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Description of the bird
The size of petrels varies depending on the species. The smallest birds are up to 25 cm in length, their wingspan is about 60 cm, and their weight is up to 200 g. But most species of these birds are still larger in size. There are even giant petrels that are close in size to albatrosses. Their body length reaches 1 m, wingspan is about 2 m and weight up to 5 kg.
The plumage color of petrels is white, gray, brown or black. In general, all species are feathered approximately the same - both males and females - so it is difficult to distinguish between individual species, and birds of different sexes within the same species.
All representatives of the shearwater family fly well, differing only in flight styles. Their paws are located behind and are poorly developed. Therefore, being on land is not an easy task for a petrel.
The bird's beak is long, shaped like a hook with a sharp tip and edges, which helps the petrel hold prey that slips out of the beak.
The diet of the petrel consists of small fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Most of all, the bird likes to feast on herring, sprats, sardines, and cuttlefish.
The petrel hunts mainly at night, when its prey floats to the upper layers of the water. In this case, the bird first carefully looks out for small fish, after which it sharply dives into the water after it. Petrels can dive to a maximum depth of 6-8 m. They use their beaks to filter sea water, leaving an edible residue.
Since such food production requires a lot of effort from the bird, petrels often “cunningly” and find food for themselves by accompanying whales or fishing vessels.
Bird distribution
Shearwater species live in a wide range in the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Birds are especially common off the coast of Antarctica and Australia. For nesting they choose small islands located in the oceans.
Common types of petrel
In the petrel family, there are two subfamilies - Fulmarinae and Puffininae.
Representatives of the first (Fulmarinae) dive little and poorly; they obtain food in the uppermost layers of water. Their flight is gliding and gliding.
The most big bird in the family. The length of the beak is about 10 cm, the length of the wing is up to 55 cm. The beak is yellowish-pink in color, with a brown or red end. The plumage color of adult individuals is dark gray, whitish in the chin and head area, with white spots on the head, chest and neck. Young animals have darker feathers and no white spots.
The species is distributed in the south of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Breeds on South Georgia Island.
The bird's body length is about 100 cm, its wingspan is up to 200 cm. Weight is from 2.5 to 5 kg. The beak is yellow with a green tip.
There are two color options for the bird - dark and light. The light ones have white plumage, with rare black feathers. The dark ones are gray-brown in color, with a whitish head, neck and chest, decorated with brown spots.
Found in the south of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Breeds on islands near Antarctica.
Antarctic petrels
Medium-sized petrel. Its body length is about 45 cm, its wingspan is up to 110 cm, and its weight is 0.5-0.8 kg. The plumage is light silver-gray on the back and white on the belly. The wings are two-colored on top: brownish-brown with a white stripe in the middle. The beak is dark brown. The legs are blue with black claws.
The species' habitat includes the coast of Antarctica.
The bird's weight is from 250 to 300 g, body length is about 36 cm, wingspan is up to 90 cm. The wings are wide, the tail is short and rounded. The upper side of the wings is decorated with a black and white pattern with two large white spots. The head, chin, sides of the neck and back are black.
The species is distributed in the subantarctic zone.
A small bird with a body length of 30 to 40 cm, a wingspan of up to 95 cm, and a weight of up to 0.5 kg. The plumage is pure white with a small dark spot near the eye. The beak is black. The legs are bluish-gray.
Lives on the coast of Antarctica.
A small species with a wingspan of up to 70 cm. The plumage is gray on the back, head and wings. The top of the head is whitish. The beak is blue. The legs are blue with pink membranes.
The bird is widespread on the subantarctic islands around Cape Horn.
Species of the subfamily Puffininae fly by gliding and frequently flapping their wings. These birds are excellent at diving underwater for prey.
The bird's body length is up to 50 cm. The beak is characteristically hook-shaped. The bird is painted completely black.
Found only in New Zealand.
