Vincent van der Spek

Small tubenose petrel distributed in the Atlantic Ocean, breeding from Iceland and West Norway to the Canary Islands (nominate subspecies), but also in the Mediterranean sea, from Spain to Greece (subspecies melitensis). In winter, disperses widely across the North and South Atlantic, even off American coasts

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		810000-848000,825000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for European Storm Petrel

There are two main types of recoveries, as often the case for marine seabirds: movements between breeding colonies, with recoveries obtained during the breeding seasons, and movements from a breeding colony (where ringed) to a potentially distant site where the bird was found dead on or close to a coast. The recovery data thus illustrate a global network connecting Atlantic colonies of this petrel, from Portugal to Norway, then N-S movements to wintering grounds down to South Africa. There are also movements of Balearic melitensis the coasts of Murcia and Valencia regions. The ringing effort is concentrated on breeding colonies. Published tracking data concern the breeding period (Bolton 2021).

Recoveries by Condition for European Storm Petrel

Almost only live recoveries in numbers, because of numerous recaptures between distant breeding colonies during demography research, but long-distant recoveries informing links between breeding and wintering grounds are mainly of dead birds.

Annual Movements for European Storm Petrel

Most long-distance recoveries off Africa (Senegal, Namibia and South Africa) concern adult petrels, so illustrate the seasonal movements of mature individuals, not the only dispersal of non-breeding immatures. Longest recovery distance is over 11.000 kilometres! The species is present on breeding colonies from April to early October, with southernmost records off South Africa to early March, but also later in the spring (non-breeding immatures?).

Connectivity by Month by Region for European Storm Petrel

As for other tubenoses, recoveries between breeding colonies are obtained during the breeding seasons, between June and August. Scottish colonies are even linked to Portuguese colonies. Most recoveries off African coasts are obtained in November (Gulf of Guinea), and December-February (South Africa).

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Bolton, M.2021 . GPS tracking reveals highly consistent use of restricted foraging areas by European Storm-petrels Hydrobates pelagicus breeding at the largest UK colony: Implications for conservation management. Bird Conservation International 31 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270920000374) : 35–52

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