The European Storm Petrel is a small, dark seabird that spends much of its time at sea. In the breeding season it returns to island burrows, including in Scotland.
It has a dark body and a white rump. It may patter its feet on the sea surface while feeding close to the water.
Researchers fitted GPS tags to 28 European storm-petrels breeding on Mousa in Shetland and analysed 43 journeys. The birds weigh about 26 grams. Their locations were compared with wind, sea temperature, and seabed conditions.
During chick-rearing, the birds mainly searched for food by day in two areas southeast of Shetland. Transit flights occurred mostly from dusk to dawn. They avoided predator-rich coastlines by day and used inshore waters at night. Many locations were associated with wind speeds of 4–8 m/s, sea-surface temperatures below 12°C, and seabed depths near 100 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
During chick-rearing, storm-petrel distribution was associated with predator abundance, wind, sea temperature, and seabed conditions. The study mapped two daytime feeding areas and nighttime use of inshore waters, linking marine habitat use with both predation risk and ocean conditions.