Body length from 31 to 36 cm, weight 375-500 g. Wingspan up to 75 cm. The color of the back varies from gray to black, the abdomen is white. The wings are black or grayish on top, white below with a black border. The beak is bluish-gray, black at the end.
The species breeds in the North Atlantic.
The wingspan is about 1 m. The plumage is dark brown, almost black, the belly is light.
The species is distributed on the island of Tasmania, off the coast of Australia, and on the Pacific islands.
The bird's body length is up to 51 cm, its wingspan is up to 122 cm. The back is dark brown with a white stripe at the back of the head and white feathers on the tail. The belly is white. A black and brown cap is visible on the head. The beak is black.
Lives in the South Atlantic.
Body length is from 40 to 50 cm, wingspan is about 110 cm. The color of the plumage is dark gray or dark brown, almost black. The undersides of the wings are silvery.
The bird nests on the southern islands of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Male and female: main differences
Sexual dimorphism in the petrel is not pronounced. Females are slightly smaller than males in size.
Shearwaters nest on grassy cliffs, far from the sea, in large colonies. The first mating season in birds begins on average at 8 years, in rare individuals - at 3-4 years. Petrels are monogamous birds and show fidelity not only to each other, but also to their usual nesting site.
The nests of each species are different. Often parents dig a hole 1 to 2 m deep as a nest. The female then lays one egg, which is incubated by both partners in turn for 50-60 days. The first weeks after the chick is born, it requires careful parental care. Usually the male and female stay with the chick for about 2 months, after which they fly away.
The lifespan of petrels is up to 30 years.
Interesting facts about the bird
- Petrels are the longest-living birds. The oldest gray petrel lived 52 years.
- There is a belief that the appearance of a petrel in the air portends a storm, as evidenced by the very name of the bird. However, the thing is that before a storm comes, other species of birds go to the shore, while the petrel is used to flying over the sea in any weather and therefore remains in the air. In good weather, it is invisible among other birds and does not catch the eye. But he prefers to wait out bad weather by rising high above the water, rather than on the ground.
Over the expanses of Antarctica, the wings of the symbol of the revolution - the petrel - cut through the air. Since ancient times, this amazing bird has inspired poets and writers to create outstanding works. So what is a petrel? A bird that we have always associated with something menacing and unbridled?
It nests in very harsh places: along the entire coast of Antarctica, the South Shetland Islands, on the islands of South Georgia and Prince Edward.
Of course, there are also nesting areas. In addition, the petrel also lives on patches of land lost in cold waters. This bird is unpretentious, and therefore can endure even very difficult conditions.
There are a huge number of representatives of this species, whose body sizes range from 15 cm to a meter. But when they say “petrel”, they most often imagine a huge bird with a large wingspan.
This is a giant petrel, the body length of which reaches 85-90 cm, and the wingspan is a record two meters.
At the first glance you can notice a massive head and a short, slightly curved beak. By the way, it is so hard that it allows its owner to easily bite the bones of the same penguins. If you look at the beak from the inside, then along its upper arch there is a long and flat tube, divided into two parts by an internal partition. These are the nasal canals.
Yes, one of the few birds that has an excellent sense of smell is the petrel. The bird cannot compete in its pungency with dogs or pigs, but it senses the smell of potential prey perfectly.
Powerful legs deserve special mention. Between three fingers there is a tight leathery membrane stretched over them, and the fourth is set aside and atrophied to the state of a small tubercle.
Oddly enough, walking is not one of the petrel’s favorite activities: on land it looks like a very fat and clumsy duck. But it swims superbly, and flies even better: there have been cases when these amazing creatures crossed the oceans without ever boarding a sailing ship.
Nesting begins at the end of November. And again, he, the petrel, is ahead of all the birds. The bird does not care at all about creating any kind of decent nest, hatching the egg right on the ground.
The chick is born after two long months. For four more, both parents care for him tirelessly. The young petrel reaches sexual maturity only at 5-7 years. Considering that the lifespan of this species is about half a century, 7 years is not that long.
