96-444: † Diomedeoididae Procellariidae Diomedeidae Hydrobatidae Oceanitidae Procellariiformes / p r ɒ s ɛ ˈ l ɛər i . ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / is an order of seabirds that comprises four families : the albatrosses , the petrels and shearwaters , and two families of storm petrels . Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are often referred to collectively as
192-498: A clear sky" with sun or stars visible, the shearwaters oriented themselves and then "flew off in a direct line for Skokholm", making the journey so rapidly that they must have flown almost in a straight line. But if the sky was overcast at the time of release, the shearwaters flew around in circles "as if lost" and returned slowly or not at all, implying that they navigated using astronomical cues. Researchers have also begun investigating olfaction's role in procellariiform navigation. In
288-585: A consistent pattern with the albatross family Diomedeidae as the most basal and Hydrobatidae sister to Procellariidae. There are 147 living species of procellariiform worldwide, and the order is divided into four extant families, with a fifth prehistorically extinct : Fossils of a bird similar to a petrel from the Eocene have been found in the London Clay and in Louisiana . Diving petrels occurred in
384-405: A dense covering of white or grey down feathers , and the ability to move around the nesting site. After hatching, the incubating adult remains with the chick for a number of days, a period known as the guard phase. In the case of most burrow-nesting species, this is only until the chick is able to thermoregulate , usually two or three days. Diving-petrel chicks take longer to thermoregulate and have
480-413: A few days to as much as several weeks, during which the incubating bird can lose a considerable amount of weight. The incubation period varies from species to species, around 40 days for the smallest storm-petrels but longer for the largest species; for albatrosses it can span 70 to 80 days, which is the longest incubation period of any bird. Upon hatching, the chicks are semi- precocial , having open eyes,
576-542: A generally tropical and temperate distribution, whereas the fulmarine petrels are mostly polar with some temperate species. The majority of the fulmarine petrels, along with the prions , are confined to the Southern Hemisphere. The storm petrels are almost as widespread as the procellariids, and fall into two distinct families; the Oceanitidae have a mostly Southern Hemisphere distribution and
672-400: A group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia . All living species of loons are members of the genus Gavia , family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes . Loons, which are the size of large ducks or small geese , resemble these birds in shape when swimming. Like ducks and geese, but unlike coots (which are Rallidae ) and grebes ( Podicipedidae ),
768-411: A longer guard phase than other burrow nesters. However, surface-nesting species, which have to deal with a greater range of weather and to contend with predators like skuas and frigatebirds , consequently have a longer guard phase (as long as two weeks in procellariids and three weeks in albatrosses). The chick is fed by both parents. Chicks are fed on fish, squid, krill, and stomach oil . Stomach oil
864-461: A morphological adaptation to aid in flight, a sheet of tendon which locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept up and out without any muscle effort. Amongst the Oceanitinae storm-petrels there are two unique flight patterns, one being surface pattering. In this they move across the water surface holding and moving their feet on the water's surface while holding steady above
960-406: A necropsy of a bald eagle found floating on a Maine lake (beside the floating body of a loon chick) found that the eagle had been stabbed through the heart by an adult loon's beak. Biologists , especially from Chapman University , have extensively studied the mating behaviour of the common loon ( G. immer ). Contrary to popular belief, pairs seldom mate for life . Indeed, a typical adult loon
1056-753: A rule this technique is rare. Some diving birds may aid diving by beginning with a plunge from the air, but for the most part petrels are active divers and use their wings to move around under the water. The depths achieved by various species were determined in the 1990s and came as a surprise to scientists; short-tailed shearwaters have been recorded diving to 70 m (230 ft) and the Light-mantled sooty albatross to 12 m (39 ft). All procellariiforms are colonial, predominantly breeding on offshore or oceanic islands. The few species that nest on continents do so in inhospitable environments such as dry deserts or on Antarctica. These colonies can vary from
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#17327722390321152-412: A single breeding attempt per nesting season; even if the egg is lost early in the season, they seldom re-lay. Much effort is placed into laying a single (proportionally) large egg and raising a single chick. Procellariiforms are long-lived: the longest living albatross known survived for 51 years, but was probably older, and even the tiny storm-petrels are known to have survived for 30 years. Additionally,
1248-475: A single nesting attempt is made per year, although the larger albatrosses may only nest once every two years. Both parents participate in incubation and chick rearing. Incubation times are long compared to other birds, as are fledging periods. Once a chick has fledged there is no further parental care. Procellariiforms have had a long relationship with humans. They have been important food sources for many people, and continue to be hunted as such in some parts of
