storm petrel

American  

Or storm-petrel

noun

1. any of several small, tube-nosed seabirds of the family Hydrobatidae, usually having black or sooty-brown plumage with a white rump.

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storm petrel British  

noun

1. Also called: Mother Carey's chicken, stormy petrel. any small petrel, such as the northern Hydrobates pelagicus, of the family Hydrobatidae, typically having a dark plumage with paler underparts

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Etymology

Origin of storm petrel

First recorded in 1795–1805

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

storm petrel

With no terrestrial predators to steal their eggs, these islands are breeding sanctuaries for ground- and cliff-nesting seabirds like the western gull, Scripps’s murrelet and the ashy storm petrel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2023

The team also resighted a Leach's storm petrel banded there 31 years ago.

From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2022

When the mice population drops, as it does seasonally, the owls then eat the eggs of the ashy storm petrel, a bird some consider a future candidate for the endangered species list.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2021

This year, the union split two — the Western scrub-jay and Leach’s storm petrel — into two and three different species, respectively.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2016

But no, it’s a storm petrel with its wide black wings, soft gray underbelly.

From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon

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