This bird of the petrel family has earned dual fame among sailors of past years. On the one hand, people have always admired his ability to soar in the air for days, accompanying ships. On the other hand, they were not too pleased with the extensive table of this species of birds. The fact is that petrels feed on fish, but do not refuse the corpses of seals, whales, penguins... and people washed ashore by the waves.
Be that as it may, these creatures are among the generally recognized symbols of the sea and the professions associated with it. Most of the species of this family are listed in the Red Book, including the giant petrel. The bird, whose photos allow you to see the beauty and greatness of this representative of the feathered world, needs human protection, otherwise future generations will not see it.
Petrels (birds) Petrels (birds)
Petrels (tube-nosed petrels; Procellariiformes, or Tubinares), an order of ocean birds, includes four families: albatrosses (cm. ALBATROSSES (birds)), petrels proper (Procellariidae), storm petrels (cm. KACHURKI)(Hydrobatidae) and diving petrels (Palecanoididae); There are 95 species.
Petrels are densely built birds. Their sizes vary significantly. The wingspan of storm petrels is 30-40 cm; the weight of the blue storm petrel is 42 g. At the same time, there are tubenoses with a weight of 7-12 kg and a wingspan of 3.5 m. However, most birds of this order are the size of a pigeon or a seagull. The plumage of petrels is dense, dense and of dim colors; fluff covers the entire body. The wings are long, narrow and flat. The tail is of various shapes, most often straight-cut and short, in some species it is stepped, in storm petrels it is fork-shaped. The beak is medium-sized with a hook at the end; its horny cover consists of separate scutes. The nostrils open into special tubes (hence the second name), formed by the growth of the walls of the nasal cavity. Some species have sharp horny projections on the roof of their mouth to help hold slippery prey. Representatives of this order have a well-developed sense of smell. Legs are short or moderate in length. The front three fingers are connected by a well-developed swimming membrane, the rear finger is free and poorly developed. Males and females by appearance they do not differ.
Petrels live in the oceans of both hemispheres, but mainly in the South Pacific and Southern Oceans. They are associated with land only during the breeding season. Birds nest in colonies (sometimes up to several million individuals) on oceanic islands. Tubenoses are unsurpassed masters of gliding flight. In doing so, they use the energy of the air reflected from the water. The stronger the wind, the more often these birds are seen in the sky. That's why sailors called them petrels. Some species of tubenoses are capable of flying thousands of kilometers, but they move on land with difficulty.
Tubenoses feed in open waters mainly plankton, cephalopods and fish. Members of the petrel and diving petrel families can obtain food by diving into the water. Monogamous birds, petrels reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years (small species), large species- at the age of 5-10 years. Tubenoses nest in self-dug burrows, between stones, under tree roots, or simply on the surface of the ground. Large species do not reproduce every year. There is usually one egg in a clutch white, which is incubated by both parents for an average of 6 to 8 weeks. The hatched chicks are fed for several months. The chicks are born blind and helpless, covered with thick, long down. In the past, the meat and eggs of these birds were eaten; petrels large quantities were destroyed for feathers (swan's down). Currently, 12 species and 8 subspecies are listed in the International Red Book.
encyclopedic Dictionary . 2009 .