1344-652: A single night, probably when fed by both parents. The most important family culturally is the albatrosses, which have been described by one author as "the most legendary of birds". Albatrosses have featured in poetry in the form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's famous 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , which in turn gave rise to the usage of albatross as metaphor for a burden . More generally, albatrosses were believed to be good omens, and to kill one would bring bad luck. There are few instances of petrels in culture, although there are sailors' legends regarding
1440-433: A spear-shaped bill. Males are larger on average, but relative size is only apparent when the male and female are together. In winter, plumage is dark grey above, with some indistinct lighter mottling on the wings, and a white chin, throat and underside. The specific species can then be distinguished by certain features, such as the size and colour of the head, neck, back and bill. But reliable identification of loons in winter
1536-632: A study where Cory's shearwaters were rendered anosmic with zinc sulphate, a compound which kills the surface layer of the olfactory epithelium, and released hundreds of kilometers away from their home colony at night, control birds found their way to their home nests before night was over, whereas anosmic birds did not home until the next day. A similar study that released Cory's shearwaters 800 km from their home nests, testing both magnetic and olfactory disturbances’ effects on navigation, found that anosmic birds took longer to home than magnetically disturbed or control birds. Procellariiforms range in size from
1632-626: A successful breeding attempt). Procellariiforms are monogamous breeders and form long-term pair bonds. These pair bonds take several years to develop in some species, particularly with the albatrosses. Once formed, they last for many breeding seasons, in some cases for the life of the pair. Petrel courtship can be elaborate. It reaches its extreme with the albatrosses, where pairs spend many years perfecting and elaborating mating dances. These dances are composed of synchronised performances of various actions such as preening , pointing, calling, bill clacking, staring, and combinations of such behaviours (like
1728-551: A succession of bounding jumps. The procellariiforms are for the most part exclusively marine foragers ; the only exception to this rule are the two species of giant petrel, which regularly feed on carrion or other seabirds while on land. While some other species of fulmarine and Procellaria petrels also take carrion, the diet of most species of albatrosses and petrels is dominated by fish, squid, krill and other marine zooplankton. The importance of these food sources varies from species to species and family to family. For example, of
1824-729: Is Frederick DuCane Godman 's Monograph of the Petrels , five fascicles, 1907–1910, with figures by John Gerrard Keulemans . In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy , the tubenoses were included in a greatly enlarged order "Ciconiiformes". This taxonomic treatment was almost certainly erroneous, but its assumption of a close evolutionary relationship with other "higher waterbirds" – such as loons (Gaviiformes) and penguins (Sphenisciformes) – appears to be correct. The procellariiforms are most closely related to penguins, having diverged from them about 60 million years ago. The diving petrels in
1920-415: Is oil composed of neutral dietary lipids that are the residue created by digestion of the prey items. As an energy source for chicks it has several advantages over undigested prey, its calorific value is around 9.6 kcal per gram, which is only slightly lower than the value for diesel oil. This can be a real advantage for species that range over huge distances to provide food for hungry chicks. The oil
2016-468: Is also fed to their young, as well as being used for defense. Procellariiforms drink seawater, so they have to excrete excess salt. All birds have an enlarged nasal gland at the base of the bill, above the eyes, and in the Procellariiformes the gland is active. In general terms, the salt gland removes salt from the system and forms a 5 percent saline solution that drips out of the nostrils, or
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#17327722390322112-608: Is also found in tubenoses ( Procellariiformes ) and penguins (Sphenisciformes), both relatives of the loons. Loons are excellent swimmers, using their feet to propel themselves above and under water. However, since their feet are located far back on the body, loons have difficulty walking on land, though they can effectively run short distances to reach water when frightened. Thus, loons avoid coming to land, except for mating and nesting. Loons fly strongly, though they have high wing loading (mass to wing area ratio), which complicates takeoff. Indeed, most species must run upwind across
2208-427: Is also used in defence. All procellariiforms create stomach oil except the diving-petrels. The chick fledges between two and nine months after hatching, almost twice as long as a gull of the same body mass. The reasons behind the length of time are associated with the distance from the breeding site to food. First, there are few predators at the nesting colonies, therefore there is no pressure to fledge quickly. Second,
2304-484: Is attractive to foraging birds and many are hooked by the lines as they are set. As many as 100,000 albatrosses are hooked and drown each year on tuna lines set out by long-line fisheries. Before 1991 and the ban on drift-net fisheries , it was estimated that 500,000 seabirds a year died as a result. This has caused steep declines in some species, as procellariiforms are extremely slow breeders and cannot replace their numbers fast enough. Losses of albatrosses and petrels in
