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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Hydrobates furcatus
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel

 
Scientific Name: Hydrobates furcatus (Gmelin, 1789)
Scientific Name Synonyms: Oceanodroma furcata
English Name: Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Taxonomy Comments: The genus Oceanodroma has been merged with Hydrobates, given that Oceanodroma is paraphyletic with respect to Hydrobates. Hydrobates has the priority (Chesser, Burns, Cicero et. al. 2019).
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-FTSP
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Procellariiformes Hydrobatidae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Apr 2016)
Provincial Status: S4B (Mar 2015)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: See Naveen (1981) for detailed information on storm-petrel identification.
Global Reproduction Comments: Eggs are laid in June-July in northeastern Pacific (Alaska, Oregon) (Terres 1980). Both parents take turns incubating single egg. Incubation lasts 37-68 days (average = 50). Young leaves nest at 51-65 days (average = 60). Nests in dense colonies.
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		N /
N /
Y /
na /
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence) 		Ocean / Marine Island / Unknown
Ocean / Sheltered Waters - Marine / Unknown
Ocean / Subtidal Marine / Unknown
Global Habitat Comments: Pelagic. Nests on island or on grassy slopes as far as a mile inland. Uses burrows excavated by other species (e.g., tufted puffin), digs own burrow, or uses sites in natural rock or cliff cavities. Nests in both soil and rocky slope habitats in Alaska, seems to prefer rocky areas in California and Oregon.
Food Habits: Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Piscivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Surface feeder. Feeds on small fishes, crustaceans, and cephalopods.
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Global Phenology Comments: Active around breeding colonies usually only at night (Spendelow and Patton 1988).
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: Y
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 22/ / 55
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: Breeding occurs in the North Pacific from southern Alaska south along west coast of North America to islets off northern California, and from Commander Islands south to the Kurile Islands. At sea, the species ranges from western Alaska south through Bering Sea and North Pacific coastally to central California (rare), and to Hawaii, Marcus Islands, Japan. It is most abundant in the northern parts of the range; offshore islands of Alaska, especially the eastern Aleutians, contain the core of species' breeding distribution. When not breeding, birds appear to disperse to deeper water near breeding grounds; they are often associated with the continental shelf break (Boersma and Silva 2001).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: HAMMERSON, G.
Last Updated: Sep 05, 1995
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Boersma, P. D., and M. J. Groom. 1993. Conservation of storm-petrels in the North Pacific. Pp. 112-121 IN Vermeer, K., K. T. Briggs, K. H. Morgan, and D. Siegel-Causey, (editors). The status, ecology, and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Canadian Wildlife Service Publ., Ottawa, Ontario.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT. Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, and M.C.E. McNall. 1990. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 1. Nonpasserines: Introduction, Loons through Waterfowl. Royal B.C. Mus. in association with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. 514pp.
Godfrey, W.E. 1966. The birds of Canada. National Museums of Canada. Ottawa. 428 pp.
Golovkin, A. N. 1984. Seabirds nesting in the USSR: the status and protection of populations. Pages 473-486 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Pub. No. 2.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Hatch, S. A., and M. A. Hatch. 1990. Breeding seasons of oceanic birds in a subarctic colony. Can. J. Zool. 68:1664-1679.
Lensink, C. J. 1984. The status and conservation of seabirds in Alaska. Pages 13-27 in Croxall et al., eds. Status and conservation of the world's seabirds. ICBP Tech. Publ. No. 2.
Naveen, R. 1981. Storm-petrels of the world: an introductory guide to their field identification. Birding 13(6):216-29.
Spendelow, J. A. and S. R. Patton. 1988. National Atlas of Coastal Waterbird Colonies in the Contiguous United States: 1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Warham, J. 1991 (also listed as 1990). The petrels: their ecology and breeding systems. Academic Press. viii + 440 pp.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1995. Species Summary: Hydrobates furcatus. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 10, 2026).