See what "Petrels (birds)" are in other dictionaries:
BIRDS- (Aves), a highly organized and specialized class of vertebrates, representatives of which perfectly use the air environment for movement. P. is characterized by appendages of integument in the form of feathers, which are horny formations. There are… Great Medical Encyclopedia
Class of vertebrates. The forelimbs have turned into wings, most of them are adapted for flight. The body is covered with feathers, the body temperature is constant, the metabolism is very intense. They reproduce by laying eggs. 28 modern units:… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Procellaria) a genus of birds from the order of swimmers, the petrel family (Procellariidae). B. are distinguished by a large head, short neck) and a highly developed body; the beak is shorter than the head, strong and thick, with deep grooves on the sides; at the end of it... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
The request for "Bird" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Birds 18 ... Wikipedia
The request "Burevestnik" is redirected here. See also other meanings. ? Shearwaters Cape dove (Daption capense) Scientific classification ... Wikipedia
- (Aves) a class of vertebrates, uniting animals that differ from all other animals by the presence of feathers. Birds are distributed throughout the world, are very diverse, numerous and easily accessible to observation. These… … Collier's Encyclopedia
Class of vertebrates. The forelimbs are transformed into wings, most of them are adapted for flight. The body is covered with feathers, the body temperature is constant, the metabolism is very intense. They reproduce by laying eggs. 27 modern units:... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Aves) class of vertebrates. By origin and some structural features they are close to reptiles (See Reptiles) and are combined with them into the superclass Sauropsida. P. are terrestrial bipedal oviparous animals adapted for flight...
- (Procellaria) a genus of birds from the order of swimming, petrel family (Procellariidae, see table Swimming birds or swimmers, Natatores). B. are distinguished by a large head, short neck and highly developed body; the beak is shorter than the head, strong and... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
- (Procellariiformes) order of seabirds. The end of the beak is bent with a hook; the nostrils open into special tubes on the beak (hence the second name tube-nosed, Tubinares); the fingers are connected by a swimming membrane; the wings are long, narrow and sharp; ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Books
- Animal world. Stories about birds, Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich. “Birds are everywhere on Earth, in all landscapes and countries. Seagulls, guillemots and buntings sometimes even fly to the North Pole. Great skuas have been seen not far from the South Pole. Dozens of…
There are 200 species of true seabirds on Earth, including almost 50 species of petrels. Among the petrels there are small ones, the size of a pigeon, and there are also huge ones. The albatross, for example, or the giant petrel, with a wingspan of 2.5 m. It is so strong that, following the east wind, it easily flies around the globe. The birds are called petrels because in their soaring flight they take advantage of the air turbulence that arises over the sea. There are especially many of these turbulences over the waves of a stormy sea, and birds, freely maneuvering among the rising waves, seem to personify a storm, a storm at sea.
A. Bram wrote about them: “... petrels are real children of the storm. They are known in all seas: every sailor has seen them, everyone has something to tell about them. The old superstition has not yet been exterminated, and the ship’s crew looks at them with fury ... a traveler if he tries to kill one of these birds. There is such charm in their movements, such poetry that even a rude sailor is amazed." The English poet S. Coldridge in his work “The Ancient Mariner” tells how the Mariner killed a petrel through thoughtlessness. The Sailor's companions became terribly angry, hung the dead bird around his neck and did not allow him to remove it. The author of "Moby Dick" Herman Melville especially emphasized the unity of the sea elements and petrels: "Hello, hello, O sea. Among your ever-dancing waves, only the wild bird finds shelter."
Little petrel (Puffinus assimilis) - photo golubevod.net
Among seabirds, the petrel is easily recognized by its short webbed feet, black beak, characteristic wings and pigeon-like size. The plumage is brown above, light below, the beak is covered with horny scutes and ends with characteristic tubular nostrils, similar to the twin hole of a double-barreled shotgun. Crimeans, who constantly encounter small petrels off the coast of the peninsula during spring-winter migrations, simply and simply call them “pythons.” These birds spend almost their entire lives above water, “mooring” to the shores only to lay eggs, and even then the family period of their life takes place not in the Crimea, but along the Mediterranean shores.
Petrels most often make nests in rock cracks, and if the shores are sandy, they can dig underground one and a half meter trenches ending in a small nest extension. They become sexually mature at 5-8 years of age. The pairs are permanent. Males and females have the same feathers. There are 1, rarely 2 large eggs in a clutch. He and she hatch as equals. The chicks are fed once a day, mainly at night. For some reason they don’t feed until they are fully grown. Long before they can fly, the food supply stops, and such hungry “orphans”, with living parents, often hobble along the shore on foot in search of something edible. They roam and often become victims of seagulls, crows and other feathered and four-legged predators. Large petrels nest solitarily, small ones - in colonies, since it is easier to protect themselves from danger in a mass. A hundred or two pairs of eyes are more likely to notice an enemy than a solitary nesting bird.