2400-592: Is forcibly ejected in some petrels. The processes behind this involve high levels of sodium ion reabsorption into the blood plasma within the kidneys, and secretion of sodium chloride via the salt glands using less water than was absorbed, which essentially generates salt-free water for other physiological uses. This high efficiency of sodium ion absorption is attributed to mammalian-type nephrons . Most albatrosses and procellariids use two techniques to minimise exertion while flying, namely, dynamic soaring and slope soaring . The albatrosses and giant petrels share
2496-886: Is likely that the genus name Diomedeoides is actually the junior synonym to Rupelornis (van Beneden, 1871). Fossils of this genus have been found in the Oligocene and Miocene rocks in Europe and Iran . Two species, D. brodkorbi and D. lipsiensis are known from Central Europe, the third species D. babaheydariensis known only from Iran. Loon Family-level: Colymbidae Vigors , 1825 (but see text ) Colymbinae Bonaparte , 1831 (but see text ) Urinatores Vieillot , 1818 Urinatoridae Vieillot, 1818 Urinatorides Vieillot, 1818 Genus-level: Colymbus Linnaeus , 1758 (but see text ) Urinator Lacépède , 1799 Loons ( North American English ) or divers ( British / Irish English ) are
2592-481: Is likely to have several mates during its lifetime because of territorial takeover. Each breeding pair must frequently defend its territory against "floaters" (territory-less adults) trying to evict at least one owner and seize the breeding site. Territories that have produced chicks in the past year are especially prone to takeovers, because nonbreeding loons use chicks as cues to indicate high-quality territories. One-third of all territorial evictions among males result in
2688-524: Is non-consumptive, it can have deleterious effects that need careful management to protect both the birds and the tourism. The English naturalist William Yarrell wrote in 1843 that "ten or twelve years ago, Mr. Gould exhibited twenty-four [storm petrels], in a large dish, at one of the evening meetings of the Zoological Society ". The engraver Thomas Bewick wrote in 1804 that " Pennant , speaking of those [birds] which breed on, or inhabit,
2784-423: Is often difficult even for experts – particularly as the smaller immature birds look similar to winter-plumage adults, making size an unreliable means of identification. Gaviiformes are among the few groups of birds in which the young moult into a second coat of down feathers after shedding the first one, rather than growing juvenile feathers with downy tips that wear off, as is typical in many birds. This trait
2880-463: Is site fidelity, where pairs of birds return to the same nesting site for a number of years. Among the most extreme examples known of this tendency was the fidelity of a ringed northern fulmar that returned to the same nest site for 25 years. The average number of birds returning to the same nest sites is high in all species studied, with around 91 percent for Bulwer's petrels , and 85 percent of males and 76 percent of females for Cory's shearwaters (after
2976-423: Is the small area around either the nest or a burrow. Competition between pairs can be intense, as is competition between species, particularly for burrows. Larger species of petrels will even kill the chicks and even adults of smaller species in disputes over burrows. Burrows and natural crevices are most commonly used by the smaller species; all the storm petrels and diving petrels are cavity nesters, as are many of
Procellariiformes - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-433: The petrels , a term that has been applied to all members of the order, or more commonly all the families except the albatrosses. They are almost exclusively pelagic (feeding in the open ocean), and have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans, with the highest diversity being around New Zealand . Procellariiforms are colonial , mostly nesting on remote, predator-free islands. The larger species nest on
3168-583: The Fiji petrel has rarely been seen since its discovery. The breeding colony of the New Zealand storm petrel was not located until February 2013; it had been thought extinct for 150 years until its rediscovery in 2003, while the Bermuda petrel had been considered extinct for nearly 300 years. The principal threat to the albatrosses and larger species of procellariids is long-line fishing . Bait set on hooks
3264-552: The Hydrobatidae are found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. Amongst the albatrosses the majority of the family is restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, feeding and nesting in cool temperate areas, although one genus, Phoebastria , ranges across the north Pacific. The family is absent from the north Atlantic, although fossil records indicate they bred there once. Finally the diving petrels are restricted to
3360-626: The Isle of St Kilda , says—'No bird is of so much use to the islanders as this: the Fulmar supplies them with oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their wounds, and a medicine for their distempers.'" A photograph by George Washington Wilson taken about 1886 shows a "view of the men and women of St Kilda on the beach dividing up the catch of Fulmar". James Fisher, author of The Fulmar (1952) calculated that every person on St Kilda consumed over 100 fulmars each year;
3456-566: The Late Miocene . Study of the interrelationships of the extant species has found that the red-throated loons are the most basal of the five species. Gavia stellata G. arctica G. pacifica G. immer G. adamsii † Gavia egeriana † G. schultzi † G. howardae G. stellata † G. brodkorbi † G. paradoxa † G. moldavica † G. concinna G. arctica G. pacifica † G. fortis G. adamsii G. immer Nearly ten prehistoric species have been named to date in
