Tube-nosed Seabirds: Order Procellariiformes

The tube-nosed seabirds comprise several families of pelagic birds, most of which seek food from the surface layers of the sea.

The tube-nosed seabirds range in size from the 6-inch Least Storm Petrel to the huge Wandering Albatross, which has a wingspan of nearly 12 feet. All have tubular nostrils and a distinctly hooked bill. The plumage is dense and waterproof, and beneath the outer feathering is a dense coat of down. A large gland that concentrates and excretes salt in drops from the bill resides in the roof of the orbit.

Most species have long wings, held stiffly and used for soaring and planing over the waves, but the storm petrels flutter close to the surface on shorter wings, and the diving petrels of the Southern Hemisphere have very short wings, which they use for locomotion under water, as do small shearwaters. Diving petrels are convergent in morphology and ecology with the unrelated auklets of the Northern Hemisphere.

Figure A–5 Tube-nosed seabirds: (1) Wandering Albatross (Diomedeidae); (2) Cape Petrel (Procellariidae); (3) Wilson’s Storm Petrel (Hydrobatidae); (4) Short-tailed Shearwater (Procellariidae).

Diomedeidae

Albatrosses

North Pacific,southern oceans

4

21

Procellariidae

Shearwaters,petrels

All oceans

14

74

Pelecanoididae

Diving petrels

Southern oceans

1

4

Hydrobatidae

Storm petrels

All oceans

7

24