Ashy Storm Petrel

Hydrobates homochroa (Coues, 1864)

Ashy Storm Petrel, Hydrobates homochroa, is a seabird of the North Pacific that breeds on offshore islands off California and north-western Mexico, and spends the non-breeding season in the coastal California Current as far north as northern California and north-central Baja California. It nests in rock burrows on islands, with colonies on the Farallones, the Channel Islands, Coronado Island, Todos Santos Island, Bird Rock and Van Damme Cove. First described by Coues in 1864, it is a small storm petrel with a forked tail and a sooty-brown plumage.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Hydrobatidae — Northern Storm Petrels

Breeding range

Pacific Ocean: islands of Van Damme Cove (Mendocino Co.); Bird Rock (Pt. Reyes), and Farallon Is. (w of c California); Channel Is. (w of s California); Coronado Is. and I. de Todos Santos (w of nw Baja California, nw Mexico)

Nonbreeding range

coastal California Current to n California (including Monterey Bay) and nc Baja California (nw Mexico)