3

Wilson's Storm-Petrels are small seabirds. Their plumage is all dark-grey, except for the white rump and flanks and a lighter grey crescent on the greater upperwing coverts. The tail is squarish to slightly notched. The legs are long and protrude conspicuously beyond the tip of the tail in flight. The slightly hooked bill and the legs are dark-grey, while the (often dangling) feet have yellowish webbing.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of Wilson's Storm-Petrel is available HERE .

Wilson's Storm-Petrels are the smallest animals breeding on the Antarctic continent and on antarctic islands in the southern summer. From there they migrate northward after the breeding season, into all southern oceans. In the southern winter they will reach all tropical waters around the globe and move on to the northern hemisphere. In the Atlantic Ocean they are found as far North as Spain and the American East coast, in the Pacific Ocean well North of Hawaii and in the Indian Ocean they reach the coastlines of the sub-continent.

In Europe Wilson's Storm-Petrels can occasionally be found around Iberia, both in the Atlantic and in the western Mediterranean Sea, and further North up to the Gulf of Biscaye in south-western France.

When not breeding, Wilson's Storm-Petrels will mostly stay on the high seas, but they do also enter coastal waters. They breed on offshore islands.

J. Pires reports spotting Wilson's Storm-Petrels off Sagres, Algarve, Portugal, in October 2020. Another was spotted at the same location in October 2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by J. Pires.