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The male and female recognize each other and their nests by smell, and the chicks also by their voice. At night, during feeding, there are continuous moans and screams over the colony. The diet of petrels includes small schooling fish, floating mollusks and crustaceans, which the birds catch from the surface, plunging their beaks to their eyes. They can dive in pursuit of prey to a depth of up to 40 m, using their webbed feet and wings. Sometimes satiated petrels were found sitting among juvenile tuna, but even while resting, they occasionally dive, and then, with their wings raised, run a short distance through the water and take off. They return to their nesting places from year to year, showing miracles of orientation. One petrel was taken 5,000 km from its “home”, from England to America. After 12 days, he returned and found his native nest on a small island off the coast of Wales.
They are so agile and tireless over water, in the air, so clumsy and helpless on land. They almost crawl on all fours. Their legs are weak, short, and take off from land with difficulty, but their wide, long, curved wings allow them to stay above the surface of the sea for days in any weather. The flight of petrels is light, soaring, often passive, using gusts of wind, air currents, and air turbulence over the waves. It was precisely this light, almost dancing flight that P. I. Tchaikovsky admired when he sailed to America for the opening concert hall Carnegie Hall in New York. “They say,” he wrote, turning to his brother, that they will follow the ship all the way to New Foundland.”
Note that eagles and vultures, magnificent flyers over land, use air currents rising from the sun-heated earth for soaring flight. Over the sea, such currents are very weak, and therefore the air does not “hold” these birds. And if an eagle or a vulture is taken far out to sea and released, they may not reach the land, just as the petrels brought far from the sea to land will also die. Each bird, it turns out, has its own personal flows and horizons of airspace for soaring flight.
The methods of self-defense in petrels are curious - both in chicks and adult birds. They spit accurately and relishly, just like camels. In their stomachs they have glands that produce an oily, foul-smelling liquid of a meat-red or brown color - “blub”. Approach one and a half meters from the nest, and you will be very precisely spat with this liquid. It smells like musk, and if the bird has previously eaten carrion (which, by the way, it loves very much), then the spit will smell like a mixture of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and a particularly smelly mercaptan. It is difficult to wash clothes after such an “attack”.
And now about the scary stuff. There are truly black places and dates on the globe map for petrels. Residents of the Faroe Islands willingly and en masse eat petrels. The day of their complete beating, August 26, is considered a national holiday and this “holiday” is called Liridagur. The Japanese are not far behind them. On Mikura Island alone they kill 100,000 young petrels in one year. Some give even more scary figure- 400,000! Five large chicks produce about a liter of transparent fat. Four hundred thousand grown chicks is almost a million slender-billed petrels that die annually. I wonder how long they will last? Will the petrel fly on its strong, tireless wings right away onto the pages of the Red Books?
In Crimea, mass beatings of birds with sticks also took place in the past. They killed masses of bustards freezing in the steppes in winter and molting and therefore helpless swans, penanoks and coots. They were transported from the places of massacre in carts and cars. And where are these birds now?
Domain: Eukaryotes
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordata
Class: Birds
Squad: Petrels
Family: Petrels
Genus: Real petrel
Why were petrels called that?
Petrels spend almost their entire lives above the seas and oceans, and they appear on land only during the period of laying eggs. Before a storm, these birds rise from the water surface into the air, where they are forced to remain for a long time until the weather clears. A large number of these birds land on the stern of a passing ship, as if warning sailors about an approaching storm. That's why they were called petrels.
Range, habitats
The distribution area and habitats of petrels directly depend on the species characteristics of the bird. Fulmars are birds of northern waters, distributed circumpolarly. Nesting in the Atlantic Ocean is observed on the islands northeast of North America, Franz Josef Land Greenland and Novaya Zemlya, up to the territory of the British Isles, and in the Pacific Ocean the bird nests from Chukotka to the Aleutian and Kuril Islands.
