Swinhoe's Storm Petrel

Hydrobates monorhis (Swinhoe, 1867)

Swinhoe's Storm Petrel, Hydrobates monorhis, breeds on islands in the north-west Pacific off Russia, China, Japan and Korea, and may also breed in Macaronesia. Outside the breeding season it ranges through the seas of the Indonesian Archipelago, to Ashmore Reef, western and southern India, Sri Lanka, the Arabian Sea and the north-east African coast, mostly north of the Equator. It is a small seabird in the storm petrel family, and is mostly dark brown. It nests in colonies near the shore in rock crevices and lays a single white egg.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Hydrobatidae — Northern Storm Petrels

Breeding range

Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean: Verkhovsky and Karamzhin is. and satellite islets (sw of Vladivostok, Russia), off Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu (c Japan), Korean Pen., off Shandong and Guangdong (e China) and Taiwan; possibly also Macaronesia (off nw Africa)

Nonbreeding range

through seas of e Indonesian Arch., Ashmore Reef (nw of Australia) to w, s India and Sri Lanka, Arabian Sea, and off ne African coast, mostly n of Equator