3552-529: The Late Pliocene of Orciano Pisano , Italy , is known from a cervical vertebra that may or may not have been from a loon. If so, it was from a bird slightly smaller than the common loon . Older authors were quite sure the bone was indeed from a Gavia and even considered G. concinna a possibly junior synonym of it. This is now regarded as rather unlikely due to the quite distinct range and age. The Early Pliocene Gavia skull from Empoli (Italy)
3648-692: The Māori of New Zealand use a sustainable traditional method known as kaitiakitanga . In Alaska, residents of Kodiak Island harpoon short-tailed albatrosses , Diomedea albatrus , and until the late 1980s residents of Tristan Island in the Indian Ocean harvested the eggs of the Yellow-nosed Mollymawks , Diomedea chlororhynchos , and sooty albatrosses , Phoebetria fusca . Albatrosses and petrels are also now tourist draws in some locations, such as Taiaroa Head . While such exploitation
3744-567: The Wilson's storm petrel and the Providence petrel , but no albatrosses cross the equator, as they rely on wind assisted flight. There are other long-distance migrants within the order; Swinhoe's storm petrels breed in the western Pacific and migrate to the western Indian Ocean, and Bonin petrels nesting in Hawaii migrate to the coast of Japan during the non-breeding season. Many species in
3840-482: The bill , which contains seven to nine distinct horny plates, is another unifying feature, although there are differences within the order. Petrels have a plate called the maxillary unguis that forms a hook on the maxilla. The smaller members of the order have a comb-like mandible, made by the tomial plate, for plankton feeding. Most members of the order are unable to walk well on land, and many species visit their remote breeding islands only at night. The exceptions are
3936-584: The burevestnik name is applied in Russian (it, in fact, is known in Russian as an entirely un-romantic kachurka ), the English translators uniformly used the "stormy petrel" image in their translations of the poem, usually known in English as The Song of the Stormy Petrel . Various tubenose birds are relevant to the mythologies and oral traditions of Polynesia . The Māori used the wing bones of
Procellariiformes - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-580: The procellariids . The fulmarine petrels and some tropical gadfly petrels and shearwaters are surface nesters, as are all the albatrosses. Procellariiforms show high levels of philopatry , both site fidelity and natal philopatry. Natal philopatry is the tendency of an individual bird to return to its natal colony to breed, often many years after leaving the colony as a chick. This tendency has been shown through ringing studies and mitochondrial DNA studies. Birds ringed as chicks have been recaptured close to their original nests, sometimes extremely close; in
4128-603: The short-tailed shearwater (23 million individuals); while the total population of some other species is a few hundred. There are less than 200 Magenta petrels breeding on the Chatham Islands , only 130 to 160 Zino's petrels and only 170 Amsterdam albatrosses . Only one species is thought to have become extinct since 1600, the Guadalupe storm petrel of Mexico , although a number of species had died out before this. Numerous species are very poorly known; for example,
4224-502: The smew ( Mergellus albellus ). This small sea-duck is quite unrelated to loons and just happens to be another black-and-white seabird which swims and dives for fish. It is not likely that the ancient Romans had much knowledge of loons, as these are limited to more northern latitudes and since the end of the last glacial period seem to have occurred only as rare winter migrants in the Mediterranean region. The term gavia
4320-554: The Laysan albatross the average distance between hatching site and the site where a bird established its own territory was 22 m (72 ft), and a study of Cory's shearwaters nesting near Corsica found that nine out of 61 male chicks that returned to breed at their natal colony actually bred in the burrow they were raised in. Mitochondrial DNA provides evidence of restricted gene flow between different colonies, strongly suggesting philopatry. The other type of philopatry exhibited
4416-698: The Miocene, with a species from that family ( Pelecanoides miokuaka ) being described in 2007. The most numerous fossils from the Paleogene are those from the extinct family Diomedeoididae, fossils of which have been found in Central Europe and Iran. The procellariiforms have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans and seas, although at the levels of family and genus there are some clear patterns. Antarctic petrels , Thalassoica antarctica , have to fly over 100 mi (160 km) to get to
4512-1121: The South Baltic and directly over land to the Black Sea or Mediterranean. Loons can live as long as 30 years and can hold their breath for as long as 90 seconds while underwater. Loons are migratory birds, and in the winter months they move from their northern freshwater lake nesting habitats to southern marine coastlines. They are well-adapted to this change in salinity, however, because they have special salt glands located directly above their eyes. These glands filter out salts in their blood and flush this salty solution out through their nasal passages, which allows them to immediately consume fish from oceans and drink saltwater after their long migration. Loons find their prey by sight. They eat mainly fish , supplemented with amphibians , crustaceans and similar mid-sized aquatic fauna . Specifically, they have been noted to feed on crayfish , frogs , snails , salamanders and leeches . They prefer clear lakes because they can more easily see their prey through
