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Seabirds in the Desert
Building nests deep in a Mars-like desert!
© Richard Droker
The White-vented Storm-Petrel is a small black and white seabird found off the coasts of Chile and Peru. Storm-petrels spend their entire lives at sea, except when nesting. Scientists had long been mystified about just where this species nests. A search lasting eight years led them to a site 50 miles inland in the Atacama desert, a place often compared to the surface of Mars. They employed dogs specially trained to sniff out seabirds. The dogs helped locate White-vented Storm-Petrel nests tucked into mineral deposits deep in the desert.
Listen to this episode in Spanish here.
BirdNote®
Seabirds in the Desert
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[White-vented (Elliot’s) Storm-Petrel, ML 199900991, 0:02-0:05]
The White-vented Storm-Petrel is a small black and white seabird found off the coasts of Chile and Peru. Storm petrels spend their entire lives at sea, except when nesting.
They pluck small fish and zooplankton from the water with their beaks, appearing to dance on the ocean, as they patter their feet on the water to stay just above the surface.
[White-vented (Elliot’s) Storm Petrel, ML 199905231, 0:01-0:03]
Most species of storm-petrels nest in rock crevices or burrows, which they visit only after dark. But scientists had long been mystified about just where White-vented Storm Petrels nest.
[White-vented (Elliot’s) Storm Petrel, ML 199900991, 0:02-0:05]
A search lasting eight years led them to a site 50 miles inland from the Chilean coastline, in one the world’s driest regions—the Atacama desert, a place often compared to the surface of Mars. They employed dogs specially trained to sniff out seabirds. The dogs helped locate 14 White-vented Storm-Petrel nests tucked into mineral deposits deep in the desert.
[White-vented (Elliot’s) Storm-Petrel, ML 199905231, 0:01-0:03]
The hard-won knowledge of this elusive storm-petrel’s nesting habitat will aid in conservation work to protect this little-known bird.
For BirdNote, I’m Ariana Remmel.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. White-vented (Elliot’s) Storm Petrel ML 199900991 and ML 199905231 recorded by C. Pinto Fernandez.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote September 2022/2024
Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# WVSPET-01-2022-09-29 WVSPET-01
References:
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/scouring-the-desert-for-a-seabird/
http://www.wingsearch2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Barros-et-al.-…
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