The Cape Pigeon is very well known to sailors in southern latitudes, which constantly follows ships and builds its nests on the coast of Antarctica or the surrounding islands.
The common petrel nests on the islands of European and African coasts, and in the Pacific Ocean nesting is observed in areas from Hawaii to California. Slender-billed petrels nest on island territories in Bass Strait, as well as around Tasmania and off the coast of South Australia.
The giant petrel is a common inhabitant of the seas in the region southern hemisphere. Birds of this species most often nest in the territories of South Shetland and Orkney, as well as the Malvinas Islands.
Appearance
The length of this amazing and brave bird reaches 30-40 cm. Body weight is a third of a kilogram. The wingspan is 90-95 cm. This petrel has snow-white plumage, on which a black beak and eyes of the same color stand out in contrast. The legs are dark, and the toes are connected by swimming membranes. The beak is very strong and curved at the end. At the top of the beak is a short, hollow tube. Inside it is divided into two halves by a longitudinal partition. This tube is nothing more than nostrils. Thanks to this adaptation, the bird has a good sense of smell.
She also has a very good vision, and the hearing is beyond praise. Living in the cold south, the snow petrel has virtually no enemies. Accordingly, the number of this species is very high. The number of heads these days is approaching 5 million.
Kinds
Cape Doves or Cape Petrels
The bird's weight is from 250 to 300 g, body length is about 36 cm, wingspan is up to 90 cm. The wings are wide, the tail is short and rounded. The upper side of the wings is decorated with a black and white pattern with two large white spots. The head, chin, sides of the neck and back are black. The species is distributed in the subantarctic zone.
Blue Petrel
A small species with a wingspan of up to 70 cm. The plumage is gray on the back, head and wings. The top of the head is whitish. The beak is blue. The legs are blue with pink membranes. The bird is widespread on the subantarctic islands around Cape Horn.
Species of the subfamily Puffininae fly by gliding and frequently flapping their wings. These birds are excellent at diving underwater for prey.
Westland petrel
The bird's body length is up to 50 cm. The beak is characteristically hook-shaped. The bird is painted completely black. Found only in New Zealand.
Greater Spotted Shearwater
The bird's body length is up to 51 cm, its wingspan is up to 122 cm. The back is dark brown with a white stripe at the back of the head and white feathers on the tail. The belly is white. A black and brown cap is visible on the head. The beak is black. Lives in the South Atlantic.
Gray petrel
Body length is from 40 to 50 cm, wingspan is about 110 cm. The color of the plumage is dark gray or dark brown, almost black. The undersides of the wings are silvery. The bird nests on the southern islands of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Antarctic petrel
Enough large bird up to half a meter in size and a wingspan of up to 120 cm. Dense dark-gray plumage, white chest, black beak and legs give it a daring, swift appearance. And long powerful wings give him the opportunity to special effort stay in the air for a long time for a long time, without moving your wings at all, but simply soaring in the wind. Therefore, the petrel spends almost all its time at sea. He is not afraid of even the most difficult weather conditions.
The long, hook-shaped beak with sharp edges allows it to hold even the most slippery fish or other sea creatures. The paws of the petrel are rather poorly developed, and they are located far behind, so on land it moves with difficulty, more often than not, for stability it simply rests on its chest and wings. But on land it spends only the mating season.
The Antarctic petrel nests mainly on the coast, often choosing a place on steep cliffs. The female lays only one single egg with a white shell. Moreover, the egg is unusually large compared to the size of the bird itself. Hatching lasts about 40 days, and after another month the petrel calf already begins to fly.
Snow petrel
It is somewhat smaller in size than the Antarctic one and differs from it mainly in color. It has completely white plumage, against which a black beak and dark paws stand out. Snow petrels are excellent swimmers; Antarctic waters are their native element. They feed mainly on small fish, mollusks and crustaceans. Sometimes they do not disdain carrion.