4608-650: The Southern Hemisphere. The various species within the order have a variety of migration strategies. Some species undertake regular trans-equatorial migrations, such as the sooty shearwater which annually migrates from its breeding grounds in New Zealand and Chile to the North Pacific off Japan , Alaska and California, an annual round trip of 64,000 km (40,000 mi), the second longest measured annual migration of any bird. A number of other petrel species undertake trans-equatorial migrations, including
4704-562: The Southern Ocean were estimated at between 1 percent and 16 percent per year, which these species cannot sustain for long. Exotic species introduced to the remote breeding colonies threaten all types of procellariiform. These principally take the form of predators ; most albatross and petrel species are clumsy on land and unable to defend themselves from mammals such as rats , feral cats and pigs . This phenomenon, ecological naivete , has resulted in declines in many species and
4800-427: The albatross to carve flutes . In Hawaiian mythology , Laysan albatrosses are considered aumakua , being a sacred manifestation of the ancestors, and quite possibly also the sacred bird of Kāne . The storm petrel features prominently in the "Origin of Birds" myth. Albatrosses and petrels have been important food sources for humans for as long as people have been able to reach their remote breeding colonies. Amongst
4896-573: The bones of frogs and salamanders. The gastroliths may also be involved in stomach cleaning as an aid to regurgitation of indigestible food parts. Loons may inadvertently ingest small lead pellets, released by anglers and hunters, that will contribute to lead poisoning and the loon's eventual death. Jurisdictions that have banned the use of lead shot and sinkers include but are not limited to Maine , New Hampshire , Vermont , Michigan , some areas of Massachusetts , Yellowstone National Park , Canada , Great Britain , and Denmark . Loons nest during
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#17327722390324992-498: The chances of successfully fledging. Procellariids are also vulnerable to marine pollution , as well as oil spills . Some species, such as Barau's petrel , Newell's shearwater and Cory's shearwater, which nest high up on large developed islands, are victims of light pollution. Fledging chicks are attracted to streetlights and may then be unable to reach the sea. An estimated 20 to 40 percent of fledging Barau's petrels and 45 to 60 percent of fledging Cory's shearwater are attracted to
5088-590: The death of the owner; in contrast, female loons usually survive. Birds that are displaced from a territory but survive usually try to re-mate and (re)claim a breeding territory later in life. In 2020, a loon hatched for the first time in over a century in Southeastern Massachusetts at Fall River, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and Biodiversity Research Institute. The chicks were relocated in 2015 with
5184-511: The earliest-known examples of this is the remains of shearwaters and albatrosses along with those of other seabirds in 5,000-year-old middens in Chile , although it is likely that they were exploited prior to this. Since then, many other marine cultures, both subsistence and industrial, have exploited procellariiforms, in some cases almost to extinction . Some cultures continue to harvest shearwaters (a practice known as muttonbirding ); for example,
5280-1209: The eggs are lost, the pair may re-nest, usually in a different location. Since the nest is very close to the water, rising water may induce the birds to slowly move the nest upwards, over a metre. Despite the roughly equal participation of the sexes in nest building and incubation, analysis has shown clearly that males alone select the location of the nest. This pattern has the important consequence that male loons, but not females, establish significant site-familiarity with their territories that allows them to produce more chicks there over time. Sex-biased site-familiarity might explain, in part, why resident males fight so hard to defend their territories. Most clutches consist of two eggs, which are laid in May or June, depending upon latitude. Loon chicks are precocial , able to swim and dive right away, but will often ride on their parents' back during their first two weeks to rest, conserve heat, and avoid predators. Chicks are fed mainly by their parents for about six weeks but gradually begin to feed themselves over time. By 11 or 12 weeks, chicks gather almost all of their own food and have begun to fly. In 2019,
5376-701: The feet are webbed, and the hind toe is undeveloped or non-existent; their adult plumage is predominantly black, white, and grey. The order has a few unifying characteristics, starting with their tubular nasal passage which is used for olfaction . Procellariiformes that nest in burrows have a strong sense of smell, being able to detect dimethyl sulfide released from plankton in the ocean. This ability to smell helps to locate patchily distributed prey at sea and may also help locate their nests within nesting colonies . In contrast, surface nesting Procellariiformes have increased vision, having six times better spatial resolution than those that nest in burrows. The structure of
5472-450: The forest understory on Cabbage Tree Island off New South Wales , which increased the vulnerability of the Gould's petrels nesting on the island to natural predators, and left them vulnerable to the sticky fruits of the native birdlime tree ( Pisonia umbellifera ). In the natural state these fruits lodge in the understory of the forest, but with the understory removed the fruits fall to
