storm Petrel Hydrobates melania is about the same size but blacker, with a less distinct wing band, and flies with heavier, deeper beats in which the wings are raised high; at sea the two can only be separated in good views and many sightings remain unidentified. Dark-rumped Leach's Storm-Petrels Hydrobates leucorhous are smaller, with shorter wings, and fly in a bounding, erratic way. The Least Storm Petrel Hydrobates microsoma is much smaller and has a short, wedge-shaped tail.
Habitat
Open ocean far beyond the continental shelf, especially in and around the cold Humboldt Current and the warmer waters north of it. Takes small fish, small squid and crustaceans from the surface in flight. Breeds in natural cavities and crevices in salt crusts in the bare coastal desert, outside the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Breeds in the desert near the Paracas Peninsula in southern Peru and in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Outside the breeding season over the eastern Pacific, from Chile north along Peru and Ecuador to around the Galápagos Islands and off Central America. In the guide area mainly far offshore from Panama and Costa Rica; records further north, to off southern Mexico, are rare. Because little observation takes place this far from the coast and the species is hard to separate from the Black Storm Petrel, its distribution in the guide area is poorly known.
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Only seen on boat trips over deep water far off the Pacific coast of Panama or Costa Rica. With every large, dark storm petrel, check the brown tone, the distinct wing band and the light, buoyant flight.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The desert breeding areas are being damaged by mining, roads, pipelines and urban expansion. Artificial light attracts fledglings, which come down in towns and on roads in northern Chile and die. The size of the world population has only recently been roughly established.
Scientific name
Hydrobates markhami | (Salvin, 1883) (GBIF: Oceanodroma markhami)
Salvin described the species in 1883 as Cymochorea markhami; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Hydrobates was introduced in 1822 by Boie. Hydrobates is Greek, from hudro- 'water' and batēs 'walker': 'water walker'. markhami honours the British naval officer and Arctic explorer Sir Albert Hastings Markham (1841–1918). The specimen the first description was based on came from at sea off Peru (19°40′S, 75°W).