The Leach's Storm Petrel Oceanodroma leucorrhoa By: Nasia Scientific Classification Kingdom - Animalia Phylum - Chordata Class - Aves Order - Procellariiformes Family - Diamedeidae Genus - Oceanodroma Species - leucorrhoa

Natural History

Habitat       

The Leach's storm petrel is most likely to be seen in the sea. It hangs out in the sea for food. But this bird is seen daily in Maine. It likes to be in the salt water and hunt for food.  As we speak right now, it is being endangered.   The Leach's storm petrel is seen daily in good numbers in several habitats, including AcadiaNational Park.  It is also seen but not often in Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. It lives on islands and flies only in the night. It makes a nest by digging the sand with its tube and sometimes if you put your hand in their nest hole you can feel that the Leach storm petrel is there.  They dig up holes to live under to be safe.

Physical Description

The Leach's storm petrel is easy to identify. It has wings for transportation, a tube on top of its nose, and a bill that it drinks from instead of a beak like most birds. The Leach's storm petrel’s actual body length is 7.5 inches. It has two legs and feathers which help in a lot of ways, like providing a strong lightweight covering so they are flexible to move when flying. Its feathers also help them keep body heat so they can be warm during the winter and fall.

This bird is a warm blooded animal, which means it can keep a constant body temperature. It has very dark plumage, which means its feathers are dark. It also has a gray carpal bar on its foot. The Leach's storm petrel’s wingspan is 19 inches. Its deep wingbeats help it fly faster for a long distance. It has a forked tail and a white rump with a dark center. However, Leach's storm petrels that live in the south central U.S. don’t have a white rump.

Present Status

Diet and Feeding

A Leach's storm petrel usually eats live fish, or it will eat aquatic invertebrate carrion, which are dead sea creatures that have no backbone.  When the Leach's storm petrel is a baby chick, their parents, mostly their mother, collects food from out in the sea. She gets an oily fish for her baby chick so it is easy for the baby to eat and the baby enjoys it. What the Leach's storm petrel usually eats is fish, squid, and shrimp.  It loves shrimp and that's their daily food.

Causes of Endangerment

The Leach's storm petrel is being endangered because it eats little fish that live in the water and us humans are throwing trash and junk into the water.  We are polluting the water and that causes pain to the animals,  and most of the time it causes death.  The boats in the water often leak gasoline and are causing the animals the same problem  and that causes my animal pain, hunger, and even death .

Also the fish are going to die and if the fish die then the Leach's storm petrel would die.  It eats the fish and the fish are getting sick.  So as humans we need to realize that the animals don’t do this to us, so why do we need to do this to them?  Also we need to realize that we are doing this to us to because we eat fish and all the other animals help us make a living.

Personal Essay

What is the value of wilderness to modern society? Wilderness is a crucial element of my life because it gives me air and water, and whenever I'm stressed out I go out and get some fresh air.  When you go out to a vacation you can enjoy the beauty that nature and wildlife has to bring.

Wilderness has great value to me because I never thought about  animals that much before. But now I am starting to and I wouldn't want anything to happen to them. As humans we are destroying our environment and the wildlife makes a living there, for example the Leach's storm petrel and other numbers of birds.  We are polluting the water from the gas of the boats and other mobiles that come into the water. My opinion of what we should do about that situation is for people to be more responsible and think of the animals before ourselves.

Bibliography

1.  Lahnton Audubon Society.   1998. www.Nevadaubon.org/birdsites/speciesclass.htm. (4/18/03.)

2.  Leach's Storm Petrel. Oct. 19, 2000. http://i=bird.com/Species/leachstormptrl.htm.   (4/18/03.)

3.  Project Puffin Virtual Puffin.   www.Aduban.org/bird/puffin/virutual/stormpetrel.htm. (4/18/03.)

4.  Leach's Storm Petrel.  www.google.com/searchleachstorm.  (4/18/03.)