5568-404: The future nest site, and build their nests close to the water, preferring sites that are completely surrounded by water such as islands or emergent vegetation. Loons use a variety of materials to build their nests including aquatic vegetation, pine needles, leaves, grass, moss and mud. Sometimes, nest material is almost lacking. Both male and female build the nest and incubate jointly for 28 days. If
5664-427: The genus Pelecanoides were formerly placed in their own family Pelecanoididae. When genetic studies found that they were embedded within the family Procellariidae, the two families were merged. All the storm petrels were once placed in the family Hydrobatidae but genetic data indicated that Hydrobatidae consisted of two deeply divergent clades that were not sister taxa. In 2018 the austral storm petrels were moved to
5760-531: The genus Gavia , and about as many undescribed ones await further study. The genus is known from the Early Miocene onwards, and the oldest members are rather small (some are smaller than the red-throated loon ). Throughout the late Neogene , the genus by and large follows Cope's Rule (that population lineages tend to increase in body size over evolutionary time). List of fossil Gavia species List of fossil Gavia specimens "Gavia" portisi from
5856-687: The genus Gavia . It has been suggested that the genus Gavia originated in Europe during the Paleogene . The earliest species, G. egeriana , was found in early Miocene deposits in Dolnice in the Czech Republic. During the remainder of the Miocene , Gavia managed to disperse into North America via the Atlantic coastlines, eventually making their way to the continent's Pacific coastlines by
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#17327722390325952-414: The genus name to refer to grebes, while Europeans used it for loons, following Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Richard Bowdler Sharpe . The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature tried to settle this issue in 1956 by declaring Colymbus a suppressed name unfit for further use and establishing Gavia , created by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1788, as the valid genus name for the loons. However,
6048-482: The ground where the petrels move about, sticking to their feathers and making flight impossible. Exploitation has decreased in importance as a threat. Other threats include the ingestion of plastic flotsam . Once swallowed, plastic can cause a general decline in the fitness of the bird, or in some cases lodge in the gut and cause a blockage, leading to death by starvation. It can also be picked up by foraging adults and fed to chicks, stunting their development and reducing
6144-494: The head droops more than in similar aquatic birds. Male and female loons have identical plumage , which is largely patterned black-and-white in summer, with grey on the head and neck in some species. All have a white belly. This resembles many sea-ducks (Merginae) – notably the smaller goldeneyes ( Bucephala ) – but is distinct from most cormorants, which rarely have white feathers, and if so, usually as large rounded patches rather than delicate patterns. All species of loons have
6240-534: The hopes of re-establishing breeding and nesting patterns. The European Anglophone name "diver" comes from the bird's habit of catching fish by swimming calmly along the surface and then abruptly plunging into the water. The North American name "loon" likely comes from either the Old English word lumme , meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy. Either way,
6336-443: The huge albatrosses, several of the gadfly petrels and shearwaters and the fulmar-petrels. The latter can disable even large predatory birds with their obnoxious stomach oil , which they can project some distance. This stomach oil, stored in the proventriculus , is a digestive residue created in the foregut of all tubenoses except the diving petrels, and is used mainly for storage of energy-rich food during their long flights. The oil
6432-554: The loon's toes are connected by webbing . The loons may be confused with the cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), but can be distinguished from them by their distinct call. Cormorants are not-too-distant relatives of loons, and like them are heavy-set birds whose bellies, unlike those of ducks and geese, are submerged when swimming. Loons in flight resemble plump geese with seagulls ' wings that are relatively small in proportion to their bulky bodies. The bird points its head slightly upwards while swimming, but less so than cormorants. In flight,
6528-491: The meat was their staple food, and they caught around 12,000 birds annually. However, when the human population left St Kilda in 1930, the population did not suddenly grow. The albatrosses and petrels are "amongst the most severely threatened taxa worldwide". They face a variety of threats, the severity of which varies greatly from species to species. Several species are among the most common of seabirds, including Wilson's storm petrel (an estimated 12 to 30 million individuals) and
6624-506: The name refers to the loon's poor ability to walk on land. Another possible derivation is from the Norwegian word lom for these birds, which comes from Old Norse lómr , possibly cognate with English "lament", referring to the characteristic plaintive sound of the loon. The scientific name Gavia refers to seabirds in general. The scientific name Gavia was the Latin term for
6720-438: The new family Oceanitidae. The northern storm petrels in the family Hydrobatidae are more closely related to the family Procellariidae than they are to the austral storm petrels in the family Oceanitidae. Earlier molecular phylogenetic studies found the family Oceantidae containing the austral storm petrels as the most basal with differing branching topologies for other three families. More recent large-scale studies have found
