Band-rumped Storm Petrel

Hydrobates castro (Harcourt, 1851)

Band-rumped Storm Petrel, Hydrobates castro, is a storm petrel of the family Hydrobatidae that breeds on islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its breeding sites include the Azores, Madeira, the Desertas, the Salvage Islands, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, the Berlengas, islands off St Helena, Boatswainbird Island, Hide-jima and Sangan-jima, Kauai and the Galápagos. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely at sea in both oceans. It nests in colonies near the shore, using rock crevices, and lays a single white egg. It is a nocturnal breeder and feeds at the sea surface.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Hydrobatidae — Northern Storm Petrels

Breeding range

Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean: Azores (cold-season breeding), Madeira (hot-season breeding), Desertas, Salvage, Canary and Cape Verde is. (n to s Macaronesia, w of n Africa); Berlengas Is. (just w of c Portugal); islands off St. Helena (tropical se Atlantic Ocean), Boatswainbird I. (just e of Ascension I.; se Atlantic Ocean); Hide-jima and Sangan-jima (Futagojima Is., e of s Honshu, c Japan); Kauai (w main Hawaiian Is.) and widely in Galápagos

Nonbreeding range

in North Atlantic, to Gulf Stream of temperate nw Atlantic and offshore waters of n Gulf of Mexico, offshore waters of tropical e Atlantic off w, c Africa and in Gulf of Guinea; in North Pacific, seas s, e of Japan, near main Hawaiian Is., and ec Pacific from coasts of s Central America to nw South America and w to Marquesas (e Polynesia)