Leach’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa)

Several hundred thousand pairs of Leach’s Storm-Petrels breed in Europe, but their colonies are all on remote oceanic islands and it requires a great effort to get to them. Moreover, the birds only visit their self-dug burrows at night, and are only present for the short summer season, so few birdwatchers ever see a Leach’s Petrel unless one is blown towards the coast by a violent Atlantic storm in autumn, or their paths cross on the ocean.

Leach’s Storm-Petrels are the largest of their family in Europe, although that is not saying much. They have longer wings than the others and are somewhat more aerial, manoeuvring expertly to snatch tiny fish or plankton from the water and rarely if ever pattering their feet on the surface.