Hornby's Storm Petrel

About the Hornby's Storm Petrel

The ringed storm petrel (Hydrobates hornbyi), also known as Hornby's storm petrel, is a seabird that ranges in the Humboldt Current off the coasts of South America. The species is a very distinctive member of the storm petrel family, with a dark cap, white face and underparts, forked tail and a black band across the chest. It is relatively common in the seas off Peru, Chile and Ecuador. The species is named after Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby.

The ringed storm petrel was formally described in 1854 by the English zoologist George Gray and given the binomial name Thalassidroma hornbyi. He chose the specific epithet to honour Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby who had obtained the specimen. The ringed storm petrel was formerly placed in the genus Oceanodroma but is now placed in the genus Hydrobates, the only genus in the Northern storm petrel family Hydrobatidae.

Little is known about the breeding biology of the ringed storm petrel. The first colony of this seabird ever found was discovered in April 2017 by Chilean ornithologists from the Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre de Chile (ROC). Breeding burrows of this seabirds were discovered in the Atacama Desert... Wikipedia →