The least storm petrel (''Hydrobates microsoma'') is a small

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

of the

storm petrel Storm-petrel may refer to one of two bird families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: *Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some specie ...

family

Hydrobatidae Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus ''Hydrobates'' in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been split ...

. It is 13–15 cm in length, with a wingspan of 32 cm. It is the smallest member of the order

Procellariiformes Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are of ...

. It was formerly defined in the genus ''

Oceanodroma Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus ''Hydrobates'' in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been spli ...

'' before that genus was synonymized with '' Hydrobates''. It breeds on islands off the Baja Peninsula and

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

in rock crevices or small burrows in soft earth and lays a single white

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

. Like most petrels, its walking ability is limited to a short shuffle to the burrow. It is a colonial nester. It spends the rest of the year at sea, reaching as far south as the tropical

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. It frequently can be seen well offshore of southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

in late summer and autumn. It feeds on mainly

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s, with a preference of

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

e of

spiny lobster Spiny lobsters, also known as langustas, langouste, or rock lobsters, are a family (Palinuridae) of about 60 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia. Spiny lobsters are also, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, S ...

s. It feeds similarly to other storm petrels, picking food off the surface of the water while in flight. The least storm petrel suffers losses on some of the breeding islands, particularly from feral

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s and

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' ( pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandico ...

References

* "National Geographic" ''Field Guide to the Birds of North'' ''America'' *'' Seabirds, an Identification Guide'' by Peter Harrison, (1983) *''Handbook of the Birds of the World Vol 1'', Josep del Hoyo editor, *"National Audubon Society" ''The Sibley Guide to Birds'', by David Allen Sibley,

External links

Least Storm-Petrel ''Oceanodroma microsoma''
- VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q27074593 least storm petrel least storm petrel Birds of Mexico Birds of Central America Birds of Colombia Birds of Ecuador least storm petrel least storm petrel least storm petrel least storm petrel least storm petrel least storm petrel