They most often nest in colonies, placing nests close to each other, at a distance of one and a half to two meters. At the end of November, mid-December, the female lays one egg, which she and the male incubate alternately. Since the nesting sites are located far from the coast, one of the pair can fly away for several days for food, while the other incubates the egg. Having eaten to his fill, the husband changes the female and incubates the egg himself, and she flies off to feed.
After the chick hatches from the nest, the snow petrels do not leave it alone for the first few days; one of the parents is always with it. And after about a week, the chick establishes its own thermoregulation, and the parents can leave it even for 2-3 days, flying away to get food. After a month and a half of feeding, the snow petrel chick begins to fly. According to ornithologists, there are now approximately 4.5 million individuals of these beautiful and amazing birds in Antarctica.
Slender-billed petrel
The slender-billed petrel is brown in color, with the exception of the lighter underwings. Its body length is 40-45 cm, its wingspan approaches 1 m. It nests in burrows in huge colonies on the coasts of South Australia and Tasmania. The slender-billed petrel makes long transequatorial migrations, reaching the Bering Sea. This is a numerous species.
Giant petrel
It is the largest of the petrel family. Its size can be up to 80 centimeters or more, and its wingspan can reach more than two meters. These are mainly dark-colored birds with gray-brown and sometimes blackish-brown plumage. The head and neck are lighter, the beak is powerful with sharp edges, up to 10 centimeters long, yellow color and a greenish end. In general, the color of the plumage and beak of these birds changes with age, and giant petrels acquire a constant color by about 7 years.
Giant petrels are practically omnivores and their main food is all kinds of carrion. These include dead sea animals and birds. At sea, they eat fish, squid, Antarctic krill, pinniped excrement and everything that comes afloat. Sometimes they attach themselves to fishing vessels and accompany them, eating waste from fish cutting thrown into the sea. Giant petrels are practically the most powerful birds in Antarctica, and if you consider that there are no land predators here, then their role is played by these huge voracious birds. Quite often they engage in real robbery. They steal the eggs of penguins and birds, attack chicks and eat the corpses of fallen penguins. Sometimes smaller birds are killed, including petrels and small penguins.
Giant petrels usually nest in open areas. The female lays one single egg, which is three times the size of a chicken egg. Its parents hatch it one by one, replacing each other in order to feed. After two months, the egg hatches into a chick, which they feed for more than three months.
Small petrel
The little petrel is found in large numbers in winter in the waters of the Black Sea. It justifies its name “small”, since it is really smaller than other petrels: its wing length is 21.5–24.8 cm. The upper side of the body of the small petrel is slate-brown, the lower side is white. The little petrel nests on the islands of the North Atlantic Ocean, mainly in the area of the coasts of Europe and North Africa and on the Bermuda Islands. In addition, it nests on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, east of Sardinia, and in the Aegean Sea. During wintering and winter migrations it appears in the Black Sea and in smaller numbers in the Azov Sea.
Little petrels nest mainly on rocky islands - in rock cracks or in burrows dug in soft ground. Sometimes the burrows are up to 1.5 m long. The duration of incubation is slightly more than 50 days. On the 62–63rd day of life, the chick is already feathered, and by this time the parents stop feeding it. Having starved for five days, the chick crawls out of the hole, returns to it, crawls out again, and only after ten days of hunger strike goes to the sea. The path is difficult for him: the young bird hobbles, helping itself with its wings and even its beak. It happens that the little petrel does not have time to reach the sea in one night and then hides for the day in a hole, crevice or under a stone, or even just sits with its eyes closed, without moving in one place.
Lifestyle
The petrel clearly gravitates towards open sea spaces, approaching the shore only during the nesting period. It often lands on steep, uneven shores, but gives preference to small rocky islands located in the open sea. The rest of the year it flies over the sea at a distance of many thousands of kilometers from the nesting site.
