Diagnoza

Largest storm petrel in Europe (length 18–22 cm; wingspan 45–48 cm  and body mass 42,5–51 g) with dark brown plumage, long and pointed wings, a long white, V-shaped spot on the rump (with a parting mark in the middle) and a distinct, light cover stripe on the outside of the wing; the underside of the wings is dark, forked tail; 2 subspecies (in Europe only nominate): H. l. leucorhous (Vieillot, 1817) and H. l. chapmani von Berlepsch, 1906.

Porównanie

Clearly larger than Wilson's storm petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) and European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus); the V-shaped spot on the rump, clear cover strip on outside of the wings and the more forked tail differ from the band-rumped storm petrel (Hydrobates castro).

Autekologia

Feeds on crustaceans, fish, small cephalopods, and soft-bodied invertebrates; partially nocturnal feeding; follows whales and seals to take faecal scraps or oily droplets; probably smell used to locate food; feeds by surface-seizing, while dipping or pattering in flight

Występowanie geograficzne

A pelagic species, during the breeding season, occurs well >50 km from colonies, often over the continental slope; breeding in some coasts of North Atlantic (Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Lofoten, Faroe Islands, Hebrides, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Maine,) and north Pacific (Commander and Curil Islands, Aleutians, Alaska, British Columbia, California); migratory movements in September—November; major wintering areas off equatorial Brazil, west Africa and equatorial waters, south to about 5°S, of the eastern and central Pacific; return movement in March and continues to May, even June (Brooke, 2004); in Poland 21 records of 22 individuals between 1894-2018 (Stawarczyk et al. 2017; KFSOPTZ, 2019) from Baltic Coasts and one from Masuria (Jeziorak Lake) and Lower Silesia (Goliszów).

Zasięg czasowy

Late Pleistocene - recent; prehistoric remains known from Japan (Hasegawa et al. 1988; Watanabe et al. 2020), Alaska (Lefevre  et al. 1997) and France (La Fage, inland; Mourer-Chauviré et al. 2003).

Materiały muzealne

5 prehistoric collections from France, Japan and Alaska; in Poland one recent specimen is housed in ISEZ (A/2557/72).

Literatura

Brooke, M. 2004. Albatrosses and Petrels Across the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Lefevre, C.; Corbett, D.G.; Wes, D. and Siegel-Causey, D. 1997. A zooarchaeological study at Buldir Island, Western Aleutians, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 34(2):118-131.

Hasegawa, Y.; Tomida, Y.; Kohno, N.; Ono, K.; Nokariya, H. and Uyeno, T. 1988. Quaternary vertebrates from Shiriya area, Shimokita Pininsula, northeastern Japan. Memoirs of the National Science Museum 21:17-36

Komisja Faunistyczna Sekcji Ornitologicznej Polskiego Towarzystwa Zoologicznego. 2019. Raport nr 35. Rzadkie ptaki obserwowane w Polsce w roku 2018. Ornis Polonica 60: 125–160.

Mourer-Chauviré, C.; Philippe, M.; Quinif, Y.; Chaline, J.; Debard, E.; Guérin, C. & Hugueney, M. 2003. Position of the palaeontological site Aven I des Abîmes de La Fage, at Noailles (Corrèze, France), in the European Pleistocene chronology. Boreas 32: 521–531. Oslo.

Onley, D. i Scofield, P. 2007. Albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters of the world. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Pollet, I. L.; Bond, A. L.; Hedd, A.; Huntington, C. E.; Butler, R. G. and Mauck, R. 2021. Leach's Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous), version 1.1. In: Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Stawarczyk T., Cofta T., Kajzer Z., Lontkowski J., Sikora A. 2017. Rzadkie ptaki Polski. Studio B&W Wojciech Janecki. Sosnowiec. Pp 1-512.

Tyrberg, T. 1999. Seabirds and late Pleistocene marine environments in the northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 89: 139–157.

Watanabe, J.; Matsuoka, H. and Hasegawa, Y. 2020. Pleistocene seabirds from Shiriya, northeast Japan: systematics and oceanographic context. Historical Biology 32: 671-729