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. and 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. and 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. and 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