The silvery Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is a small and striking bird of the northern Pacific. Its supplements its diet of fish and crustaceans with the flesh and oils of decomposing carcasses, which it locates using its excellent sense of smell.
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The Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel breeds on islands in the North Pacific from Alaska to California, including in Canada off the west coast of Vancouver Island, in Queen Charlotte Sound, and around the southeast and west coasts of Haida Gwaii. It is common to abundant over the continental shelf and offshore waters of British Columbia between April and November, and uncommon to rare in other months (Kenyon et al., 2009). Approximately 380,000 individuals breed in Canada, representing just under 10% of the global population and a low degree of jurisdictional responsibility for Canada. It is unknown how many additional individuals occur in Canadian waters outside the breeding season, but they may increase overall responsibility to moderate or even high. Data are currently insufficient to estimate trends or set a goal for the Canadian population.
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is not well monitored by any survey in Canada, and there is no basis for estimating population trends.
No population goal is set for Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel because there are not enough data to estimate population trends. More monitoring is needed to enable development of a population goal for this species
Designation | Geographic Area | Status | CITATION |
---|---|---|---|
Wild Species | Canada | Apparently secure | |
IUCN | Global | Least Concern |
- Kenyon, J.K., K.H. Morgan, M.D. Bentley, L.A. McFarlane Tranquilla and K.E. Moore. 2009. Atlas of Pelagic Seabirds Off the West Coast of Canada and Adjacent Areas. Technical Report Series No. 499, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Delta, B.C. 321 pp. http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/348190/publication.html.
The silvery Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is a small and striking bird of the northern Pacific. Its supplements its diet of fish and crustaceans with the flesh and oils of decomposing carcasses, which it locates using its excellent sense of smell.