Forms colonies. In mid-May - mid-July, a single white egg is laid in a rock crevice, in a grotto or between stones, which is cared for by both parents for about 53 days. The chick remains in the nest for about 3 months. There is only one clutch per year. Shearwaters are monogamous, with pairs remaining together for many years. It feeds mainly on fish. It hovers over the crest of a wave for a long time.
At night, while in the colony, it makes sounds similar to the complaints or cries of a newborn. A few days before leaving the nest, the parents leave the chick, and it loses a little weight, which makes it easier for it to fly. The pair shows obvious affection for the nesting site.
Petrel feeding
Petrels, along with storm petrels, feed on fairly small fish and all kinds of crustaceans that swim near the surface. When necessary, such birds perform short dives. A significant part of large petrels consume simply huge quantities of squid. Albatrosses rarely dive and often land on the water, as well as fulmars and giant petrels that feed from the surface of the water.
At night, such birds very willingly feed on squid, which large quantities rise to the water surface, and during the day the basis of their food ration is schooling fish, garbage from passing ships, or all kinds of carrion. Giant petrels are perhaps the only representatives of tubebills capable of actively attacking the nests of the youngest penguins and eating young birds.
Reproduction and offspring
Typically, adult petrels return to familiar breeding grounds, even if they are very far away. There is too much competition in the nesting territories of large and overcrowded bird colonies located on small islands.
On the coastal zone, there are quite complex ceremonies between all nesting petrel representatives, and the birds themselves not only fight, but also scream and cackle loudly. This behavior is typical for birds trying to defend their territory.
The typical features of bird's nests have some noticeable differences among different petrel species. For example, albatrosses prefer to clear the surface and then build a mound of soil and vegetation. Petrels nest directly on ledges, as well as at soil level, but a significant part of them, along with storm petrels, are capable of digging special burrows in soft soil or using natural cracks of sufficient size.
Before the chick leaves its native nest, the parent pair flies off to molt at sea, where during the hungry period, the molting birds noticeably lose their weight.
Males often remain guarding the nest for several days, while females feed at sea or go on recuperative feeding. The paired birds do not feed each other, but take turns incubating the egg for 40-80 days. In the first days, the chicks that are born feed on tender and fatty food in the form of semi-digested marine organisms regurgitated by adult birds.
Petrel chicks grow quite quickly, so having matured a little, they are able to remain without parental supervision for several days. The young of small species begin to fly approximately one and a half months after birth, and larger species take their first flight approximately 118-120 days later.
Natural enemies
Apart from humans visiting bird nesting sites, diving petrels have few natural predators. The south polar skua is especially dangerous, as it destroys bird nests and can eat immature chicks. Most petrels defending themselves from a threat are capable of spitting out oily gastric contents over a sufficient distance.
Common petrels are truly long-lived; in the wild, the age of such a bird can easily reach half a century or more.
In some species, including fulmars, this habit or fear response makes flying much easier. A stream of foul-smelling liquid is released approximately a meter away, with fairly high accuracy. Natural enemies of small-sized birds include the ueca rail, as well as rats and cats introduced to the island territories.
Population and species status
In the widespread family of petrels, representatives differ not only in size, but also in population size. For example, fulmars are very numerous birds. Their number in the Atlantic is about 3 million, and in the Pacific Ocean - about 3.9-4.0 million individuals. The total number of Antarctic petrels varies between 10-20 million, and the global population of snow petrels is stable at about two million.
The nesting population of blue petrels on the Kerguelen Islands does not exceed 100-200 thousand pairs, and on Crozet and Prince Edward Islands there are several tens of thousands of pairs of this species. Formally, the hunting of the Mediterranean petrel was banned only in Italy and France, but some colonies of birds are also protected on the islands near Corsica.
Video
Sources
- http://national-travel.ru/arctic/flora-fauna/burevestnik.html http://www.tepid.ru/snow-petrel.html