6816-734: The ocean from their breeding colonies in Antarctica , and northern fulmars breed on the northeastern tip of Greenland , the northernmost piece of land . The most cosmopolitan family is the Procellariidae , which are found in tropical, temperate and polar zones of both the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres, though the majority do not breed in the tropics, and half the species are restricted to southern temperate and polar regions. The gadfly petrels, Pterodroma , have
6912-521: The oldest living bird is Wisdom , a female Laysan albatross. The majority of procellariiforms nest once a year and do so seasonally. Some tropical shearwaters, like the Christmas shearwater , are able to nest on cycles slightly shorter than a year, and the large great albatrosses (genus Diomedea ) nest in alternate years (if successful). Most temperate and polar species nest over the spring-summer, although some albatrosses and procellariids nest over
7008-544: The order travel long distances over open water but return to the same nest site each year, raising the question of how they navigate so accurately. The Welsh naturalist Ronald Lockley carried out early research into animal navigation with the Manx shearwaters that nested on the island of Skokholm . In release experiments, a Manx shearwater flew from Boston to Skokholm, a distance of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres) in 12 1 ⁄ 2 days. Lockley showed that when released "under
7104-450: The quality of potential mates. After pairs have been formed, calls serve to help them reunite; the ability of individuals to recognise their own mate has been demonstrated in several species. Procellariiforms are K-selected , being long-lived and caring extensively for their few offspring. Breeding is delayed for several years after fledging , sometimes for as long as ten years in the largest species. Once they begin breeding, they make only
7200-451: The situation was not completely resolved even then, and the following year the ICZN had to act again to prevent Louis Pierre Vieillot 's 1818 almost-forgotten family name Urinatoridae from overruling the much younger Gaviidae. Some eminent ornithologists such as Pierce Brodkorb tried to keep the debate alive, but the ICZN's solution has been satisfactory. All living species are placed in
7296-456: The sky-call). Each particular pair will develop their own individual version of the dance. The breeding behaviour of other procellariiforms is less elaborate, although similar bonding behaviours are involved, particularly for surface-nesting species. These can involve synchronised flights, mutual preening and calling . Calls are important for helping birds locate potential mates and distinguishing between species, and may also help individuals assess
7392-473: The storm petrels, which are considered to warn of oncoming storms. In general, petrels were considered to be "soul birds", representing the souls of drowned sailors, and it was considered unlucky to touch them. In the Russian language, many petrel species from the Hydrobatidae and Procellariidae families of the order Procellariiformes are known as burevestnik , which literally means 'the announcer of
7488-425: The storm'. When in 1901, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky turned to the imagery of subantarctic avifauna to describe Russian society's attitudes to the coming revolution , he used a storm-announcing petrel as the lead character of a poem that soon became popular in the revolutionary circles as "the battle anthem of the revolution". Although the species called " stormy petrel " in English is not one of those to which
7584-448: The stormy petrel, a very small procellariiform, the egg can be 29 percent of the body weight of the female, while in the grey-faced petrel, the female may spend as much as 80 days feeding out at sea after courtship before laying the egg. When the female returns and lays, incubation is shared between the sexes, with the male taking the first incubation stint and the female returning to sea. The duration of individual stints varies from just
7680-427: The streetlights on Réunion and Tenerife , respectively. Diomedeoididae Diomedeoides is a prehistoric genus of seabirds . The family was in the order Procellariiformes which today is composed of the albatrosses and petrels . At present it is the only genus in the family Diomedeoididae . There are three described species. The taxonomy of the family and genus is still in need to revision, and it
7776-437: The summer on freshwater lakes and/or large ponds. Smaller bodies of water (up to 0.5 km ) will usually only have one pair. Larger lakes may have more than one pair, with each pair occupying a bay or section of the lake. The red-throated loon, however, may nest colonially, several pairs close together, in small Arctic tarns and feed at sea or in larger lakes, ferrying the food in for the young. Loons mate on land, often on
7872-406: The surface of the water, as well as small crustaceans and fish. Petrels obtain food by snatching prey while swimming on the surface, snatching prey from the wing or diving down under the water to pursue prey. Dipping down from flight is most commonly used by the gadfly petrels and the storm petrels . There have been records of wedge-tailed shearwaters snatching flying fish from the air, but as
7968-406: The surface, while most smaller species nest in natural cavities and burrows . They exhibit strong philopatry , returning to their natal colony to breed and returning to the same nesting site over many years. Procellariiforms are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds that are formed over several years and may last for the life of the pair. A single egg is laid per nesting attempt, and usually
