Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel Hydrobates monorhis 黑叉尾海燕
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
18-20 cm. Dark brown storm petrel with notched tail, small head and pale (though not necessarily striking) upperwing panel across all greater coverts, most median coverts and tertials. White shafts at the base of the outer 5-6 primaries may be visible at close range. All dark below.
VOCALISATIONS
Silent at sea.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
An exhausted bird was picked up in an urban area.
OCCURRENCE
2020: an exhausted bird was picked up late evening on 27 October at Ap Lei Chau. After recovery, it was released in Clear Water Bay on 18 November.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
No observations.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds on islands off Japan, the Korean peninsula and southeast Russia to east China, and winters in the northeast Indian Ocean (Carboneras et al. 2021). A migrant through Chinese waters.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Near-threatened. Population expected to undergo moderately rapid decline due to impacts of introduced species and human activities.
Carboneras, C., F. Jutglar, E. de Juana, and G. M. Kirwan (2021). Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates monorhis), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.swspet.01.1
Kwok, J. T. K. and C. T. Kwok (2024). Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel Hydrobates monorhis at Ap Lei Chau. The first Hong Kong record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2020: 238-240.