8064-529: The threats posed to them, and these efforts have led to the signing of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels , a legally binding international treaty signed in 2001. Diomedeidae – albatrosses (21 species) Oceanitidae – austral storm petrels (10 species) Hydrobatidae – northern storm petrels (18 species) Procellariidae – petrels and shearwaters (100 species) The order
8160-507: The time between feedings is long due to the distance from the nest site that adults forage, thus a chick that had a higher growth rate would stand a better chance of starving to death. The duration between feedings vary among species and during the stages of development. Small feeds are frequent during the guard phase, but afterward become less frequent. However, each feed can deliver a large amount of energy; both sooty shearwater and mottled petrel chicks have been recorded to double their weight in
8256-587: The two albatross species found in Hawaii, the black-footed albatross takes mostly fish, while the Laysan feeds mainly on squid. The albatrosses in general feed on fish, squid and krill. Among the procellariids, the prions concentrate on small crustacea, the fulmarine petrels take fish and krill but little squid, while the Procellaria petrels consume mainly squid. The storm petrels take small droplets of oil from
8352-503: The very large wandering albatross , at 11 kg (24 lb) and a 3.6-metre (12-foot) wingspan, to tiny birds like the least storm petrel , at 20 g (0.71 oz) with a 32-centimetre (13-inch) wingspan, and the smallest of the prions, the fairy prion , with a wingspan of 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in). Their nostrils are enclosed in one or two tubes on their straight deeply-grooved bills with hooked tips. The beaks are made up of several plates. Their wings are long and narrow;
8448-489: The water's surface with wings flapping to generate sufficient lift to take flight. Only the red-throated loon ( G. stellata ) can take off from land. Once airborne, loons are capable of long flights during migration. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, who have implanted satellite transmitters in some individuals, have recorded daily flights of up to 1078 km in a 24-hour period, which probably resulted from single movements. North European loons migrate primarily via
8544-399: The water, and remaining stationary by hovering with rapid fluttering or by using the wind to anchor themselves in place. A similar flight method is thought to have been used by the extinct petrel family Diomedeoididae . The white-faced storm petrel possesses a unique variation on pattering: holding its wings motionless and at an angle into the wind, it pushes itself off the water's surface in
8640-419: The water. The loon uses its pointy bill to stab or grasp prey. They eat vertebrate prey headfirst to facilitate swallowing, and swallow all their prey whole. To help digestion, loons swallow small pebbles from the bottoms of lakes. Similar to grit eaten by chickens , these gastroliths may assist the loon's gizzard in crushing the hard parts of the loon's food such as the exoskeletons of crustaceans and
8736-479: The widely spaced colonies of the giant petrels to the dense 3.6 million-strong colonies of Leach's storm petrels . For almost all species the need to breed is the only reason that procellariiforms return to land at all. Some of the larger petrels have to nest on windswept locations as they require wind to take off and forage for food. Within the colonies, pairs defend usually small territories (the giant petrels and some albatrosses can have very large territories) which
8832-399: The winter. In the tropics, some species can be found breeding throughout the year, but most nest in discreet periods. Procellariiforms return to nesting colonies as much as several months before laying, and attend their nest sites regularly before copulation. Prior to laying, females embark on a lengthy pre-laying exodus to build up energy reserves in order to lay the exceptionally large egg. In
8928-423: The world. The albatrosses in particular have been the subject of numerous cultural depictions. Procellariiforms include some of the most endangered bird taxa , with many species threatened with extinction due to introduced predators in their breeding colonies, marine pollution and the danger of fisheries by-catch . Scientists, conservationists, fishermen, and governments around the world are working to reduce
9024-508: Was implicated in the extinction of the Guadalupe storm petrel. Already in 1910 Godman wrote: Owing to the introduction of the mongoose and other small carnivorous mammals into their breeding haunts, some species, such as Oestrelata jamaicensis and newelli , have already been completely exterminated, and others appear to be in danger of extinction. Introduced herbivores may unbalance the ecology of islands; introduced rabbits destroyed
9120-425: Was named Procellariiformes by German anatomist Max Fürbringer in 1888. The word comes from the Latin word procella , which means a violent wind or a storm , and -iformes for order . Until the beginning of the 20th century, the family Hydrobatidae was named Procellariidae, and the family now called Procellariidae was rendered "Puffinidae." The order itself was called Tubinares. A major early work on this group
9216-523: Was transferred from the ducks to the loons only in the 18th century. Earlier naturalists referred to the loons as mergus (the Latin term for diving seabirds of all sorts) or colymbus , which became the genus name used in the first modern scientific description of a Gavia species (by Carl Linnaeus ) in 1758. Unfortunately, confusion about whether Linnaeus' " wastebin genus " Colymbus referred to loons or grebes abounded. North American ornithologists used
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